THE CURSE OF THE KISS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13485, 11 May 1907, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE CURSE OF THE KISS.

TYPEWRITER'S LIFE MADE WRETCHED. Driven to despair by the* manners of her employers, who demanded kisses as por- i tion of the day's routine, Miss Maudie! McChesney, in a burst of bitterness, .says| she ,is ready to, sell unlimited kisses for cash down. She is, a pretty i young woman, | of : 22, with beautiful brown hair and ex-[ pressive ; eyes. At present, Maud is in] Denver, U.S.A., and her remarks give an insight into American business ';: methods. Here is an advertisement which she sent in to .a . local paper, and which was refused : - : - " Men always want to kiss me. When they i want, to "employ me to act .as stenographer they always: insist on receiving a wealth of kisses. They do this to nearly every young woman. My affection is worth somethingif kisses can be called affection —and as kisses seem, to be something much desired, I am ready ;to sell an unlimited number.": ■»• ■ Miss Maud McChesney was born in Richmond, 'Virginia. She is a stenographer by occupation, and has.held positions as clerk, milliner, telephone ,operator, andactress". "The pretty girl; who must make her living is to be, pitied,'' says Miss- McChesney. " It's a kiss here, a kiss there, ; a kiss everywhere. If you;don't want to kiss your employer you are discharged." The ; first position offered Maud was that of a steno,grapher for an insurance firm. Going into the manager's private office to take dictation the first morning, Miss McChesney was greeted with "Put down your notebookand.give me a. kiss";little girl." "A •nice way: to begin the, morning, don't you think?" is Miss McChesney's comment. /; At this time she was.only 17.. Later the bookkeeper, a girl : several years Miss i McChesney's senior, ; advised her, to submit to an occasional kiss, adding: "It I. don't really hurt you, you know, and.he is awfully nice to us all.", V.Carefully '.'dodging," using tact and thought worthy of a better cause, the situation was prevented from reaching a climax for three months. At the end of this time, however, she- was unable longer to avert the inevitable, and - resigned the place. " I next: obtained a position as book-keeper 'for a medicine firm in Des Moines," said Miss McChesney to an interviewer, " and before I had been in the office an hour the manager took hold of my ; . aim in. what was supposed to ■be an accidental way. I let that pass, but a few days later he ■-~ • • : : ' •.-.'.:■' PUT HIS ARM ROUND MI WAIST,

saying something about it being a;,', neat little waist.' " I told him I had just left a position down the : street . to escape that sort of unpleasant attention, and that in case I was again annoyed I should leave his employ. \ That made him angry, as he informed me - with a sneer that I was a fool, he would not * hurt me, and that I need no think I; was 'the only pebble on the beach.' / My next unpleasant experience," continued Miss McChesney, "was in Centrevill, a small, town in lowa. I was still in my seventeenth ,year, and looked younger. A man who travelled for-'-a' large piano 'firm sent for me to call /at his hotel, saying that he needed ; a stenographer, and understood }. that I was looking for work. I-called. upon him in the parlour of the hotel. He was -willing to pay £2 a week and all expenses. :I; had not understood that it was a travelling position, and said so,/also: saying that: I was afraid that I was not/competent., But the ; traveller thought I was the girl for the job./ 'i 'You can make out reports,.can't you, and use the typewriter? Oh, you'll get along all right.. There isn't much to it. If you will step across : the hall.to my office, show you how simple it is. I can get a girl down here,' he continued ; 'she's a crackerjack stenographer, but- I'd rather have you. You;'look awfully / good to me. Be nice, give me a kiss, and let's be good friends/ He 'started: toward me, evidently sure of my acquiescence. I said if he touched me I'd scream, and he replied, /' Go ahead, scream if you want to. They'd ask you what you were ■■ doing here, and anyway, the proprietor and I are pais.' He kissed me; I screamed, and he pushed me out of the door, and I fairly flew down the \ hall and out info; the /street. ■* ;In 1904, in St. : Louis, Miss McChesney was offered a post by an //insurance; magnate. ■ "What > he really needed /was a. girl who would take dictation after/ dinner in his apartment a beautiful apartment, he assured meand do the work; at home. For this ;he was willing to pay, he. said, the sum of £8 per/ month, with ah occasional trinket or something K which I particularly anted thrown in, and, he concluded, 'Considering the perquisites, I : think *

• • YOU ARE A PRETTY LUCKY GIRL, don't you?'" But Miss McChesney refused. One , day at the table of a Colorado hotel Miss McChesney was left alone with ah Eastern man, unmistakably a man of refinement and wealth. He opened conversation this way: "' You're too bright a girl,' be said, "to waste your time here. Come down to Chicago and work for me; you're a stenographer, aren't you? Well, I'll give you a job.' He rose to adding, 'Get away for a' couple of weeks, anyhow, and meet me in Denver, and I'll take you to Chicago, show you what life is, and send you back if you want to come, and it won't cost you a "cent. -: Thfhk it over and let me know to-night:'" Miss McChesney has been a show girl with touring companies. She found herself in this way /at Denver. Here the kiss-curse again proved/ her undoing. ;: The manager met her after he had been drinking and saluted her in this way: —"Hullo, Maudie, 1 '" old girl! You're all to the mustard! Do you know, you are the best-looking girl ' we've had yet, and we've 'had some stunners. ' Come, give! papa a kiss—sure!'" The girl hesitated. " You decline with thanks? You don't approve of ; kissing, I suppose? You take this dime and go out and buy yourself a nice little 'balloon and go right rip to heaven.* You are entirely too good -for this position you've got, and we have too many girls, way." And "so Maud, being once more without a berth through no fault of her own,, has offered to sell kisses at so much a dozen, like any other article of commerce. . ' ■ .