uments and her picture of the coming day when the
worker should own the product of his toil. If the Jewish girl, however,
had made a personal appeal, if she had begged her to join the union not
for a principle but as a favor to herself, Annie would have walked to
headquarters and have put down her twenty cents; for she was a
spendthrift by nature and cared less for twenty cents than Sophie did
for one.

When the crash came it was a dramatic one. The "Parisian" girls had been
out for two weeks, the strikers demanding better pay, while the
employers tried to carry on their business with unskilled hands. Sophie
reported the situation each day at noon, and urged upon the "Imperial"
girls to stand by their striking sisters. Save with her own small group,
this argument missed fire. Nevertheless, the most of them were
interested in the struggle at the "Parisian" shop and watched hopefully
for the triumph of the strikers. On a Thursday morning in February, as
the girls began their work, the keener ones noted that there was a
difference in the stock. To Hertha it meant nothing, but to Sophie it
was portentous; and at noon, contrary to her custom, she rushed out into
the street. A few minutes before the noon hour was over she was back
again.

"Girls," she cried, hurrying into the room, "see, they give us scabs'
work!"

Standing by her machine, she waved her unfinished shirtwaist as though
it were an enemy banner. "It's 'Parisian,'" she cried, "there were not
enough scabs to do it in their own shop and so they sent it here! We are
breaking their strike, their strike for better pay!"

She spoke in Yiddish and the Jewish girls followed her excitedly,
expressing indignation at her news.

"We will strike, Sophie," her friend, Rachel, said. "We cannot do work
like this; it would be wicked."

Sophie again waved her enemy banner. "Will you be scabs?" she called
out, this time in English. "Do you not see? This is not our waist; it is
the 'Parisian.' I see the girls; they are downstairs, and they ask us to
stop, to stand by them as sisters."

"What's all this noise?" cried the foreman sternly as he entered the
room. And then without waiting for a response, though it was a few
minutes too soon, he threw on the power.

Sophie, Rachel, and a dozen other Jewish girls stood excitedly in the
aisle, failing to go to their seats.

"Get to work!" the foreman called above the din. Then thinking it
advisable to consult with a higher autho