ut from many
other diseases, the result of the same cause; yet, till women, who come
as purchasers to the shops where women are employed, realize and
remember this, reform under this head is practically impossible. The
employer knows that, even if a few protest against the custom, his trade
would suffer were it done away with; and thus buyer and seller form a
combination against which revolt is impossible.

The inquiry brought one fact to light, which, so far as I know, has as
yet no counterpart in the United States, and this is, that in certain
West End shops every girl must conform to a uniform size of waist, this
varying from eighteen to twenty inches, but never above twenty. Tall or
short, fat or lean, Nature must stand aside, and the hour-glass serve as
model, the results simply adding one more factor of destruction to the
number already ranged against the girl.

The matter of regular meals has also far less attention than is
necessary. Dinner is a "movable feast." The girls are allowed to go out
only two or three at once, and often it is three o'clock or even later
before some have broken the fast. Though there is often ample room for
tea and coffee urns, the suggestion seems to be regarded as a dangerous
innovation, holding under the innocent seeming, a possible social
revolution. The thing that hath been shall be, and the obstinate
hide-bound conservatism of the English shop-keeper is beyond belief
till experience has made it certain. A few employers consider this
matter. The majority ignore it as beneath consideration.

The question of suitable floor managers is really the comprehensive one,
including almost every evil and every good that can come to the shop
girl, whether in the East or West End. Here, as with us, the girl is
absolutely in his power. He governs the whole system of fines, one
uncomfortable but necessary feature of any large establishment, and
injustice in these can have fullest possible play.

"The fines are an awful nuisance, that they are," said a bright-faced
girl in one of the best-known shops of London--a great bazar, much like
Macy's. "But then it all depends on the manager. Some of them are real
nasty, you know, and if they happen not to like a girl, they stick on
fines just to spite her. You see we're in their power, and some of them
just love to show it and bully the girls no end. And worse than that,
they're impudent too if a girl is pretty, and often she doesn't dare
complain, fo