goods as men, but are not trained so thoroughly, nor from so early an
age. Suavity of manner and perfect control of temper are very desirable
qualifications for a clerk. Care, judgment, and taste are requisite for
success. A flow of speech and ability to show goods to advantage are
also desirable. Some people urge that if females are employed as
attendants in stores, they will be exposed to dangerous and demoralizing
influences, and something is said about the corruption of female
shopkeepers in Paris, by way of warning. Now, it so happens that the
corruption spoken of does not exist among the store attendants in Paris,
but among sempstresses. Saleswomen and bookkeepers there enjoy as a
class a good reputation, but the same cannot be said of sempstresses.
Sempstresses, we know from the rates paid them, and the accounts of
travellers, cannot make enough to support themselves; but shopkeepers
can. "One fifth of all the female criminals in Paris are sempstresses,"
says Madame Mallet. Some employers complain that women are too sociably
inclined, too much disposed to chat, where several are employed in the
same establishment. It may be true; but are they more so than men of the
same age? The languid appearance of saleswomen, we think, arises from
their being on their feet so constantly. It is injurious to a woman; and
employers should allow them to be seated, when not waiting on customers.
The number of skirts they must wear, and the weight of hoop skirts, does
much to bring this about. The kind of ladies that saleswomen mostly see
in first-class stores is calculated to improve and refine their manners,
and give them a command of language. Besides, it renders them more
particular in their attire. They want to dress and look well. Those
acquainted with the art, say there are at least a hundred ways of
putting up new goods. Some Jews hire a girl to stay in their store, and
require her to sew, make hoop skirts, &c., when not waiting on
customers. In the United States, women are employed in a variety of
stores: dry goods, lace, and fancy stores are the most common. In
Philadelphia they attend in nearly all the largest stores--Levy's,
Sharpless's, and Evans's; besides, several hundred earn a subsistence as
saleswomen in smaller stores. Close observation and much experience are
needed to fulfil the duties, but the natural quickness of most women
gives them a tact seldom equalled by men. The variety afforded by the
occupation is pleasing, and the labors are light. The handling of
gloves, tape, ribbon, &c., is undoubtedly best suited to the finer and
smaller hands of women. The reason there are so many young men
performing the duties of clerks and salesmen, is, that they are lazy,
and do not want to perform hard work. Another reason is that the
majority want to dress well and make a good appearance, but have no
capital. The price paid for a girl to attend store would depend on the
size, location, and kind of store, how much they sell, and the abilities
of the girl. Lady clerks usually receive from $3 to $8 per week. The
best seldom receive more than $6; while men receive from $6 to $12. The
ladies are obliged to dress well, and to do so must retrench in other
expenses, living in crowded attics or damp cellars, or on unwholesome
food. Mr. M., Philadelphia, pays his girls from $3 to $6 per week, it
depending altogether on their qualifications. In Bangor and Belfast,
Maine, most of those who attend stores are women. They have also been
much employed in Buffalo, New York, during the last few years. It is a
regulation of some of the stores in New York and Philadelphia, that a
salesman or woman shall not sit down to rest; and in some, if they do,
they are fined. If there is nothing to do, they must take down the boxes
and pull out the articles, then arrange them carefully in the boxes, as
if they were closely occupied, to give the impression that much business
is transacted in the establishment. In fancy stores on the avenues, New
York, girls get from $2.50 to $4 a week. The stores are mostly open from
7 A. M. to 10 P. M. In some localities, most goods are sold in the
evening. At a small dry-goods store, where I called to make a purchase,
the lady told me she used to employ a girl, paying her $3 a week,
without board. She was in the store from 7 A. M. till 9.30 P. M. A girl
in a store on Sixth avenue told me, she and her companions get from $2
to $5 a week. They are there at eight in the morning, and remain until
ten at night, and on Saturday until eleven or twelve. They are not
allowed to sit down. A girl in a lace and embroidery store on Sixth
avenue, New York, told me that girls get in such stores from $3.50 to
$10, but they must make up laces when not waiting on customers. Some
receive a percentage. Women are not paid as well as men, even in such
stores. Time of learning depends on the individual. They are seldom paid
anything for a few weeks. They have most to do in spring and fall; are
in the store from 8 A. M. to 9 or 10 P. M. A lady told me she used to
get $7 a week in a fancy store. At M.'s dry-goods store, New York, the
superintendent told me they do not pay learners for one month. They have
girls who have been in the store but a few weeks, that can do as well as
those who have been in it for years. Some again are stupid, and they
will not retain such. When girls are qualified, they pay from $1 to $10
a week. They prefer having ladies in the store, thinking they know best
a lady's wants. They often have occasion to change--some get broken down
and go away, some get tired, some get discouraged, some cannot be on
their feet so long, some cannot please customers, some are not
satisfactory to employers, &c.; so, many changes take place. The ladies
all looked to be Americans. They are allowed to sit when there is
nothing to do, and no customers in; which, I suspect, is rarely, if ever
the case. I have been told the openings for saleswomen are better
farther East than in New York. A lady told me she used to get $1 a day
in R.'s store on Broadway, and the other saleswomen got the same price.
Then she was on her feet nearly all the time. She was there at eight and
staid till seven: all were expected to take their dinner and eat in the
store. Mrs. H. told me she knew a lady that stood in a store on Chestnut
street, Philadelphia, who received a salary of $800 a year. When girls
first go into a store, they usually get $1 a week during the season
(three months), then $1.50, and so increase. A pretty good knowledge of
store keeping is acquired by a smart person in six months, and now
ladies are relieved in large stores from the responsibility of making
change. Many of the ladies in New York stores are Irish. American ladies
are more engaged in making artificial flowers, bookfolding, &c. I was
told rather a novel feature in the life of shop girls, viz.: that many
board from home, for the sake of having company; and in addition to
this, men, earning good wages, but of disreputable character, will often
board in low houses, and ingratiate themselves into the favor of the
girls, until they work the ruin of one or more. Mr. D. employs five
ladies, and pays them from $3 to $5. He prefers ladies. When he takes
beginners, he pays $1.50 a week, and better wages as they become more
capable. He has paid $8, and even $9 a week. The ladies are in the store
from eight to half past eight. He allows them to sit when no customers
are in and there is nothing doing. A lady with whom I talked, and who
had stood in a store on Catherine street, New York, finds the occupation
very injurious, because of having to be on her feet so constantly, and
its lasting from 7 A. M. until 9 P. M. In some stores they are obliged
to remain until eleven, and even twelve, in busy seasons. On Grand and
Catherine streets, New York, they keep open very late. She says, when
the weather is dull, and there are but few customers, employers are apt
to be cross and vent their bad feelings on the girls. And in those
stores the girls cannot sit down to take a stitch for themselves; but,
when there are no customers to wait on, they must make up undersleeves,
capes, and caps for the store. She now keeps a millinery and fancy
store, and pays her girls $5 a week, and the girls are in the store from
seven to nine. They make up bonnets, when not waiting on customers, and
so have a change of posture without a loss of time. She has a friend in
a Broadway store, that receives $1 a day. A saleswoman should know how
to make out accounts. Ability to speak the French and German languages
is a most valuable acquisition to a saleswoman in our cities. One
discouraging feature in the history of saleswomen is, that their wages
are not advanced like those of men. In Detroit, Michigan, girls receive
from $3 to $5 for standing in a store. "In Cleveland, in 1854, there was
one dry-goods store where four lady clerks were employed at salaries
from $200 to $350 per annum. In one shoe store a lady received a salary
of $250; and one, in another shoe, store, $200. In a millinery and fancy
dry-goods store, kept by ladies, fifteen girls were employed at from $4
to $6 per week. In another, kept by a gentleman, ten girls were employed
at from $4 to $6 per week." In the same city, gentlemen clerks usually
receive from $250 to $600 per annum. At a store on Grand street, New
York, where a number of saleswomen are employed, the owner told me he
takes girls in the spring and fall. He tries them for one month, and
such as he finds he can make anything of he retains. He then pays them
something, and increases their wages in proportion to their advancement.
Some never rise above $3; but those who are ambitious and desirous to
excel and make proportionate effort, he will pay higher. He has paid as
high as $12 a week. A merchant keeping a large trimming store on Canal
street, pays his women from $1.50 to $8 per week, and they are in the
store from seven in the morning till dark. To wait in a store requires
experience; and a lady, in getting a situation, should endeavor to do so
through the influence of a merchant. It is very desirable to have a good
location for a store. Mr. M. pays his saleswomen from $2 to $6,
according to their qualifications. At a confectionery the woman told me
she gives $6 a month and board and washing; but as she does not keep
open on Sunday, the girl would have to go home Saturday night and stay
till Monday. She would be kept busy all the time, from seven in the
morning till eleven at night, waiting on customers, cleaning tables,
washing plates, sweeping floors, &c. On most of the avenues in New York,
merchants do not sell as much, nor receive such a profit, as on
Broadway, and employ women because they can get them cheaper. In a small
variety store, a lady told me she had paid $4 a week and board to one
who had never stood in a store; but the lady was a friend. She remarked:
"If a person has the inclination, a memory, and common sense, she can
soon learn. Few are willing to take learners. American ladies are not
ambitious enough to keep store. For one month in summer and one in
winter there is little doing." A lady confectioner says: "It requires a
very honest person to be in a confectionery, because small sums are
being constantly received and no note taken of them. Girls are paid
according to their capabilities from $2 to $5, and are in the store from
7 A. M. to 9, 10, 11, and even 12 P. M., in busy seasons, which are
about the holidays. It requires some weeks to know the prices, where to
place the articles, and how to make them appear to advantage." A
merchant, who employs saleswomen, told me he thought women have a better
sense of propriety and are more particular than men, but they lack
judgment and promptness. He thinks women do very well as far as they go,
but there is a boundary line in ability, beyond which women cannot pass.
The gentleman referred to was indebted to his mother, who had kept the
store he then owned, for his education and position in business. Mr. P.,
seller of ladies' trimmings, employs from twenty to twenty-five
saleswomen, who knit and embroider for the store when not waiting on
customers. A lady who waited in the store told me they change their
position frequently, seldom sitting more than ten minutes at a time.
Women are paid from $4 to $10 per week, and are in the store from half
past 8 A. M. to half past 6 P. M. They pay from $2.50 to $3.50 for
board. The business can be learned in from three to six months. While
learning, they receive enough to pay their board. Industry and ambition
are necessary for success. The prosperity of the business in the future
depends on the fashion and the amount of money in circulation. Winter is
the best season for the sale of goods. The women are mostly German; they
succeed best in knitting, because they are brought up to it. There are
openings in the business, West and South. A saleswoman told me her
business is hard on the back, because of the standing, reaching up, and
bending. She is paid $6 per week, her store companions $3, spending
eleven hours in the store. A person of business qualifications requires
only practice to make a saleswoman. She has often heard ladies complain
of having to purchase small or fancy articles of men. She thought heavy
dress goods could be better handled by men. She says dissatisfaction is
likely to arise when an employer boards his work hands. Mrs. D., who
keeps a fancy store, told me that fifteen or twenty years ago, it was a
rare thing to see a saleswoman in a store in New York. She says nearly
all of her saleswomen have relations dependent on them for support, and
if they are thrown out of employment for a week it is a serious matter.
She pays $5 a week to experienced saleswomen, and gives something to
learners; all stay in the store ten hours. She thinks honesty,
truthfulness, intelligence, good address, and a knowledge of human
nature are the best qualifications. Spring and fall she finds the best
seasons for selling goods, and thinks the occupation for a lady next
best to teaching. A merchant in New Haven writes: "We employ from two to
five women (all American) as clerks, paying from $3 to $6 per week. To
learners we pay $2 per week. The employment of women is on the increase.
My clerks are employed through the year, and work from ten to eleven
hours per day. We employ women to save expense, and because we believe
them most honest." A firm in Providence, who sell gloves, hosiery, &c.,
write: "We employ ten saleswomen on an average, and pay from $2 to $7
per week, ten hours a day. We pay $2 per week to learners. To learn
thoroughly requires about six months' practice. We consider the prospect
good of the occupation being opened to more women. One third of our
hands we send off in summer and winter. We find women neater and more
steady than men, but not so energetic." The proprietor of a large
establishment in Philadelphia writes: "About thirty women are employed
by us in selling dry goods. Their health generally improves by their
active occupation, the proper ventilation of our warehouse, and the
regular habits to which they become accustomed. Wages are from $1 to $10
per week; they are paid less than men because their time of work is
shorter, their expenses are less, and their channels of usefulness more
circumscribed. A lifetime is needed to learn the business thoroughly,
although in five years much may be learned. Women are paid while
learning. Quickness of intellect and of body, good temper, and pleasant
manners are very essential. Women well instructed are generally
permanent in an establishment. Our most busy seasons are from February
to June, and September to December. In no season are saleswomen thrown
out of employment. In winter they spend eight and a half hours in the
store; in summer, nine hours. Seventy-five per cent. are of American
parents. The work is fatiguing at times, but not wearing on the system.
Another part of our occupation, in which women might be employed, if
properly instructed, is bookkeeping. Women are deficient in
generalizing, excellent in concentrativeness. Many of our saleswomen
have been teachers, and some return to it. They have their evenings as
their own from 6 P. M.; they have good moral boarding places, and a
public library open gratuitously. About one half live with parents; the
remainder board at from $2 to $2.50 per week, perhaps two persons
occupying the same room." In Paris, France, young women in stores
receive for their services their lodging, washing, and board, with from
$40 to $80 per annum.
=116. Street Sellers.= The number of women alone, in London, according
to Mr. Mayhew's estimate, engaged in street sales, wives, widows, and
single persons, is from 25,000 to 30,000. Girls and women form a large
proportion of the street sellers, and earn from sixty-two cents to $1 a
week. The comparative newness of our country, the smaller size of the
cities, and the greater demand for manual labor have presented fewer
calls for street sellers. We hope the time may never come when our
streets will be thronged, as those of London are, with street venders,
for we consider it not by any means an index of general prosperity. More
especially do we hope the scanty pittance obtained by their labor, and
the consequent privation and suffering, may never be the portion of any
of our population willing to work for a support. All the wants of a
great city can be supplied by the London street sellers. They are
patronized mostly by those in the middle and lower walks of life. All
the varieties imaginable are represented in their sale of articles. Both
dressed and undressed food can be obtained of them. Home and foreign
fruits and vegetables of all kinds have each their separate sales. Of
the eatables and drinkables offered by them for sale, the solids consist
of hot eels, pickled whelks, oysters, sheep's trotters, pea soup, fried
fish, ham sandwiches, hot green peas, kidney puddings, boiled meat
puddings, beef, mutton, kidney and eel pies, and baked potatoes. In each
of these provisions the street poor find a midday or midnight meal. The
pastry and confectionery which tempt the street eaters are tarts of
rhubarb, currant, gooseberry, cherry, apple, damson, cranberry, and (so
called) mince pies; plum dough and plum cake; lard, currant, almond, and
many other kinds of cakes, as well as of tarts; gingerbread nuts and
heart cakes; Chelsea buns, muffins, and crumpets; sweet stuff includes
the second kind, of rocks, sticks, lozenges, candies, and hard cakes;
the medicinal confectionery, of cough drops and horehound; and, lastly,
the more novel and aristocratic luxury of street ices and strawberry
cream, at two cents a glass (in Greenwich Park). The drinkables are tea,
coffee, and cocoa; ginger beer, lemonade, Persian sherbet, and some
highly colored beverages which have no specific name, but are introduced
to the public as cooling drinks; hot elder cordial or wine; peppermint
water; curds and whey; water; ice milk, and milk (just from the cow), in
the parks. In addition to this information, most of which is derived
from Mr. Mayhew's "London Labor and London Poor," we will devote the
remainder of the article to information from the same author; and would
do so in his words, were it not that we would like to condense as much
as possible. For the substance, we acknowledge, therefore, our
indebtedness to Mr. Mayhew. In the suburbs of London, some people spend
their time collecting snails, worms, grasshoppers, caterpillars, toads,
snakes, and lizards, which they sell in the city as food for birds.
Some, in collecting frogs, which they sell to French families, at hotels
and at hospitals. Some devote their time to the sale of coffee, beer,
and baked potatoes. Some engage in the sale of coke, some of salt, and
some of sand. Nor is literature forgotten by the street sellers. "There
are," says Mr. M., "five houses in London that publish street
literature, and six authors and poets that prepare such literature in
prose or rhyme." Some streetsellers devote themselves to the hawking of
dog collars, and some to the sale of rat poisons. Some collect the nests
of wild birds and the eggs, and sell them. Some sell whips; and some,
walking sticks; but these last articles, we believe, are sold only by
men. In London, some women sell refuse fruits; some, water-colored
pictures and cheap engravings; some, coins commemorating public events.
Some engage in the sale of children's watches. Some sell implements
belonging to a trade; for instance, tailors' implements. Some sell
washerwomen's clothes lines, pegs, and props; or kitchen utensils, as
tin ware, vegetable nets, kettle holders, &c. Some of the street sellers
are blind, with having taxed their eyes too greatly in sewing for slop
shops. Some women are co-workers with the men in the sale of crockery
and glass ware. They go in pairs (generally husband and wife); some with
a large basket between them, others with separate baskets. Some sell
spar ornaments, and some, china ornaments; some, lace, and some,
millinery; some, thread, tape, needles, &c. Quite a number sell women's
second-hand apparel. Some sell umbrellas; some, men's suspenders, belts,
and trouser straps. Others again will sell embroidery, stockings,
gaiters, shoe laces, blacking, pipes, quack medicines, snuff, tobacco
boxes, and cigar cases; and in winter some are seen carrying even
kindling wood to sell. Some women sell dolls, spectacles, wash leather,
china cement, razor paste, matches, or japanned ware. Some women carry
sponge in baskets; they either sell it for money or exchange it for old
clothes. A few sell musical instruments. Some offer guide books, play
bills, newspapers, stationery, and jewelry. Rabbits, squirrels, parrots,
and other kinds of birds are sold by them; and some dispose of dead
game. Seeds, flowers, roots, and, about Christmas, evergreens, are sold
in large numbers. In shops, some try to resell slops from kitchens, old
glass, metal, or worn clothes, &c.; some, exhausted tea leaves, which
they dispose of to those that dye and redye them to sell again.--We give
this chapter, because it comprises all and many more than the sellers on
our streets. The few engaged in street sales in our cities are mostly
confined to old women, who sit at the corners, with stands on which rest
store articles, tin ware, sweetmeats, and fruits, or a small lot of
fancy articles. There are several stands of second-hand books and
newspapers, or shelves of candy, kept by men, but the variety in the
business is quite limited, compared with the cities of Europe. Mr.
Mayhew thinks the majority of street sellers in London have been
servants and mechanics that could not get employment. Some street
sellers go on foot through the country during the summer, to sell at
fairs and races. Many others get employment from the farmers in
gathering vegetables and fruits for market, weeding gardens, picking
hops, and assisting in haymaking and harvesting. In Paris, some women
carry bread to sell, in baskets strapped to their backs. In New York, I
saw two women with baskets of vegetables and fruit to sell. I spoke to
one, who told me she earns sometimes as much as $1 a day, and sometimes
but a few cents. In winter, it is not unusual to see girls with baskets
of dried thyme, parsley, and sage, who sell it for culinary purposes. I
talked with a woman who carried tin ware in a basket. She often does not
earn fifty cents a day, and will be walking all day, not even going home
at noon. She buys by the dozen, and so gets the articles a little
cheaper. I inquired of a girl selling radishes how many she usually
disposed of in a day. She takes them around only in the afternoon, and
sometimes sells to the amount of $1.25.
=117. Toy Merchants.= This is a business better suited to the natural
nurses of children than to men. A handsome profit is derived from the
sale of toys. The busy seasons with toy merchants and confectioners are
about Christmas and New Year. Toys might be more extensively made in our
country, thereby giving employment to many now without it. Women mostly
stand in toy shops in New York. Even so small an item as the eyes of
children's dolls produces a circulation of several thousand pounds in
England. Several establishments in London are devoted exclusively to the
manufacture of dolls.
=118. Wall Paper Dealers.= Selling wall paper is a light, pretty
business. In cities it affords a remunerative return; in towns and
villages it is sold mostly by dry-goods merchants and druggists. The
only objection I see to it is, that a step ladder must be used to get
the paper down from the higher shelves; but a small boy might be used
for that, and also for carrying paper home to purchasers.