Didactic fiction; Political fiction; Social problems -- Fiction
But all her uncle's and aunt's denunciations could not persuade Yetta
that Miss Brail was evil. Morning and evening, as she went out to work
and came home, she stopped a moment on her doorstep to note the progress
of rehabilitation in the house across the way. What the East Side calls
the "parlor floor" had formerly been a store. Its great plate-glass
window was cleaned and a heavy curtain was stretched across the lower
half, so that people on the sidewalk could not look in. White dimity
curtains were hung in the upstairs windows. The fine old front door was
painted white, the rusted banister of the steps was replaced by a new
and graceful one of polished steel. Before long the "residents" moved
in. Their arrival coincided with the appearance of beautiful potted
plants inside the windows.
Although the screen hid the front parlor from the street, it was not
high enough to hide it from the windows of the Goldstein's flat. From
that vantage-point Yetta learned the routine of evening work in the
Settlement. A bulletin-board beside the door helped her to put names to
the things she saw. On Monday nights there were meetings of "The Martha
Washington Club." They were young women of her own age, and Miss Brail
presided. There was generally some "uptown woman" who spoke or sang to
the girls. This part of the evening's entertainment lasted until nine,
then they grouped about Miss Brail at the piano and practised some
choral music. They ended with half an hour's dancing and went home a
little after ten. Tuesday night there was a club of boys. Wednesday
night a class in sewing. Thursday night "The Abraham Lincoln Debating
Club" held forth. Most of them were young men in the early twenties, but
a few were older. On Friday there was a "Mothers' Club," and on Saturday
night a magic-lantern show.
At last it came time for the monthly dance. Yetta had noticed the
announcement on the bill-board several days before. On the eventful
night she pretended to be sleepy and went to bed early, but as soon as
Rosa began to snore she wrapped herself in her shawl and a blanket and
tiptoed out into the front room to watch the ball. The Martha Washington
Club had turned out in force, dazzlingly beautiful in their best
clothes. The black-suited young men of the debating club also looked
very wonderful to the hungry-eyed girl who watched it from afar. As was
the strange custom of The Krists, the big window was opened although it
was mid-February, and the sound of the four-piece orchestra and the
laughter came up, unobstructed, to Yetta's ears.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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