Poor -- New York (State) -- New York; Social settlements
The girl who presents the most difficult problem in club life is the one
whose social impulses are dominant. Noise, activity, excitement, seem
inseparable from her presence. This type of girl arouses enthusiastic
friends. She leads because she is daring; because she does not in any
experience question results. One such girl had been studied for months.
There was a superficial response to the efforts to win her regard, but the
response was too transparent not to be understood. The girl would speak to
any man who looked at her. One day she was playing "tag" with the other
girls in front of the factory where she worked. A rag-picker pushing a cart
made some remark as he passed. The girl, Molly, gave a spring and alighted
on the man's shoulders like a cat. She clung there. He began to run, but he
could not throw her off. She twined her fingers in his hair, made him turn
back and carry her to the place where her shrieking, laughing companions
stood. She sprang off. Still holding the man, she made him get down on his
knees on the curb to the girls and apologize. Like a bird she flew to the
place where he had dropped his push-cart, and, pumping the handle up and
down to make the bells jingle, she brought it back to the man, still
exhausted by his unwonted exertions, and with a mocking bow placed the
handle of the cart in his hand. Then she stood up straight and ordered him
to move on, adding: "If you ever show your nose around here again, you'll
get more than you got this time." The man ran as if for his life.
Molly then turned and saw the friend whom she had promised she would be
more quiet on the street. Her face crimsoned as she came toward her. "I
could not help it. You don't know what he said. He won't never speak to
another girl minding her own business as he spoke to us. I won't tell you
what he said; it was too bad." The girl was about seventeen years old. She
had cut off her hair, and it was bleached. She wore the gayest hats, which
only served to emphasize the poverty and shabbiness of the rest of her
clothes. One day she passed her friend's house without a jacket. She ran,
holding her hands under her arms. Her jacket had been bought with money
earned by working overtime, a result secured by the most persistent effort
and argument.
Now the jacket was gone, and the slack season coming. As five o'clock
approached, the girl's self-appointed guardian took her station at the
window to watch for the girl on her way home. She came skipping along,
slapping her arms to keep warm. She entered the house reluctantly in
response to the call, "Where is your jacket, Molly?"
"I ain't cold. I ain't a bit cold."
"Where is your jacket?"
"Really and truly, I ain't cold. I'm thin, but I don't feel the cold as
much as other girls. I ain't a mite cold."
It was impossible for the girl to stand still. She was shivering with cold,
and her teeth, which were beautiful, were chattering. After a time the
explanation was given.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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