The Central Glamorgan Gazette, and General, Commercial, and Agricultural Advertiser. — 1880-06-04 (Bridgend, Mid Glamorgan, Wales)

SEATS FOR SHOPWOMEN.  Mosr readers will still have fresh in their !Muds the discussion on "seats for shopwomen,- which was waged so loudly and so long in several of the papers sonic time back, and which is now brought under notice with inceeased prominence through a case attended with mental derangement and ultimate suicide, brought on, it was asserted by medical testimony, through the highly objectionable method of standing several hours without scarcely an interim. The movement which Dr. Emus has done so much to popularise, seems to be meeting with no small amount of success, and the case alluded to should give it additional impetus. The question has come to the front again—enriched this time by numerous valuable testimonies as to the results of a practical carrying out of the scheme. Letters • have appeared from the representatives of leading firms in some of 0111 principal cities and towns, all of whom express their cordial approval of the new departure from long established custom. When the movement in question was first set on foot a great deal of senseless hostility was exhibited towards the innovation, which was characterised as a simple encouragement to laziness. If all those who set up such a thoughtlessly absurd objection over stood in a crowded metropolitan drapery establishment, front early morning till late at night, among the fumes of the London smoke, the heat of the gas-jets, and the close, unventilated atmosphere where hundred of breaths contritribute to the impurity of the air, they would have altered their opinion. Rut :in ounce of practice is worth a pound of theory, and after a protracted trial of the seat system, several large employers of labour declare that so far from the use of seats behind t'leir counters interfering in any way with the proper performance of the duties required .Of their young lady employ es, it lots been proved that the latter can go through the day's work much easier by taking an aceasional rest, being thereby enabled to perform their duties with more spirit and expedition: Centrary to usual custom the provinceial towns were the first to take up the idea of providing seats in their establishments for their female assistants, and London has slowly followed. This movement deserve the cordial sympathy of all CLLSSCS to as large an extent as does the early closing one. If it is necessary to provide seats on one Side of the counter where persmis have for the most part, but a few mtmnluts to stand, it is surely necessary to do the same for those who stand on the opposite side, not for a few minutes, but for many long hours, OIL: red by the couple of brief intervals during which they snatch their harried meals. Ladies who patronise houses of business where the seat rule is ill force uniformity state that they are better and more cheerfully served ill such shops, while the assistants are far, generally speaking, more industrious, alert, and civil, than are those in establishments where the old plan is adhered to. Therefore, we take it, the balance of opinion is greatly to the iite of the modern mode as opposed to the ancient custom ; and we hope that Glamorganshire will throw its influence into the scale.