The men do not appear to be aware even of the presence of a stranger. Coffee, potatoes, and pickles complete the list. On the next floor, in a dimly lighted room with a big red-hot stove to keep the pressing irons ready for use, is a family of man, wife, three children, and a boarder . The boarder pays sixty-five cents a week. He is really only a lodger, getting his meals outside.
Every floor has at least two, sometimes four, such shops.
Here is one with a young family for which life is bright with promise. Those who have stomachs like ostriches thrive in spite of them and grow strong plain proof that they are good to eat. No thought of untimely death comes to disturb this family with life all before it. In a few years the man will be a prosperous sweater. She is twelve, she says, and can neither read nor write, will probably never learn.