A Word For Saleswomen

One of the reasons why saleswomeu have so hard a time and are so hardly and often unjustly judged is that there are so many of them who practicaliy deprecíate their own occupation. It is all very well to point out other kinds of vvork in which women might profitably ens-ao-e, but most of these require a special training that is not always easy tn nhttiin. and it is not strange that so many young women as weil as young men seek employment in some branch of trade. But when a young man goes int o a shop he usnally expects to devote his time and thought to learning as much as he can abont the busmess Too many girls, on tho othcr hand, look on their employment as only adisagreeable necessity, whieh they are to get away from as soon as they can. VV hile they feel thus about it they can never make good salesvvomen; they can never gain respect either for themselves or for their calling. In these days it is not worth while for either man or woman to undertake any business merely as a temporary makeshíft. A girl in a dry goods shop needs to apply herself to her business just as much as she would if she were learning a profession, iinil when she does so apply herself she is pretty sure to gam recou-nition. Go into any large dry goods shop, for example, aud you will readily recogmze wmcn are isu umcu who are interested in their work, who are well informed about the goods they have to sell and who understand the art of pleasing their customers, and which are those who are thinking of nothing but how they can get through the day with the least trouble and f rom whom the cnstonier tnrns away in disgust. It is the latter who cause people to speak soornfully of shop girls. The former command eespect everywhere, m the hop or out of it. It is very mueh better, more honorable and more profitable, to be a good saleswoman than a poor teacher or writer or painter. But thcn the work must be undertaken in earnest, at, a vucation, not as a means of getting along till somtthing better offers. Of course, when something better does offer, or vhn some Prince comes along and Ieads Cinderella away, she will follow him vvith a light heart. But the Prince wül not come any the aooner, orlike herany the better, if she has been neglecting her work in waiting for him.