The Butte inter mountain. [volume], May 11, 1901, Page 13, Image 13

About The Butte inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1901-1912

Image provided by: Montana Historical Society; Helena, MT

                
Girls of Hutte Who Ekirn Good Salaries • ^ ^ ^
They Get Their Money Every
Month Just Like the
Men—Some Expert
Stenographers.
Cosmopolitan Butte has many things
to be proud of aside from her mines and
emelters and chief among them are her
Working girls, and the percentage of girls
who do work Is larger than In many
cities of her population. In Butte labor
is dignlfled as It is in no other city
in the union.
Inn Butte the social lines are not
drawn as tightly as they are in other
places and individuality is placed above
■mere wealth. If a girl is entertaining,
pretty, or accomplished In divers ways
ehe is invited everywhere for the sake of
the pleasure she will give to others and
for genuine liking for the girls. And it is
a matter for remark that there are more
good singers, elocutionists, players of
mandolin, guitar, violin and banjo in the
ranks of the working girls than in the
butterfly circles.
As for beauty one has only to go into
the different stores, offices and other
business places of Butte to form an
opinion.
In a Pretty Gown.
At night you meet a pretty girl
gowned in the latest mode at some swell
society function and the next day she
will attend your wants in store or office;
the same dainty maiden. And because
of this many girls whose fathers are
possessed of comfortable Incomes work
that they may be independent. It does
not retard but rather seems to aid the
making of good matches for more mil
lionaires here have married working
girls than they have girls who attend
strictly to social duties.
Stenography seems to be the voca
tion the majority of girls seek, be
cause it offers larger salaries for compe
tent girls. It has to be skilled labor in
Butte as elsewhere to command high
salaries and ttyen where the labor Is
first-class the remuneration is much
larger than in any city in the United
Slates.
There are stenographers here employed
in responsible positions with the big
mining companies who receive as high
as $300 per month and in one instance
$550, but there are the "top-liners.'"
The girls possess some other accomp
lishments in addition to shorthand and
typewriting, generally the ability to
speak, write and translate one or more
foreign languages. Others are well
versed in mining affairs. Take the re
verse side and you will find girls work
ing for $10 per week. And one girl, such
a pretty girl, when she first came to
Butte worked for a lawyer who gen
erously paid her $30 per month and she
had to live on that; pay board and
room and other expenses. In speaking
of it now she says she does not know
how she ever lived through the two
months she slaved for him. Now she
is receiving $75 with good prospects of
a raise.
Average Salaries.
The average In Butte for salaries of
stenographers is $05 to $75 and in many
instances the girls are also acting as
bookkeepers. There is now a stenog
raphers' Union which is gradually ad
justing the scale of wages and will un
doubtedly succeed in raising the sala
ries of all the really competent ones
who are unfairly treated. The asso
ciation has a social side as well, meet
ing in the rooms of the association, 19%
East Quartz street.
There is in Butte a small army of
clerks employed in the stores. Here
again the skilled labor is highly paid.
The girls who are in charge of depart
ments, who either in part or entirely
select stock, receive good salaries, from
$75 to $125. But of course there are few
such positions to fill in comparison with
the number of girls employed. The girls
behind the counter have to work for
about $3 per week as apprentices, one
girl in one store received $7.50 for two
weeks' work as a green hand. As they
show adaptability they are. given more
stock to handle and salary increases
with responsibility. The price seems
to be a sliding one, from $10 to $20 a
week. The hours are from 8 to 6 o'clock
with from 30 minutes to an hour for
luncheon. The Clerk's Union has ac
complished much for the store workers.
There are not many cashiers em
ployed in Butte but in one place the
cashier receives $50 per month, in an
other $65, in another $75 and one re
ceives $100 monthly.
In the millinery department the girls
have a hard time at first. In most of
the places a girl has to work six months,
three in the fall and three in the spring
as an apprentice before she will receive
salary and then she is paid according to
ability. In several stores the girls have
tto work only three months. And in two
she receives 50 cents per day from the
beair.ning if she can sew at all. After
graduating from the rankks of the ap
prentice she is paid anywhere from $5
weekly to $25 for head girls.
In Printing Business.
There are not many girls in the print
ing business. Those who do work on
the type setting machines, two of them,
receive the regular Union price of $4.50
per day or $5 for night work.
There are a number of girls in vari
ous dressmanking establishments and
they are paid what the mistress of the
shop is inclined to allow. In the rooms
attached to the big stores salaries are
more uniform, from $8 to $28. Sleeve
makers, collar makers, etc., receive
more than the plain sewers. Many of
the best dressmakers of Butte have
gra luated from these places and are
making fine salaries for themselves by
working independently, either in the
homes of their patrons or at their own
homes.
Of course there are legions of wait
resses and the price paid them is from
$20 monthly to $1 per day, with board
and sometimes room, also. In connec
tion with the large miners' hotel and
lodging houses is a corps of girls called
"bucket girls." They never get less
than $1 per day and room and board.
Thev are employed solely to put up the
lunches for the miners in the buckets
and everyone of them, with one execu
tion. declare the position is a most diffi
cult one because of its monotony.
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Chambermaids receive $20 to $30 , board
and room.
It is a remarkable fact that you will
find very few real American girls work
ing as chambermaids or waitresses.
Sometimes they have to work in the
one or the other to gain a foothold and
then they find the better positions. One
little girl who worked only in private
boarding houses saved up money enough
to serve her time as clerk apprentice.
Then she had to have some clothes for
she had just eked out an existance as
an apprentice. So back she went to the
boarding house, worked two months and
got $50 which she invested in clothes and
now she is clerking in one of the big
stores a true type of the genuine Ameri
can queen.
Water Flowed Like Champagne.
"Speaking of diplomatists, reminds me
that Mrs. Hayes, who, as you remember,
was a stanch teetotaler, argued with me
for an hour over the first dinner the
president was to give to the 'foreign
representatives. I tried to make her
sefe that it would be no sacrifice to prin
ciple on her part to set wine on the
table but only the civilit we always
show to guests by recognizing their ways
of living at home.
" 'I'm afraid.' she declared, 'that the
ministers will have to majte up their
minds to be sociable with water.'
"And I shocked her dreadfully by an
swering: 'Mrs. Hayes, I have never
known people to be sociable with water
—except in a bath.' "
"Did Mrs. Hayes carry her point?' he
was asked.
"Yes. indeed." he responded, with a
dry chuckle. 'She had the dinner as she
wanted it, and the water flowed like
champagne."
Garter on Left Arm.
King Edward VII. has conferred the
Order of the Garter upon the new queen;
this fact rises a peculiar question. The
conditions of the order require that
every one upon whom it has been con
ferred must at all times carry some
where upon his or her perso.i some of
the insignia, while at all formal and
court functions the garter itself must
be worn where It may be seen. All
knights of this order when In court
dress wear the garter with its jeweled
clasp upon the left knee. Now that a
woman has been admitted to the order
an exception has been made in her favor,
and Queen Alexandria will wear the
decoration upon her left arm. The Order
of the Garter Is not an order of merit,
and Is conferred only upon royalties and
people of the very highest rank regard
less of their actual achievements.
1
7j
$
- MISS
JOSEPHINE KELLY"
"Have you named your baby yet?"
"No, ntf wife Is still investigating.
She's so afraid she may hapen to strike
the name of one of my old sweethearts."
—Chicago Record-Herald.
SELF-SUPPORTING WOMEN.
Twenty women and thirty or more
children of Guntur, India, are enable!
to earn their daily rice by me-ns of the
school for embroidery started in that
place some thirteen years since by some
Lutheran missionaries. The institution
was an outgrowth of a primary school,
established for Mohammedan children
some years before. Naturally the object
of the school was to create an open
ing for Christian instruction among Mo
hammedan women, as well as to give
them a source of revenue and to encour
age the exquisite art in which they ex
celled. The materials used are silks,
gold and silver laces, fancy brass laces,
tinsel and beetle wings—all of native
manufacture. The work is done on hand
woven cotton cloths, Roman satin, plush
and velvet. The pupils receive a secu
lar education and also technical train
ing in drawing, designing and needle
work. Only Mohammedan and Chris
tian women are admitted. The school
Is self-supporting, but no one except the
embroiderers receive a profit from it.
The work is sold in India, in Europe
and in America. At the Madras line
arts exhibition a large display of the
embroidery was awarded, six first prizes,
two second prozes and six honorable
mentions. Half of the amount of the
prize money. $32. was divided among the
women, each receiving a sum propor
tionate to her skill. Some had never in
their lives had so much money at one
time as fell to their share. One woman
received $2.45 as her portion, and she
felt that she had suddenly assumed
wealth. It is remarkable how far she
made it go. She paid six months' ar
rearage of rent, settled debts of long
standing, bought necessary clothing for
herself and child, and with the balance
laid in a supply of food for her family.
She is now engaged from 7 o'clock in
the morning until 5 in the evening doing
the most beautiful work, for there is .no
pattern too intricate for Zehrabee's
needle. A gold medal was also given
to the school at the aris exposition.
"How is it Scaddles, who used to be so
down on war, is anxious to enlist and
go to the Philippines right off?"
"I don't know, and what makes It
odder Is he only got married a couple of
months ago, too."—Philadelphia Times.
Of the 196.500 Mohammedans In the
world, only 18,000,000 live In Turkey.
Timber experts tell us that California
alone has a capacity of lumber in her
standing forests of over 100,099,00,009 cu
bic feet.
WOMAN'S
BARNYARD
AUXELIARY,
No other woman's organization in this
country has a canstitution so unique as
that of the Woman's auxiliary of the
Farmer's Improvement soceity of Texas.
The preable expresses that the society
is a business one, not fount'-■d for religi
ous , social or literaly pursuits. On the
contrary, it exists because poultry rais
ing, dairying, the rearing of hogs, are
industries peculiaril adopted to women,
require patient industry, cleanliness and
sympathetic attention. All colored wo
men who believe in improvement along
these lines and who will try to succeed
■" *th their stock are eligible to member
ship. In an address delivered recently
at the Tuskegee conference in Alabama,
Mrs. Grace Johnson, of Oakland, Texas,
president of the auxiliary, stated that
the organization had a membership of
2,500 women, who are purchasing 50,000
acres of land, and the combined wealth
of the body is $700,000. Mrs. Johnson
stated that the object of the Farmers'
Improvement society is to fight the
credit or crop inartgage system, to im
prove methods of farming, to co-oper
ate in business, to care for the sick,
bury the dead, and last and most im
portant of all to purchase homes and im
prove and beautify them. In order to
accomplish these purposes the Barnyard
auxiliary aims to study the habits, needs
and wants of poultry, hogs and all do
mestic animals, with a view to Improv
ing the stock and putting it with the
products of the land on the market in
such condition that it shall command a
remunerative price. Mrs. Johnson says
that the regeneration of the negro must
begin with industry, skill, thrift and so
briety, and that with skill and sobriety
one may obtain almost anything that
he wants, and that such organizations
as the Farmers' Improvement society
and like organizations are' the hope
of the race, and that if the principles
of these societies are adhered to we may
yet exclaim with Uncle Tom "I's got the
victory.''
QUEER RULES OF THE
SERVANT GIRLS' UNION.
A hundred servant girls in Cincinnati
have banded themselves together into a
new trade union.
The first move has been to frame a con
stitution, which is a sort of declaration of
independence, and adopt a set of rules to
'uphold it. These xery interesting docu
ments are here given:
Constitution—The motllve of this House
maids' union is to better the condition of
girls employed at housework. The word
"servant" shall not be used, as each
member has a distinct line of work, and
shall be known as cook, housemaid, wait
ress, laundress, etc.
By-Laws.—Rule 1—Members of this
union, when hired for one kind of work,
shall confine themselves to the duties for
which they are paid. A girl employed as
housemaid found doing a cook's work, or
vice versa, shall be warned the first time
fined $1 for the second offense, and expell
ed from the union on the third offense.
Rule 2—Members of this union shall
under no condition submit to imperti
nent or irrelevant questions from em
ployers when seeking employment.
Rule 3—Members shall ask all needful
questions in a business like way before
taking a position, and satisfactorily set
tle all points of differences with their
employers.
Rule 4—Members shall look at th«
rooms they are to occupy before taking
new places, and are forbidden to accept a
situation unless they are provided with a
room fit for a human being to sleep in.
Rule 5—Members shall not ask unrea
sonable favors or give reasons for leav
their places that are not true, nor obtain
holidays under false pretenses..
Rule 6—Members must have an agree
ment with their employers about receiv
ing company. Every girl is entitled to a
beau, else she will never get married, and
she owes it to her self-respect not to meet
him on the corner.
Rule 7—Members shall keep them
selves clean an.l suitably dressed for
,their duties. (When the union is stronger
it will Insist on employers doing like
wise.)
Rule 8—Members shall insist on having
proper food and time to eat it without en
dangering their lives by strangulation;
a!so time to bathe.
Sent Roses to the Queen.
Among the last gifts received by lier
majesty Queen Victoria last Christmas
was a box of magnificent Queen of Edgly
roses, sent to her by Mr. Fuertsenberg
of Philadelphia. At an exhibition of
the Horticultural society held three
years since, the queen inquired of a vet
eran rose grower his opinion of English
roses. The American replied that they
were very pretty, but he preferred those
of the states, which are large and have
extremely long stems. Her majesty held
to the opinion in favor of the English
article, but expressed a wisli to see the
gorgeous American roses. Mr. Fuers
tenberg returned home and experimented
with the object of producing the finest
roses ever grown, and inventing some
method of preservation certain for at
least twelve days. After two years' work
he accomplished his ends and dispatched
to the queen a superb collection of pink
roses eight inches in diameter. These
beautiful blooms, undoubtedly the finest
in the world, were features in the table
decorations at Osborne on Christmas
day.
Mrs. Brown—My husband never says
anything to me about the way his moth
er used to cook.
Mrs. Green—That's something un
usual. I wonder why he doesn't''
Mrs. Brown—She used to keep a
Cassidy—How can ye say ye save
money? Shure ye spend Ivery cint ye
make and never lay anny by.
Casey—Av course. That's how I save.
If I laid anny by somebody'd borry it.
an' thot'd be the Ind av it.—Philadelphia
Press.