Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-08-28

NOOU
ALONG toward IL o'clock there Is a gen.
~ eral movement in the direction of the
washing trough. We lave our hot arms in
n great common basin and dry our hands
on the sides of our pants. Often. In the midst
of these Illicit pleasures, the boss comes
admonishingly into our circle and remarks
that it's a rule of the shop not to wash up
till "quettin' time" As a consequence of the
operation of this rule we are often dirty at
the lunch tables and usually dirty again
going home.
At LAST the quitting bell rings and we
"A bolt. in a body. for the door, where we
dispense to our places of rejection. Some go
outside for refrcshment of a liquid charac-
ter, for pool and social intercourse. Most of
us stay inside. sit around on the lumber or
dare the daily encounter at the restaurant.
The old hands have lunch boxes that look
like baby typewriters-that give forth steam
ing drink, boiled eggs, fried fish and jelly
roll, but Socrates would look In vain for a
display of the egg-nesting doughnut.
Upstairs in the mushroom thousands of.
young girls appear, as by magic, in the midst
of the collarless men. They wear. for the
most part. the blue or khaki bloomer cos
tunes which are so often becoming and so
often not. To wear boomers is for a girl
like driving an %airplane for a man. Either
you can or you can't. There is no debatable
ground.
I'M lily Stll SuIIoulutu ny VI l6ht '
i of ladies. The air is thick with talk. A
few bits still cling to my ears and / set them
down as they came:
- Oh, / know she doesn't wear 1t.
She's all right though. I seen him and her
together and she was carrying the bundles"
You betcha, and they's some that is that
don't wear them, and they's some that wears
them that amt married at all-gets them at
the five and ten"
1T amt like Mr.. Rodgers to lose his tenn
per guess he's worried, Amt looking
happy here lately
"She ought to be a handsome woman to
GO with a good-looking man like him"
Good looking-Ill say he is"
You goin' to remember me, May. f l get
that job in town."
"Ill say / will"
w. "T RI; S:r 'o'; s : Ne" r. came I" here since
"Ill say there is"
= - used to turn out 5000 a day here,
but it's fell off since May took the job"
"1ll say It has"
va gotta get 'em before you're married,
Sue, or you don't never get EN-. They don't
give no watches nor like that-once they
get va"
= silk stockin's-lahvaleer-he gives me
enough, all right"
'fOh. / think he loves va all right, Ida.
1t amt that. l says when / first saw them
things he brought ya-he amt doing all that
for nothink--just for amusement
IN gets me n ma-four dollar dinner
ice cream-chicken salad
"Oh. he loves va, all right know that,
Ida"
Bought it in a suit club cost me s25.
One guy got his for 49,"
II know a fellow bought a suit on the in
stallment plan-saved up for twelve weeks
first night he got it out-went down to Philly
got drunk and had 1t tore often him."
Nd 90 on. The constant roar of ma
n chinery gets us all talking much louder
than needed. and private lives are laid bare
on every hand. During the lunchtime loaf
other and more complete condolences came to
me from time to time from a variety of
people.
There was a tall professional looking gen.
tleman who confessed to me that he was
sick and sore at his job, but that in the
first flush of enthusiasm he had bought a
monthly railway ticket. So he has to stick
on for nineteen days longer. w opinion
that, after the month, he would buy another
ticket was coldly received. and yet I'm sure
| was right. It's pretty hard to get the habit
of the ten-hour day.
Another more pathetic figure was that of
a little sandy retail grocery sort of a chap
who had come down from the north with
Sls-and had been at work for only three
days. Tomorrow was TO be pay day. and
Oh Boy He was on the verge of being
broke and l had hardly the heart to tell
him that by an inscrutable provision of the
men up front ones pay comes always seven
days behind.
Verify these little devices to discourage the
labor turnover are very puZzling to the
chaps who had their training in the ways
of trade at a crossroads department store.
A CERTAIN small percentage of the men
"A is amazed at how hard one has to work
TO earn IS a day. Thought it was easy
money" they continue to complain.
Another equally small class of physical
titans can be heard saying as I've caught
the Dutchman doing, "This-blame soft job.
They just glue va money here"
TINE truth is that in the run of things
i today a man can earn good wages, but
only by hard and solid work.