The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1915-11-23

The sALEsGIRL TALKS
BY CLARENCE CULLEN.

ing" missions, undertaken, with dire
full threats in case Of nonfulfillment,
at the breakfast table that morning,
that brought me alongside the ribbon
counter of the great department store.
Four women were ahead Of me at
the counter None of them appeared
| to know whether she wanted cerise or
alice-blue ribbon. But they all seemed
to be perfectly certain that the sales
girl, who had a great many puffs, an
uptilted nose, and a certain self-pro-
tecting manner of independence, was
trying to put something over on them.
Therefore they one and all spatted
with her. The spats were unequal,
because the salesgirl needed her job.
After going over the entire stock all
four OF the women decided that they
wouldn't buy any ribbon
Il seen you lampin' them four
pills." said the salesgirl as she took
my matching" sample and studied it
with tired eyes How would yuh like
to stand behind here and let about a
thousand Of them pills day heave
Irish confetti at yuh?"
Irish Confetti" / inquired, mysti-
fed.
"Half-bricks-yuh're on'y pretend
in that yuh don't get me, amt yuh?
Well, there amt anythin' in this
thing O. sittin' on the mourners' bench;
but along about this time O. the after
noon feel SO clawed up by them pill
in cats that breeze in here to take a.
inventory O. stock that get to thinkin'
I'm fightin' the inmates Of a Bide-a-
Wee home.
Them four dolls didn't skate in
here t buy. They just ambled along
scratch. They've been v-wedgin'
through bargain-counter brushes all
day, and they've picked up a peeve,
dom that, that they're afraid to tote
home t their men-folks because they
are hep that the men, when they hit
the hall and hang their kellys up on
the rack, are goin, T. be there with
grouches themselves.
They're not keen f'r the kind o.
all-hands medicine that the hubby
dovell pull in case anythin' is started
So, just t get the rough edges o. their
peeves sand-papered down. they skid
along here little while before closin'
up time and begin t. toss chunks o.
loose asphalt at us sunny-natured-look-
in dolls behind the counters. A lot Of
'em pick me out because I'm there
most o. the time with one O. them
grins that got froze on my map by
mistake when I first fell intuh this
business and before I ierried up Z It
that the grinner is pie for them VIM
men that wants somebody t. pick on.
There amt no use chirpin' about 1t,
I'm crazy over my own sex. They
make it just about as peaceful for me
as if l was on battle field ten hours
a day. Sometimes feel like I'm de-
velopin' intuh white hope. It used
t. be that I'd let 'em hand me the har-
pooh one after the other, just as fast
as they could nudge up t the coun-
ter.
"But four years Of 1t has funneled
the vinegar intuh my nachully win
some disposition, 80 that now I take
a slant at their wicks as they elbow
along; and If they're there with that
I'm goin' t'push -yuh-one-in-the-chops
glitter in their lamps, feel myself
stiffenin' like somebody that's waitin'
for a trolley car t. hit him on the nigh
end O. the wishbone, and it's all l can
do t. keep from tricklin' back as good
as they shoot in.
"On'y I need the eight-a-week.
whereas that eight thing isn't gum
change for them, so that they've got
me sewed up before the gong rings,
and they know 1t. So the best / get
for mine is 'casional little uppercut
that I've gotta eat as like as not before
the ambulance in the shape of the
floorwalker comes up, whereas they
can paste me ontuh the ropes and
swing on me with both mitts.
And they're hard t dope by just
lookin' 'em over, If yuh're inquirin' o
me. get 'em right, as they sail down
the aisle. about four times outa FIVE.
Then head-on intuh one that don't
run t. her looks, and I'm in Heinie.
Dye think you can chart EN- right
because they're there with one O. them
Dolly Warden smiles? I'm askin' yuh
that, because most men do. amt
never cut the trail yet of a man that
wasn't fall-guy for a smilin' cat. But
l needn't talk. I'm a mark for that
stuff myself ev'ry once in while.
eth wise yuh t one of the smilin'
kind that waltzed up to my counter
day before yestiddy afternoon. She
was a nifty-dressed, peachy-skinned
dumplin' Of about thirty or SO. that
was logged like she had man work
in the day and night shifts both ends
from the middle t keep her diked out
in all the scenery At t wear.
IT wicked her smile when she was
20 feet away. It looked like the sun
comm out from under cloud and
shimmerin' on the water on the day
youh're bound for Coney. Some dolls
pull that kind of grin all the time
that they're not sleepin' just t give all
hands a chance t. pipe their pearly
teeth. But this ones smile looked {
be on the level.
"T'm goin' t get along with this
cunnin' fatty says to myself, as she
swung for my counter. She's chatty
little thing rhat'll be prattlin' to me all
about the news Of the day and askin'
me If don't find the life of sales
girl hard, and If I'm engaged, and II
not why not, an all the like O. that.
Hi-huml It's nice { wait on cheer
full skirt just before closin'-up time
That's a bug with most Of US, yuh
know-t' top of the day by waitin' on
one that don't bark at us. We nate {
break outa the plant and steer for the
ballroom with the coyote music in our
ears, and that's what it sounds like at
the end of long day when We snag a
piller to be waited on just before the
big doors are closed and we're due to
vamp.
Well, this one with the dimples
and the fine double row O. mother-o'-
pearl molars and the sunny smirk that
looked like the twenty-four carat thing
pumped on stool in front of me, and
looked me right in the lamps with a
widenin' of her cutey grin; and ]
wiped the froze grin from my chart
and smiled right back at her, and it
looked like sure thing that we're 60
in t be little playmates for the time.
and get along like as If both of US had
been rollin' the same hoop and playin'
puss-in-the-corner together ever since
we begun t wear our hair in braids.
Does she run to form? Does she?
Say. honest, amt through yet pickin'
chiggers and burs that that sunny