Page:Side talks with girls (1895).djvu/43

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Girl Life in New York City
31

account in very small sums, say fifty cents at a time. The burden of debt is about her neck; if she is an honest girl she will do as I have suggested; if not, she will leave the boarding-house in disgrace, go to a different neighborhood, possibly do exactly the same thing there, and as the descent is always rapid, she will in time lose all feeling of honor as far as money is concerned. True, poverty has brought her to that condition, but did she not seek that special state?

SUPPOSE YOU ARE SICK

That you are good to each other, you working girls, when trouble comes is undeniable, but, oh, you have so little to be good with! You cannot even give of your time, for it does not belong to you. It is possible that there is a society in your store to which each one contributes twenty-five cents a month; then when you are sick you receive from three to five dollars, but your board goes on just the same, your wages from the store do not come, there is possibly a doctor, certainly medicine, but, if you have a long illness, the possibility that your place has been filled stares you in the face. There is no time to look after ill people in the work-a-day world. Everyone of your comrades may be sorry for you, may do her best to help you out, but they can neither re-