Death and disease behind the counter / by Thomas Sutherst.

  • Sutherst, Thomas.
Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Death and disease behind the counter / by Thomas Sutherst. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of io to half-past io P.M., as the Saturday night trade is not what it used to be ; and I fancy from what my friends in the trade say, elsewhere it is the same. Redditch.—As regards the hours of closing, I for one should be glad to see a law that would compel all tradesmen to close at a certain hour, viz., seven o’clock all the year round except Saturdays, and then I should consider nine o’clock a very reasonable hour, and one that would prove beneficial to master and servants, or I should like to see the Factory Acts applied to shops. Richmond (Surrey).—Early closing, I am afraid, will never be- come very general unless it is made compulsory, as so many of the large firms close on the Saturday ; and as that is the best day in the whole week for middle and lower class trades, it puts it beyond question altogether that they will ever agree to close on that day. Rochdale.—The hours are far too long, and we don’t know how to shorten them. Sleaford.—In almost all towns shops might be closed at 7 P.M. There is a certain class of indolent people who come at the last moment. Stockton.—It seems as if we shall never get shorter hours. Everybody is better off than shopkeepers and assistants. Stafford.—The hours of business in this town might be cur- tailed, with great benefit to both employers and employed. Staines.—We consider that the late hours of keeping shops open in the winter is a decided loss; the gas expenses are not paid, and an hour earlier closing in the earlier days of the week would be a benefit. The assistants in the trade should combine and influence public opinion. STOURPORT.—Referring to the hours of business, w’e should like to see early closing more unanimous. Southampton.—We are very badly off here as to early closing. A few shut up early, but the bulk of the assistants work about eighty hours a week. Sunderland.—An effort has been made to shorten the hours of labour in the drapery trade of this town by closing all the principal places of business (except one or two houses) at 6 P.M. during the month of January, but as these firms were determined to have the advantage of the others by an hour or more every evening it was decided on the first of February to return to the old hour of closing, and now the hours are much longer than necessary, causing employers and assistants to suffer in health.