l the clothing she had. The burden of her
support evidently fell heavily upon him and upon the poverty-stricken
family of her hostess. And Sonia was in deep discouragement. She was
about to go away from New York in hopes of finding work in Syracuse.

Getta Bursova, an attractive Russian girl of twenty, had worked for eight
years--ever since she was twelve. She had been employed as a waist
operative for six years in London and for two in New York.

Here she worked nine and a half hours daily in a factory on Nineteenth
Street, earning $5 to $6 a week. Of this wage she paid her sister $4 a
week for food and lodging in an inside tenement room in very poor East
Side quarters, so far from her work that she was obliged to spend 60
cents a week for carfare. In her busy weeks she had never more than $1.40
a week left, and often only 60 cents, for her clothing and every other
expense.

Getta had been idle, moreover, for nearly six months. During this time
she had been supported by her sister's family.

In spite of this defeat in her fortunes, her presence had a lovely
brightness and initiative, and her inexpensive dress had a certain
daintiness. She was eager for knowledge, and through all her busy weeks
had paid 10 cents dues to a self-education society.

Nevertheless, her long dull season was a harassing burden and
disappointment both for herself and her sister's struggling family.

Betty Lukin, a shirt-waist maker of twenty, had been making sleeves for
two years. For nine months of the year she earned from $6 to $10 a week;
for the remaining three months only $2 a week. Her average weekly wage
for the year would be about $6. Of this she spent $3 a week for suppers
and a place in a tenement to sleep, and about 50 cents a week for
breakfast and luncheon--a roll and a bit of fruit or candy from a push
cart. Her father was in New York, doing little to support himself, so
that many weeks she deprived herself to give him $3 or $4.

She spent 50 cents a week to go to the theatre and 10 cents for club
dues. She had, of course, very little left for dress. She looked ill
clad, and she was, naturally, improperly nourished and very delicate.

Two points in Betty's little account are suggestive: one is that she
could always help her father. In listening to the account of an organizer
of the Shirt-waist Makers' Union, a man who had known some 40,000 garment
workers, I exclaimed on the hardships of the trade for the number of
married