Working With the Working WomanParker, Cornelia Stratton
History
Working With the Working Woman
Parker, Cornelia Stratton
United States -- Social conditions; Women -- Employment -- United States; Working class -- United States
So then, I framed up. Nor was it merely that I worked under
difficulties as to space. Another of the boss's ideas of scientific
management seemed to be to employ as few bright and useful girls as
possible. He started with three. He ended with just one. From dawn to
dewy eve I tore. It was “Connie, come here!” (Ada, the beadwork
forelady.) “Connie, come here!” (The cutter.) “Connie, thread, thread,
yes? There's a good girl!” (The beaders.) “Connie, changeable beads,
yes? That's the girl!” “Connie, unframe these two skirts quick as you
can!” “Connie, never mind finishing those skirts; I got to get this
'special' framed up right away!” “Connie, didn't you finish unframing
those skirts?” “Connie, tissue paper, yes? Thanks awfully.” “Connie,
did you see that tag I laid here? Look for it, will you?”
But the choice and rare moment of my bright and useful career was when
the boss himself called, “Oh, Miss Connie, come _mal_ here, yes?” And
when I got _mal_ there he said, “I want you should take my shoes to
the cobblers _so fort_ yes?... And be sure you get a check ... and go
quick, yes.” Whereupon he removed his shoes and shuffled about in a
pair of galoshes.
I put on the green tam. I put on the old brown coat with now three
buttons gone and the old fur collar, over my blue-checked apron, and
with the boss's shoes under my arm out I fared, wishing to goodness I
would run into some one I knew, to chuckle with me. Half an hour later
the boss called me again.
“I think it is time you should bring my shoes back, yes?” I went. The
cobbler said it would be another five minutes. Five minutes to do what
I would within New York! It was a wondrous sensation. Next to the
cobbler's a new building was going up. I have always envied the folks
who had time to hang over a railing and watch a new building going up.
At last—my own self, my green tam, my brown coat over the
blue-checked apron, chewing a stick of Black Jack, hung over the
railing and for five whole minutes and watched the men on the steel
skeleton. All the time my salary was going on just the same.
I was hoping the boss would tip me—say, a dime—for running his
errands. Otherwise I might never get a tip from anyone. He did not. He
thanked me, and after that he called me “dearie.”
Ada's face wore an anxious look when I got back. She was afraid I
might not have liked running errands. Running errands, it seemed, was
not exactly popular. I assured her it was “so swell watchin' the
riveters on the new buildin'” I didn't care about the shoes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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