ng these workers, who cling to familiar haunts and
regard unknown regions with suspicion and even terror.

"I've no time for change," Rose said. "It might not be as certain when
I'd got it. I'll run no risks;" and she tugged her great bundle of work
up the stairs, rejoicing that living so near saved just so much on
expressage, a charge paid by the workers themselves.

There were signs well known to the old hands of a probable reduction of
prices, weeks before the first cut came. More fault was found. A slipped
stitch or a break in the thread was pounced upon with even more
promptness than had been their usual portion. Some hands were
discharged, and at last came the general cut, resented by some, wailed
over by all, but accepted as inevitable. Another, and another, and
another followed. Too much production; too many Jew firms competing and
under-bidding; more and more foreigners coming in ready to take the work
at half price. These reasons and a dozen others of the same order were
given glibly, and at first with a certain show of kindliness and attempt
to soften harsh facts as much as possible. But the patience of diplomacy
soon failed, and questioners of all orders were told that if they did
not like it they had nothing to do but to leave and allow a crowd of
waiting substitutes to take their places at half rates. The shirt that
had sold for seventy-five cents and one dollar had gone down to
forty-five and sixty cents respectively, and as cottons and linens had
fallen in the same proportion, there was still profit for all but the
worker. Here and there were places on Grand or Division Streets where
they might even be bought for thirty and forty cents, the price per
dozen to the worker being at last from fifty to sixty cents. In the
factories it was still possible to earn some approximation to the old
rate, but employers had found that it was far cheaper to give out the
work; some choosing to give the entire shirt at so much per dozen;
others preferring to send out what is known as "team work," flaps being
done by one, bosoms by another, and so on.

For a time Rose hemmed shirt-flaps at four cents a dozen, then took
first one form and then another of underclothing, the rates on which had
fallen in the same proportion, to find each as sure a means of
starvation as the last. She had no knowledge of ordinary family sewing,
and no means of obtaining such work, had any training fitted her for it;
domestic service was equal