Читать книгу Other Worlds - Lena Jane Fry - Страница 7

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There is a direct law of attraction that very few people recognize. In the beginning of the society, if Tom Vivian had been told that he would marry soon, he would have scorned the idea. “I am devoted to the cause of the people,” he would have told you, “and I have no time to devote to love affairs,” and yet he was the first to succumb. Nellie Gaylord was a friend of Scoris Vivian, and when the society was started she took an active interest in it. It was soon seen that Tom Vivian referred oftener to Nellie’s opinion than he did to others in cases of importance, until he believed that she was necessary to the success of the society. That he was in love no one doubted, and it was a satisfaction to many members when they were able to say: “Didn’t I tell you so? Oh, you can’t fool me.”

Nellie’s life had been a sad one in some respects before she became identified with the society, then everything changed for the better. She had some one to love, honor, yes, almost worship, in Tom Vivian. I am going back in her life, though, to the time when she was earning her living before she was married. She had been a stenographer and when her eyesight troubled her she found that she would have to take employment in something that would require less application. At this time she was in a factory where she was head forewoman over a large number of girls, all running power sewing machines, making ladies’ underwear. Her duty was to inspect the work and see that no one wasted time. She sometimes regretted that she had to work among a class who never seemed to think of anything beyond pay-day or “their fellows,” as they expressed it. The idea of bettering their condition never seemed to enter their mind unless it was perhaps some day to marry a rich man like some other girl they had heard of. To marry one day was fully expected, but pay-day generally outweighed all other considerations. Today, however, she was thinking of herself as this was her twentieth birthday and it brought up the sad memories of a time when her mother used to remember it by some little gift, or her father would arrange to take her to some amusement in honor of the occasion. Now both had gone from her and she was among a lot of girls to whom she thought she couldn’t possibly talk of the things that interested her most. She looked up presently and saw two girls holding out a silk waist for the admiration of their friends. “I am thirty-six bust measure and will try it on if you like,” she said, as they were looking at her after asking who was that measurement.

“Oh, what a pretty waist; whose is it?” she asked. Their mother’s birthday present, they told her, which would be next day and the mother would never suspect they had walked to and from work every day for two months to save car fare, and had done without fruit or cake for their lunch, just to be able to make it their own present. “For you see we give her all we earn and it is all we three have to live upon, and she makes it spin out someway by earning a little, sewing when she can get it to do, but she does our sewing and washing and takes care of the home, so this is something she will prize, and we are so glad we could get it in time,” they explained.

“Well, girls, you are lucky to have a mother, and your mother is to be congratulated for having two such self-denying daughters. I lost my mother just two years ago and this is my birthday.” One of the girls took her hand and held it lovingly, while both remarked how nice she looked in the waist and hoped their mother would look as well.

Mary Smith, the only support of the family.

This little incident, born of sympathy, the touch of the hand, the kindness to the mother, spoke volumes to Nellie, and she and the sisters became friends. She had felt alone when she first came into the factory. When one spends long, weary hours with people who have different ideas, life is more lonely than if one were in a solitary place.

She had been considered reserved, or “proud,” as some had called her, but her quiet, firm manner had been her main recommendation to the head of the firm. She acquired a great liking for many of the girls, however, as their little difficulties came under her notice. Their hardships with poverty, although never called by that name, were borne so bravely. The insults they endured from girls employed in offices or stores on their way home at night, the sneers and the drawing of their clothes aside for the fear of coming in contact was enough to make them feel inferior, even though they were not. To Nellie this was abominable, for labor is labor, in the banking house, store or factory, in the home, or anywhere, and should be respected.

One day a little cash girl had been hurt by a street car. The newspapers told how this little child of eleven years was the only member of a family of four who was earning anything, and all she got was two dollars a week; how she lived two miles from her work and had to walk each way, then run from eight in the morning until six at night.

When one evening while returning home the accident occurred. It was pitiful to hear her cry after her ankle had been attended to, for the pain was not the worst part of her trouble. Oh! if she should lose her employment, what would they do at home? she cried. Baby Bob couldn’t have his milk. Why, they couldn’t have any food at all. Her anxiety about the money touched the girls’ sympathy who were taking her home. They had carried her to the car and were trying to comfort her.

The girls found an old frame building that had been abandoned as unsafe, propped up to keep it from falling. There were no lights and voices were heard asking what had happened. They got her to bed, still in the dark, and no one offered to help. Through sobs that shook the whole building, the mother explained that she couldn’t move because of rheumatism. The father was also too weak to do anything and the baby cried because Mary and his mother were crying. The girls went home for their mother and a light and when they returned saw the most pitiful sight they had ever seen. Four helpless people, and not enough food in the house to satisfy the hunger of one.

The Healey girls did not forget little Mary Smith, the cash girl, but said nothing at the time in the factory. Every few days they went to see that she was not in need and did all they could for the family. Mrs. Healey soon drew the story of their wretched life from them, and their gratitude to her and her daughters was the opening of a friendship that only those who have gone through such misery can realize its strength.

John Smith, the father, had been a builder and carpenter, and though he was a first-class workman and his labor had helped to build some of the best homes in the city, yet he had only a condemned shell to die in, for dying he was, from the effects of poverty, sickness and inability to get work. This last stroke of misfortune, Mary becoming helpless, at least for a time, was too much for his shattered nerves and two days afterwards he died. The shock had been so great that both mother and child were stunned as well as helpless. They had one comfort, he at least had not been separated from them, which had been his greatest fear. Many times he had laid on his bed, unable to escape the cold winds that blew through cracks in the wall or the rain that fell through the roof. There was no comfort for him unless it was being with his loved ones and they knew if the authorities discovered his condition, he would be taken away and possibly they would never see each other again.

Before coming to this place, the Smiths had been unable to pay their rent, the husband had been ill for more than a year; so one day feeling better than usual, had gone for a walk. When he returned, he found all their possessions on the sidewalk, the door shut against them and nowhere to go. His wife was away washing. He saw the things they treasured scattered around at the mercy of any one and was too weak to gather them up. All he could do was to watch them until some kindly neighbors came and moved them to this old ramshackle place.

When Mary came home at night, weary, footsore and worn out, there was no warm supper to cheer her, not even a shelter, and it was some time before she found her parents and Bob. Poor little soul, she had been forgotten in the efforts of getting the household goods under cover before night. All events till now were dated back to this last degradation. The mother had become unable to work since then, and now even Mary was helpless. What would they do? It was a trial an older person might find hard to bear, but a child of eleven years looked upon it in desperation.

“Surely there must be something wrong with our whole social structure,” Nellie had thought when the girls told her the next day. “What can we do to help in such cases? Simply nothing. We have all we can do to earn enough to exist ourselves.”

Fortunately the city sent help, and as the girls talked it over in the large work room, it was rather interesting to hear the old wornout ideas get their quietus as a quiet, pale-faced girl sitting in a corner by herself remarked, “But this was not a case of drinking or laziness, but misfortune caused from ignorant management in the affairs of our city and we may say, in our country itself. Employment should be provided for all, then such things wouldn’t occur.”

“Well,” one of the girls said, “we never receive charity and I don’t believe any one needs to become so poor as to need help from the city.”

“I don’t see why they shouldn’t,” the pale-faced girl continued, “when they are the ones who contribute all their labor to provide, not only for themselves, but their employer besides, and make it possible for the city to have a fund for that purpose.”

This caused a general roar of laughter from most of the girls. The bell rang. Work began and was continued for the rest of the day, but the next day some one of the girls asked her what she meant, and Nellie, seeing them a little excited, joined them also. Then she said that Annie, which was the girl’s name, was right.

“We are all employed by Mr. Forbes. He pays us so much for our labor or time. Well, he has to have a large profit, or it wouldn’t pay him to hire us. Out of our labors, he has to pay rent, support his family and see that he gets sufficient interest on his capital. All this comes out of our labor. He merely manages the buying and selling and it does not end here; his landlord has to have the rent to pay taxes and receive his living. That is what Annie meant. Who do you think is most dependent, Mr. Forbes, or us?”

“Why, we are,” they all exclaimed.

“No, you are wrong. We could take our sewing machines at home and earn just as much as we do here, if the market was assured us. He could not earn single-handed what we earn for him, we three hundred girls, don’t you see? Now in this case you have been so interested in, that man has built a large number of homes right here in this city and yet he was unable to even have the use of one to die in, let alone to live in. Girls, I belong to a society that some time I would like you to visit. It would help you to solve some of the problems of life, that no one has a right in these days to shirk, for it is our industry and every other working person’s that keeps the machinery running, not only of the factories, but of the cities.”

“Then we sent money and provisions to keep that family from starving,” one of the girls remarked, “even though we did it unconsciously.”

“Yes, all who work do their share towards paying the taxes and when the society called ‘The Wealth Producing and Distributing Society’ is stronger and been in operation twenty or fifty years, we will cease to have human beings living at the mercy of so-called charitable institutions, poorhouses, or, worse still, starving to death, as they are at the present time. There is another thing, girls, that I want to tell you; whenever you are called ‘factory girls,’ as you are so often by shop girls, just keep a dignified silence. Your labor is just as necessary as theirs and if you only considered it a little, you are of as much importance also. Every intelligent person should honor his own industry and remember that he is fulfilling his mission in life, and if all did so, heartaches would cease. Any bright person would do the best he could under existing circumstances and would even raise conditions which he considered beneath his dignity to his own level, as you may learn if you join our society. Respect yourselves and address each other as you do Mr. Forbes. Learn to appreciate yourselves, your advantages, and then create new opportunities as your ability points out the way. All useful employment is honorable, and now is the time to raise labor to its proper dignity among all honorable people.”

Many of those girls not only attended the meetings, but joined the society. Even Mr. Forbes, who owned the business, saw that he could do better by becoming one of them, so he became a member and eventually moved out to the Colony.