The Long Day: The Story of a New York Working Girl, as Told by Herself — John Shaqi
The Long Day: The Story of a New York Working Girl, as Told by HerselfRichardson, Dorothy
History
The Long Day: The Story of a New York Working Girl, as Told by Herself
Richardson, Dorothy
Women -- Employment -- New York (State) -- New York -- History -- Sources
"Why don't you get a pretty name?" she asked, in a matter-of-fact tone.
"All the girls do it when they come to the factory to work. It don't
cost no more to have a high-sounding name."
Much interested, I protested, half in fun, that I didn't know any name
to take, and begged her to suggest one. She was silent for a moment.
"Well, last night," she went on--"last night I was reading a story about
two girls that was both mashed on the same feller. He was rich and they
was poor and worked, and one of them was called 'Rose Fortune.'"
"That's a very pretty name," I remarked.
"Isn't it, though? Rose Fortune--ever so much prettier than your own.
Say, why don't you take it, and I'll begin calling you by it right
away."
"And what's your name?" I ventured.
"Mine? Oh, mine's Henrietta Manners; only," she added hastily--"only
that's my real name. I was born with it. Now most of the girls got
theirs out of story-books. Georgiana Trevelyan and Goldy Courtleigh and
Gladys Carringford and Angelina Lancaster and Phoebe Arlington--them
girls all got theirs out of stories. But mine's my own. You see," and
she drew near that no other ear might hear the secret of her proud
birth--"you see, Manners was my mother's name, and she ran away and
married my papa against her rich father's wishes. He was a banker. I
mean mama's papa was a banker, but my papa was only a poor young
gentleman. So grandfather cut her off without a cent in his will, but
left everything to me if I would take the name of Manners."
The heroine of this strange romance stopped for breath, and if I had
cherished any doubts of the truth of her story in the beginning, at
least I was sure now that she believed it all herself; one glance into
her steady blue eyes, in which a telltale moisture was already
gathering, was proof of that.
"No, indeed," continued Miss Manners: "I haven't always been a
working-girl. I used to go to boarding-school. I thought I'd be a
governess or something, and once I tried to learn bookkeeping, but my
eyes give out, and the figures mixed up my brain so, and then I got sick
and had to come to this box-factory. But I'm the first Manners that ever
worked."
I was now thoroughly ashamed of my first unjust suspicions that
Henrietta might not be strictly truthful, and I inquired with sincere
interest as to the fate of her ill-starred family.
"All dead and sleeping in our family vault," she replied wistfully. "But
don't let us talk anything more about it. I get so worked up and mad
when I talk about the Mannerses and the way they treated me and my poor
parents!"
The threatened spell with Henrietta's nerves was averted by a sudden
turning on of the power, and the day's work began. Phoebe did not appear
to claim me, and I worked away as fast as I could to help swell
Henrietta's dividends.
"I guess you can stay with her the rest of the day," Annie Kinzer said,
stopping at the table. "The 'Moonlight Maids' must have been too much
for Phoebe. Guess she won't show up to-day."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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