The sturdy oak : $b a composite novel of American politics by fourteen American authors
General
The sturdy oak : $b a composite novel of American politics by fourteen American authors
New York (State) -- Fiction; Political fiction; Satire; Suffragists -- Fiction; Women -- New York (State) -- Fiction; Women -- Suffrage -- Fiction
Betty and E. Eliot had pointed out to her that she knew nothing of the
conditions in her own town. They assured her that it was as much her
duty to know about such things as to know the condition of her own back
yard.
Then came the awful revelations of Kentwood--human beings huddled
like rats; children swarming, dirty and hungry! She could not bear to
remember the scenes she had witnessed in Kentwood.
She recalled the shock of Alys Brewster-Smith's indifference to all that
misery! The widow's one instinct had seemed to be to fight E. Eliot and
the health officer for their interference. Stranger still, the tenants
did not want to be moved out, driven on. The whole situation was
confused, but in it at least one thing stood out clearly: Genevieve
realized, during the sleepless night after her visit to Kentwood, that
she hated Cousin Alys!
The following Sunday, when she put on her coat, she found a souvenir
of that visit in her pocket, a soiled reminder of poverty and toil. She
remembered picking it up and noting that it was the factory pass of
one Marya Slavonsky. She had intended to leave it with some one in the
district, but evidently in the excitement of her enforced exit she had
thrust it into her pocket.
This Marya worked in the factories. She was one of that grimy army
Genevieve had seen coming out of the factory gate, and she went home to
that pen which Cousin Alys provided. Marya was a girl of Genevieve's
own age, perhaps, while she, Genevieve, had this comfortable home, and
George! She had been blind, selfish, but she would make up for it, she
_would_! She would make a study of the needs of such people; she would
go among them like St. Agatha, scattering alms and wisdom. George might
have his work; she had found hers! She would begin with the factory
girls. She would waken them to what had so lately dawned on her. How
could she manage it? The rules of admission in the munition factories
were very strict.
Then again her eye fell upon the soiled card and a great idea was born
in her brain. Dressed as a factory girl, she would use Marya's card to
get her into the circle of these new-found sisters. She would see how
and where they worked. She would report it all to the Forum and to
George. She could be of use to George at last.
She remembered Betty's statement that at midnight in the factories the
women and girls had an hour off. That was the time she chose, with true
dramatic instinct.
She rummaged in the attic for an hour, getting her costume ready. She
decided on an old black suit and a shawl which had belonged to her
mother. She carried these garments to her bedroom and hid them there.
Then, with Machiavellian finesse, she laid her plans.
She would slip out of bed at half-past eleven o'clock, taking care not
to waken George, and she would dress and leave the house by the side
door. By walking fast she could reach by midnight the factory to which
she had admission.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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