r and adopt their point of view, put ourselves in their
surroundings, assume their burdens, unite with them in their daily
effort. In this way alone, and not by forcing upon them a preconceived
ideal, can we do them real good, can we help them to find a moral,
spiritual, esthetic standard suited to their condition of life. Such an
undertaking is impossible for most. Sure of its utility, inspired by its
practical importance, I determined to make the sacrifice it entailed and
to learn by experience and observation what these could teach. I set out
to surmount physical fatigue and revulsion, to place my intellect and
sympathy in contact as a medium between the working girl who wants help
and the more fortunately situated who wish to help her. In the papers
which follow I have endeavoured to give a faithful picture of things as
they exist, both in and out of the factory, and to suggest remedies that
occurred to me as practical. My desire is to act as a mouthpiece for
the woman labourer. I assumed her mode of existence with the hope that I
might put into words her cry for help. It has been my purpose to find
out what her capacity is for suffering and for joy as compared with
ours; what tastes she has, what ambitions, what the equipment of woman
is as compared to that of man: her equipment as determined,

1st. By nature,
2d. By family life,
3d. By social laws;

what her strength is and what her weaknesses are as compared with the
woman of leisure; and finally, to discern the tendencies of a new
society as manifested by its working girls.

After many weeks spent among them as one of them I have come away
convinced that no earnest effort for their betterment is fruitless. I am
hopeful that my faithful descriptions will perhaps suggest, to the
hearts of those who read, some ways of rendering personal and general
help to that class who, through the sordidness and squalour of their
material surroundings, the limitation of their opportunities, are
condemned to slow death--mental, moral, physical death! If into their
prison's midst, after the reading of these lines, a single death pardon
should be carried, my work shall not have been in vain.

* * * * *

IN A PITTSBURG FACTORY

* * * * *

CHAPTER II

IN A PITTSBURG FACTORY

In choosing the scene for my first experiences, I decided upon
Pittsburg, as being an industrial c