THE LADIES’ WORLD. WOMAN’S WAGES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2615, 24 September 1909, Page 3

THE LADIES’ WORLD.

WOMAN’S WAGES.

As the Typewriter Giry. tired after a heavy day’s work, stopped into the car a sprightly man hopped in before her, and promptly settled 'himself in the only seat. The girl is young and pretty, so the youth opposite scowled at the i man, and rising, politely- offered her his seat, which she thankfully accepted. 1 The rude man felt the rebuke, and also felt mad. “I paid a penny for my right to this seat,” he muttered to the world at large, “and I don’t see why I should give it up to anyone.” “Ami my seat in this tram costs me just about" thirty pounds a year.” raid the Typewriter Girl crisply, “so I don’t see why I should refuse to take it.' Then site colored brightly, realising that she had spoken aloud, and, for the rest of the journey she gazed steadfastly at the book which fortunately she had with her. But once out of the tram her spirits revived, and by the time she had had tea and gone to call on the Bachelor Girl, she was quite pleased with herself, and said that film had been very smart, to thing ci that aspect of the case. ' “All the same,” said the Bachelor Girl. “I don’t quite know what you meant bv it.” “Don’t you ” cried her friend, “well then, I’ll tell von, and you cannot deny the truth of it. I like a man to give up his seat in the tram fe- me, but I say it is because be regarded me as that kind of being who must be shown that attention, that ho considers my day’s work is not worth as much r,s his. Mon choose to think we are weaker, inferior beings, and they know that thev can take our work for a great deal less than they would give a man, simply because we arc not (strong enough to demand more. I have been furious about it all day. because they have just appointed a new clerk at our entice to do exactly the sort of work that 1 am doing, in a much less experienced way, and lie is to get thirty pounds a year more for it. And so all day long I havo been calculating what 1 get to balance that thirty pounds a year. “I shouldn’t think it balanced at all,” said the Bachelor Girl. “As you say your work is probable quite as good as" that young man’s is likely to be, and you "put your whole heart into it as few men ever do. Women nearly always take their work more seriously than men, I think.” “Don’t you think,” the Icaclier broke in, ‘That the difference in your wages represents the inefficient work of the ordinary typewriter girl? I know some of the little girls who have left mv school and gone into offices cannot possibly have turned into efficient clerks.” “Neither do all the men as boys who have left school turn into efficient clerks,” said the Bachelor Girl. "I think the men and women probably are inconnx-tent in the same proportion. “Well, as I was saying”—and the Typewriter Girl nursued the even tenor of her remarks regardless of interruption—“l do think our employers try to adjust things a little, and mankind generally thinks the underpaid woman employee has compensations of another kind. For one thing a man who will, when he is very angry, swear at one of his men in his office, never forgets himself so far as to be violently angry with a woman. He will be coldly displeased with her, and perhaps liis displeasure will last without any explanation for a much longer. term than ii she were a man. She wul know vaguely that there, is something wrong, but, because she is a woman, she will not he told, so sh<i will go on worrying and perplexed when a few straight woids would put the matter right, and that state’ of tilings is supposed to be worth thirty pounds a year to her. Why, if a girl takes any pride in her woi’k, h she" has any ambition and is anxious to <mt on, she would far rather have her employer take her to task, and get it over, and though, of course, he must not swear at her. the Itnglish language will allow him to put the matter strongly enough. Besides, when all is said and done, it a man clerk goes on diligently doing his best, his employer does not swear at him, even once in ~ix months. So there you have the case of a girl who loses thirty ,minds a year, and, for all compensation. is not slacken to roughly, when anyhow, she never would be. Isn tit a tangle?” . “But I don’t see where the seat. )» the tram comes in,” said the leaohei. “()h, that is just some more of it, sonic more of the little courteousness that means something to a woman, but not very much. Of course I like a man to give up his seat in a tram for me, and I always feel a little annoyed when some stalwart young mail chooses to retain his seat and let me stand', or when some mail, big enough to know- better, marches in at a door in front of me, but still, I. say, that there is practicall> nothing to represent that £3O cut off my salarr, except tlie seat-in-tho-train ■nid the open-the-door conventions, and they are not worth while.”

A GERMAN SCHEME* TRAVELLING COOKING SCHOOLS. The teaching of cooking in Germany is carried, on with German thoroughness. Not content with establishing rural schools where farmers’ daughters might learn the domestic arts Germany lias now instituted travelling schools. It was found that the i;ural schools did not meet the needs of the whole rural_ population. The bulk of this population is made up of small farmers and in such homes the help of the daughters is needed so constantly that they cannot be sent away from home to school. Neither can the money he provided for their expenses, and many - farmers are afraid, too, that after their daughters had been away to school they would not be willing to return to the simple conditions of the farm. Since the people will not go to the schools, therefore, the schools are being sent to the people. Baden took the Rad in the establishment of travelling schools of cooking and sewing, and the idea is spreading rapidly, according to the “Journal of Home Economies.” Hesse, Nassau, Franconia, the Palatinate, all have their travelling cooking schools or have begun to establish them. The Bavarian Farmers’ Association lias established two such schools apd selected two nuns as teachers. The Association pays the teachers and most of the other expenses, so that the cost to the pupils is very small. In some cases the township or village pays all or part of tlie expense of pupils who could net otherwise afford to attend the school.. It has been found that tlie travelling school has many advantages in addition to its accessibility. The teaching can be adapted to local conditions, and the pupils can at once put into practice what they Have learned. Furthermore, the teacher can visit the homes of tlie pupils and see that they really understand what Has. been taught. • . i ■ ■ 1 , •