LITTLE WOMEN. Some of the Disadvantages Under Which They Labour.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 197, 2 April 1887, Page 2

LITTLE WOMEN. Some of the Disadvantages Under Which They Labour.

Few have any idea of the trials and tribulations of cultivated women small in stature, who seek honest employment in this city, 'lhe httle lady must be modest, pretty, neatly dre s^, aifable in conversation and agreeaWlo in m inner, yet almost every avenue leading to a respectable living \s closed to her. Tho shopkeeper picks his fem-ile help in the spirit that animates him when ho makes a disphv of goods in his windows. And it must be confessed that practically, if not thPoroHcally, he is right. A commanding and tine-looking woman will sell a sealskin cloik in five cases out of fix whore a li tie body would fail The big woman can expatiate more grandly on its meute, and by wraping it around her and parading before a mirror, chow it fff in all its pe^RHon The little lady may be refined gold, but there ia nothing impressive about hei. Her small stature is a misfortune that she cannot remedy. She cannot become a floorwalker in a drygoods emporium, for she lacks the sweep and carriage and ioid'y aplomb which awe employees and attract purchasers. She ha" great trouble in securing even a place behind the counter. Her fragility and tiny size are in the wav She cannot reach the goids on a top shelf, nor can she return them after a sale is made without climbing to the counter, which ungraceful act would quench the last ppark of dignity left by nature at her birth. She is out of place again in the parlours of a.faBhionable milliner or dressmaker. You may find her sttinar in a little back loom adjoining, stitching away in a bad light and worse Atmosphere, with her knees up to her ohio, but you will never see her in the salesrooms, "A srasU woman is out of place in a showroom," said the proprietor of a fashion warehouse, when one of herfrfarids sought a situation for a worthy but undersized lady. " I have no use for her there.

She cannot sell even a pattern. People will not go to her. They 'will hardly ask her * question, They pass her by as though she was a child, and go to a saleswoman more stylish and commanding. Oae is prominent and the other insignificant in ap pearance, and the prominent figure invariably attracts attantion." A place for the little lady was found in. the mailing department at 6dola a week. At the same time a tall woman of good figure, who carried her head like a Juno, neither well educated nor particularly agreeable, was placed in tho showroom ab 14dole. per week. She was not as refined nor as painstaking as the little one, but she had the physique so highly prized by an experienced m diste, The little one toiled ten hours a day with hardly a respite, while the big woman walked grandly up and down the parlour superintending sales and keeping everything trim. Petite women are rarely employed aa forewomen in large business houses. Such situations are almost invariably filled by ladies of regular figure and hauteur. A few are pretty, pome are intellectual, and less are charmiog. Many are Amazons by nature as well as in appearance. They are made m ij-stic by size and bearing alone, and are nearly destitute of feeling for those of smaller stature whose lines are not caafi in places co pleasant Such forewomen command from $20 to §60 a week, They can be found in evv ry establishment where fashionable female attire is sold. Salaries seem to be proportioned to the size of the woman employed, and not on her ability. There are hundreds of lifctle women holding comparatively pleasant situations, but even in thes& they labour under natural disadvantages. The salaries are light, and their figures forbid promotion. The little ones are to be pitied. With warmer hearts, keener intuitions, brighter intellects, more knowledge of human naturo, and more tact in many cases than their larger sisters, their business remains narrow and contracted* Marriage alone can take them from the' rugged rovl of life and transplant them tothe pleasant gardens that line the way.