OCR Interpretation


The day book. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1911-1917, April 01, 1913, Image 22

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Persistent link: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045487/1913-04-01/ed-1/seq-22/

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tractive, apparel nor .understand - our
.weariness. For the men who have
money'want a girl to be light-hearted"
always, attractive always, and we
cannot be' that when the day's workas
ended. - - ,
Frankly, I gave up that idea of
marrying quite a few years ago when
I. found what, a nerve strain it was to
be tHe care-free mortal I had to be to
attract.' And now I go comfortably
home at night, put my hair in curl
papers,"take off my working clothes
and don slippers and a kimona and
.rea'd. Iis lots .more fun.
Aricrthen Mr. Rubens said that as a
second -escape we might die, because
we..all have to do it sooner or later.
I felt anarchistic m thaf.momeht. . 3
Coldly; brutally,- withoutjone single,
shade Vf 'feeling, he said we might
die as a second escape,
f Andthethird escapewas the one
i the trustpapers are trying to dodge
s delinquency.
Mr. Rubens didn't like to talk about
that he seemed to think it was real
impolite for the members of the Vice
Commission to mention such a thing.
But he did tell that in his own fac
tory there are women and men
agents of the white jslave"' trust who
work side by side with the girls, or
who hang about the shops until
closing hour. "
And he told about one girl who
did go wrong.
Women took the witness chair
who were so shabbily dressed that the
tears came to my eyes, and they told
how they lived on $5 a week until the
Vice Commission sickened at the tale
and mercifully excused them.
- And these women were old,-and
some of them came from that, land of
oppression that is little worse than
the oppression in our own land from
Russia.
They had learned in their own.
country to live on almost nothing;
but in this land of the free they
found that food was only for the
purse of the richand. they admitted
thQistruggle .wasHbd; great.Tor them.
But how. cowed' they. were. They
did not dare tell where they were
employed. They shrugged their
shoulders with that indifferent ges
ture that becomes natural1 to a wo
man who cannot-solve.-her problems,'
arid they said .they did-ridt know, the
names of their employers. .
And even, the kind, questioning of .
Lieut. Gov. O'Hara and of Senator
Juul could riot remove the fear
placed in their hearts by their em
ployers -that td tellmeant the loss
of their positions. ",
But they did admit-that the day
spent at tie investigation would- be.
docked from, their, already miserable
pittance, and -the Vice, Commission
paid each, of them, a- dollar. t .
What is'jthe alchemy 'that turns :a
man into a heartless brute, when he
becomes- the employer- of woman
labor' and sees his "dollars pile up as
the. result of woman, starvation? .
These meir.have;wives 'and mothers
and sisters. Would they be quite so
indifferent If.' if were their own flesh
and-blood that told 'such 'harrowing
tales of hardship?
' I wonder!"' . - - '
HANDlCAf PEp
"That girl's on "the .stage:, She's
.high kicker, ibut yoxi wouldn't think.
ai
so. i r
'Not," notour tHat'dress?1

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