t, and
you'll find it the same everywhere."

Practically he was right, for the report, though varying slightly,
summed up as substantially the same. Descending a grade, it was found
that even in the second and third rate stores the system of fines for
any damage soon taught the girls carefulness, and that while a few were
discharged for hopeless incompetency, the majority served faithfully and
well.

"I dare say they're put upon," said the manager of one of the cheaper
establishments. "They're sassy enough, a good many of them, and some of
the better ones suffer for their goings-on. But they ain't a bad
set--not half; and these women that come in complaining that they ain't
well-treated, nine times out of ten it's their own airs that brought it
on. It's a shop-girl's interest to behave herself and satisfy customers,
and she's more apt to do it than not, according to my experience."

"They'd drive a man clean out of his mind," said another. "The tricks of
girls are beyond telling. If it wasn't for fines there wouldn't one in
twenty be here on time, and the same way with a dozen other things. But
they learn quick, and they turn in anywhere where they're wanted. They
make the best kind of clerks, after all."

"Do you give them extra pay for over-hours during the busy season?"

"Not much! We keep them on, most of them, right through the dull one.
Why shouldn't they balance things for us when the busy time comes? Turn
about's fair play."

A girl who had been sent into the office for some purpose shook her head
slightly as she heard the words, and it was this girl who, a day or two
later, gave her view of the situation. The talk went on in the pretty,
home-like parlors of a small "Home" on the west side, where rules are
few and the atmosphere of the place so cheery that while it is intended
only for those out of work, it is constantly besieged with requests to
enlarge its borders and make room for more. Half a dozen other girls
were near: three from other stores, one from a shirt factory, one an
artificial-flower-maker who had been a shop-girl.

"When I began," said the first, "father was alive, and I used what I
earned just for dressing myself. We were up at Morrisania, and I came
down every day. I was in the worsted and fancy department at D----'s,
and I had such a good eye for matching and choosing that they seemed to
think everything of me. But then father fell sick. He was a painter, and
had painter's colic awful