Reassessing
Respectability:
Beauty, Fashion, and Gold Digging
in U.S. Offices and Courts at the
Turn-of-the Twentieth Century
Shorthand Fiction on Romance and
Marriage
Marriage Announcements: “Cupid
Among the Stenographer”
Marriage Announcements
“Miss Gertrude W. Morse, formerly bookkeeper
and stenographer for the Hard Manufacturing
Co., Oneida, N.Y., was married in that city on
the 4th of last month to Mr. Arthur F. Bender ,
formerly of Utica.”
Marriages and Wealth
“Miss Rosa Wald, formerly employed at a salary of $150 a month
as stenographer to Mr. Clarence Jones, secretary of the
Drummond Tobacco Co., St. Louis, Missouri, was recently
wedded to that gentlemen.... Mr. Jones draws a salary of
$10,000 a year, and owns 100 shares of stock in the
company.”
“prominent businessman,”
“a well-to-do-printer,”
“a grandson of Governor Clinton,”
“reputed to be a millionaire.”
“Marrying the boss,]... as high as a million dollars...with love as
the foundations.
Fiction: Employer Dictates Marriage
Proposal as a business letter. She
mails it, not recognizing its purpose.
Inappropriate Attire
O. Henry, “The Romance of the Busy Broker”
“a high-rolled fringe of golden hair under a nodding
canopy of velvet and ostrich tips, and imitation
sealskin sacque, and a string of beads as large as
hickory nuts, ending near the floor with a silver
heart.”
“the alluring pompadour…chains, bracelets, or
lockets.”
Woman Sexualizing the Office
Ellis Wood, “Two Men and a Maid”
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“cupid bow’s mouth”
puckered lips “so red and tempting”
“thrust herself upon them”
Witty and “audacious” tongue, saucy manner and
“magnetic eye.”
“If beauty is the stamp of goodness, as moralists tell
us, then Miss Brannen was a saint. Yet I sometimes
caught a look in the corner of her eye that never
belonged to a saint.”
Good Marriages: Love, Not Money
Blaming Male Employers’ Own
Desire for Sexualizing the Office
Blaming Male Employers’ for
Sexualizing the Office
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Eliza Burnz: “Often our Employment Bureau
receives, with the request for a stenographer,
‘Send a good-looking girl;’ and, when several
are sent, instead of giving each a trial, the
selection for the place is made solely from
personal appearance.”
Advice Promoting Plain Looks
“The pretty girl is not generally the lady that her
plainer sister seems to be, and for that reason
does not hold the admiration…of the practical
business man.”
Short Story Equating Plainness and
Competence
“Bidlington’s Miss Stubbs”
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“as plain a girl as the crier on his round would
be likely to encounter in an hour’s march.
Cross-eyed a little, too.”
Advice on Appropriate Work Attire
Advice on Appropriate Work Attire
Advice on Appropriate Attire
Ambivalence about Looks of
Heroines: “Brown’s Amanuensis”
Ambivalence about Looks of
Heroines: “Brown’s Amanuensis”
“almost plain”
“irregular features”
“but this was offset by a piquancy of expression
that rendered her face attractive.”
“a winner”
Ambivalence about Looks of
Heroines: “Brown’s Amanuensis”
“She made a charming picture as she stood
there, a small, black toque surrounded her
head, a fur boa around her throat,...That
gentleman, for the first time in his life, lost his
head completely,...”
Love of Fashion:
Harriet Louise Husted (Lynch),
A Little Game with Destiny
“creme colored crepe de chine,” “yellow tulle
gown,” “garnet velvet dress,” to the “pale pink
silk frock.”
“pale blue [frock] with sprays of embroidered
daisies, and a huge bunch of Marguerites....”
Wearing Stylish Clothing
Mixing Fashion and Work