FRENCH SHOP GIRLS BETTER THAN ENGLISH ONES.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 27, 31 July 1912, Page 2

FRENCH SHOP GIRLS BETTER THAN ENGLISH ONES.

■ I was reading an article the other day ' which compared most unfavourably the difference in treatment between a girl employed in a shop over here and the gay little dark-eyed mademoiselle who earns her living under similar circumstances in Paris. The advantages were all on the side of the maiden in Paris (saye an English /writer) . "Not allowed to hang on our walls, or to invite friends to our ■rooms? To eat a dinner that is according to the day of the week without choice i t Ciel ! What a country ! No, that would/ not do < for' 'French 4 girls. Work? Yes, we work_ hard; but, we must be free." And free they are apparently,' " and an excellent time they' have. Drawing-rooms iii which to receive their friends, read-irjg-rooms,' and actually" a professor provided'to teach them' the Us© of foreign tongues, so that, they may, become really useful members of the groat emporium in Trhich they serve. • • , ENCOURAGED TO MARRY. t But the most 'extraordinary and farsighted proceeding of the whole French system hi regard to the young ladies who stand behind their counter is this — that girls and men employed in the larger emporiums are not merely allowed, but are encouraged to marry, and are often given a small bonus' on ithe eve of their wedding. The idea seems to. .be this. Tho girl in England behind the counter is sighing for love and a home of her own, so is the French girl under, similar conditions—and a very healthy, human ambition, too — but the English girl realises that matrimony. will be an end of everything as far as life in the shop is concerned. So the girl tdkeh no real interest in her work, feels no ambition, no desire to get on in connection with it. With the French girl it is different, for she has the sense to see that taking a pride in making hereelf a good saleswoman is a- financial asset to the firm that employe her. She brings more custom to the shop, she makes bigger sales for the firm of trifles that mount up steadily and slowly, but surely 6well the company's exchequer, and so the manager keeps his eyo upon her and eggs her on to greater endeavour still. He regards her almost as one of a large family, and takes a paternal interest in her ; he encourages her to marry, for he knows that married people, with a home to keep up, are generally steadier and far harder workers than single ones. He welcomes her back warmly after her first baby has put in an appearance, her place having been kept open for her. How different in England, where romance is at a distinct discount in commercial spheres. On© feels the difference at once. The casual, half-hearted attention to one's wants, the conversation carried on with half-averted head with the next "young lady" at the counter, how irritating it all is. But my lady, secure in her knowledge that it is only for a time and that her rescuei is at hand, willing and nearly ready to remove her from behind the counter for ever, does not, and will not, make that effort to get on and make herself absolutely indispensable to the particular firm in which she may be serving which obsesses her French sister" from her very start in life. LEARNING FOREIGN LANGUAGES. The French mademoiselle is always striving to better herself, to get on, and if she is really smart and 'cute the firm who employ's her are quite prepared to make strenuous efforts to keep her in their ranks. What English girl has sufficient go in her to study foreign languages with a new to making herself more useful to her employers? What English girl would save and hoard and scrape, as many a French girl does, to get the wherewithal to come to England, or go to Germany, in order to learn the language of the country on its native heath, and to study the business methods of another country? Of course, a girl who knows three languages, who has an attractive appearance and the most fascinating ways, is at a great premium in the eyes of both the manager of the firm who employs her and in the eyas' of any ambitious young shopwalker who wishes to get on bo well that one day he may run an establishment of his own — in France. In England such, a girl would almost inevitably marry, and there would be an end of Jier; career at aac*. ** " ,