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
The third and last venture of the energetic lady, and the one from which
she was to derive her largest percentage of revenue, was the
establishment of the place of which I had so recently become an inmate.
Of all three of Miss Jamison's boarding-houses, this was the largest and
withal the cheapest and most democratic: in which characteristics it but
partook of the nature of the particular sort of church-going public it
wished to attract, which was none other than the heterodox element which
flocked in vast numbers to All People's church. The All People's edifice
was a big, unsightly brick building. It had been originally designed for
a roller-skating rink.
All People's, as the church was colloquially named, was one of the most
popular places of worship in the city. Every Sunday, both at morning and
evening services, the big rink was packed to the doors with people who
were attracted quite as much by the good music as they were by the
popular preaching of the very popular divine. A large percentage of this
great congregation was recruited from the transient element of
population which lives in lodgings and boarding-houses. From its
democracy and lack of all ceremony, it was a church which appealed
particularly to those who were without ties or affiliations. Into this
sanctuary the lonely young man (or girl) of a church-going temperament
was almost sure to drift sooner or later if his probationary period of
strangerhood happened to fall in this section of the city.
The clever Miss Jamison put a sign bearing the legend, "All People's,"
on each of the doors of six houses, opposite the church, which she
acquired one by one as her business increased. The homeless and lonely
who came to All People's for spiritual refreshment, or to gratify their
curiosity, remained to patronize Miss Jamison's "special Sunday"
thirty-five-cent table d'hote, served in the basement of one house; or
bought a meal-ticket for four dollars, which entitled them to twenty-one
meals served in the basement of another of the houses; or for the sum of
five dollars and upward insured themselves the privilege of a week's
lodging and three meals a day served in still another of the basements.
Such is the history of Miss Jamison as detailed at the breakfast-table
that Sunday morning.
I went out for a walk late in the afternoon, and wandered about,
homesick and lonely. When I returned dinner was over and the dining-room
almost deserted, only a few remaining to gossip over their dessert and
coffee. At my table all had gone save the young girl with the dark eyes,
who, I felt instinctively, was a very nice and agreeable girl. As I
approached the table, she raised her eyes from the book she was reading
and gave me a diffident little bow, when, seeing I was so glad to
respond to it, she immediately smiled in a friendly way.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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