TEA SHOP GIRLS' CHANCES

Evening Star, Issue 15607, 25 September 1914, Page 8

TEA SHOP GIRLS' CHANCES

A VARIK'LT OF VIKWS. The tea shop jjirl h&3 earned Jxwd Port,smoiith's pity. Her employment, he says, i» a " blind alley " one. One liondon employer of tea, shop girls, disagreeing with his lordship's abatement, said ■ "We have i.o x%o limit, a.nd there are people who have l>eeu with us for 10. 15, :md 20 tears. One old lady loft to einim her old airo pension, but she came back to woik. Smart pirli* can become manageresses ;>r cashiers. And tea shop girls have many opportunities of meeting young men, and a large pro|xrrtion fret, .manned." An ofiicial of Mesas Lyons'* said : "The tea shop girl is not in a blind alley, because with va she can advance. Many chief* of oui- departments have risen from beitxg; waitress*. As manageresses they can earn several pmmds a week. And they stay as waitresses up to any *«*. 1 believe there is one of 50 now. When yott come to think of it, what chance of advancement has the average domestic servant'/" A member of the recently-formed Association of Waitresses laughed at the notion that waiting- is regjixded as a short cut to matrimony.

"You may not believe it," she remarked, " but many waitresses have ambition. I know quite a number of girld who are sufficiently in love with their work to want, to climb to tho top. it is" hard work, but there is plenty of variety in it. I daresay some girls marry customers, but T think you will find most waita-e6sea regard their work quite neriously. Kvery modern girl wants her freedom at nights, and waitresses ar» better treated than shop assistant*."