Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 4.djvu/744

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THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

Name

Age

Nationality

Occupation

Wages per week

l8 27 24 23 29

23 28 20

American

Virginian

American

American

German

Irish

American

American

Saleslady

Stenographer

Clerk

Clerk

Cashier

Saleswoman

Fur worker

Saleslady

S4.OO

6.00

4.50

3.00

6.50

6.00

5.00

3.00

This, then, was the place from which I started out to work on the appointed Monday morning. The hurried breakfast, the rush out into the street thronged with a lunch-carrying humanity hastening to the down-town district, and the cars packed with pale-faced, sleepy-eyed men and women, made the working world seem very real. Hurrying workers filled the heart of the city; no one else was astir. I reached my destination promptly at eight, the time of opening. Then I had to stand in line at the manager's office awaiting my more definite appointment, which was received in due time. But the manager had changed his mind about wages, and said he would give me two dollars a week plus 5 per cent, commission on sales, instead of the regular sal- ary he had mentioned in our former interview. I was then given a number, and by "424 " I was known during my stay there. I was sent to the toy department, where I found sixty-seven others who were to be my companions in toil. The place was a dazz- ling array of all kinds of toys, from a monkey beating a drum to a doll that said " mamma," and a horse whose motor force was to be a small boy. Our business was first to dust and condense' the stock, and then to stand ready for customers. We all served in the double capacity of floorwalkers and clerks, and our busi- ness was to see that no one escaped without making a purchase. The confusion can be readly imagined. As soon as the elevators emptied themselves on the floor, there was one mad rush of clerks with a quickly spoken, "What would you like, madam ?" or, "Something in toys, sir?" And the responses to these ques- tions were indicative of the characters of the people making

' This meant to pile like things together in as small space as possible.