New York (N.Y.) -- Description and travel; New York (N.Y.) -- Social conditions
“No,” replies the daughter. “Three of us can’t work in one room. It’s
against the law. Only one. He says that only one can work in this room.”
“How!” he exclaims, as the little girl goes on making vaguely apparent
what these orders are. As she proceeds the old fellow’s face changes.
His wife leans forward, her whole attitude expressive of keen,
sympathetic anxiety.
“No vork?” he repeats. “I do no more vork?”
“No,” insists the inspector, “not with three in one room.”
The Hungarian puts out his right leg, and it becomes apparent that an
injury has befallen him. Words he pours upon his daughter, who explains
that he has been a pushcart peddler but has received a severe injury to
his leg and cannot walk. Helping to sew is all that he can do.
“Well,” says the inspector when he hears of this, “that’s too bad, but
I can’t help it. It’s the law. You’ll have to see the department about
it. I can’t help it.”
Astonished and distressed, the daughter explains, and then they sit in
silence. Five cents a pair is all they have been able to earn since
the time the father became expert, and all they can do, working from
five in the morning until eleven at night, is two dozen pairs a day--in
other words, to earn seven dollars and twenty cents a week. If they
delay for anything, as they often must, the income drops to six, and
quite often to five, dollars. Two dollars a week is their tax for rent.
“So!” says the father, his mouth open. He is too deeply stricken and
nonplussed to know what to do. The mother nervously turns her hands.
“You hear now,” says the inspector, taking out a tag and fastening it
upon the goods--“no more work. Go and see the department.”
“How?” asks the father, staring at his helpless family after the door
has closed.
How indeed!
In the same round the inspector will come a little later to the shop
from which the old Hungarian secured the trousers for finishing. He
is armed with full authority over all of these places. In his pocket
lie the tags, one of which he puts on a lot of clothing just ordered
halted. If that tag is removed it is a penal offense. If it stays
on no one can touch the goods until the contractor explains to the
factory inspector how he has come to be giving garments for finishing
to dwellers in tenements who have not a license. This is a criminal
offense on his part. Now he must not touch the clothes he sent over
there. If the old Hungarian returns them he must not accept them or
pay him any money. This contractor and his clients offer a study in
themselves.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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