Page:Ten Days in a Mad-House (1887).djvu/117

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NELLIE BLY AS A WHITE SLAVE.
115

It’s all clear gain to the bosses. They say they often dismiss a girl after her first two weeks on the plea that she does not suit. After this I am to get $1.50 a week.”

When the whistles of the surrounding factories blew at 12 o’clock the forewoman told us we could quit work and eat our lunch. I was not quite so proud of my cleverness in simulating a working girl when one of them said:

“Do you want to send out for your lunch?”

“No; I brought it with me,” I replied.

“Oh!” she exclaimed, with a knowing inflection and amused smile.

“Is there anything wrong?” I asked, answering her smile.

“Oh, no,” quickly; “only the girls always make fun of any one who carries a basket now. No working-girl


FINISHING UP.

will carry a lunch or basket. It is out of style because it marks the girl at once as a worker. I would like to carry