The day book. [volume], May 09, 1914, LAST EDITION, Image 2

About The day book. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1911-1917

Image provided by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

                
on $6 a week pai4 her by R R. Don
nelly & Sons, printers.
And they found
who works at Hillman's big depart
ment store by day.
In another room they .found little
, thrown across
the bed, weeping out her shame vio
lently and hysterically. She stum
bled and fell when she tried to hur
dle the" barrier of low wages between
her and a decent living which was
raised by The Fair.
And there was , a
brown-eyed kiddy, who should havfe
been home with her parents. She
worked as a domestic by day. She
explained in court that she used to
be a department store girl, but it
broke her down.
The owner of the hotel, Charles G.
Strauss, was arrested ,as were four
men.
They were arraigned in court the
next morning and lie case continued
until yesterday. All that time the girl
who worked at Donnelley's lay in jail,
ashamed to notify her relatives or
friends. And the man who was
caught with her, George Johnson, re
fused to help her get bonds.
In the Morals Court yesterday
there was a significant silence when
the four girls stepped up before Judge
Goodnow. They had none of the sul
len defiance of the professional pros
titute. Instead there was a look of dull
pain in the eyes of the four and an
appearance of deep contrition. They
looked somewhat as Mary Magdalene
must have looked that day on the
Mount of Olives when she was
brought before Christ.
They offered no excuse. They
didn't even speak of low wages until
Prosecutor George L. Reker saw a
light and guessed the fundamental
cause. Then the story was brought
out
In pitiful, broken tones they told of
their struggle; of how they had to
deny themselves of the little things
of life that bring happiness.
They told of staying in nights be
cause they were afraid to let their
girl friends see 'them in shabby
clothes.
And then each girl told the story
o her fall. The story of each was
the same, except in mere details.
And, except in mere details, the
story has been told over and over
again in The Pay Book.
There was the unbearable econo
mic pressure. And then when the girl
was weakened from the battle the
"old timer" appeared and explained
the "easiest way." The old timer
knows. She, too, faced it when she
was a girlie and she has suffered
from the effect of law wages.
These girls hadn't gone far along
the patch. Each of them still re-,
tained her job in the day. And in
the evening each one dragged her
tired body into the cabarets and other
places and tried to assume the" false
gayety of other surroundings.
Prosecutor Reker did the white
thing. He forgot that he was "Mr.
Prosecutor" and remembered he was
a man.
"These girls are not to be blamed,"
he said. "We're getting cases like
this. Girls with their nerve gone
after trying to live on rotten wages.
The crime is not theirs. It lies some
where else. And the police will not
get the evidence by arresting shady
hotels, but by looking into the girls'
pay envelopes as the.y leave the stores
and factories Saturday night."
Then Judge Goodnow thought for
a few moments and concluded that
as the "written law had been violat
ed" there should be some punish1
ment He fined each of the girls $1
and xosts and ordered the four men
who had been found with the girls to
pay the fines. Each of the four men
were fined $10 and costs with the ex
ception of George Johnson, who was
fined $25 and costs when he objected
to paying the fine of the girl caught
with him. '
Strauss, the (.owner of the hoteL
waa given a severe lecture for allow-
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