Evening star., 1909-04-11


grayish slate color they worked almost in the same
mechanical fashion as the machines.
Every day except Saturday lit was Jewish shop
they were at their grinding task 1t was always the
same-no variation in the sad monotony of their
lives At in the morning they lifted the hoods
from the tops of the machines, threaded the auto
matte needles. and began sewing the seams OF the
strips of cloth that the foreman dropped by the side
of each workman As garment was finished.
a cut of cloth inserted beneath the drop of
the needle it passed above the groove into which the
needle fell and then added the everincreasing
pile of finished work the floor.
Not even in the pattern was there suggestion of
the same lines and cut by mechanical process in
the cutting room. Small boys and women. of the
grayish slate compilations. came in and out of
the door, huge bundles of cloth on their shoulders.
The odor of cigarette smoke filled the long. oblong
loft divided by rickety partitions into the cutting,
sponging, and sewing rooms. Through the open Win
dows, gusts of air laden with cnders scraped the
faces of the toers and deposited their loads of
on flesh, garments, and on the walls that had lost
their original whiteness long ago At intervals the
rattle of the elevated trains drowned the humming
of the machines.
THE same tune, always the same came from the
throats through which the needles, like sharp
steel tongues pierced the moving cloth. Sometimes
the tempo little slower sometimes little faster
the operators foot treaded the pedal. 1t was
song of work unrernittng unvarying in its cadences
the melody of which the lives of the human bees in
the gloomy hive of industry were being steadily
Sumed.
Through the long hours of the day, through the
days of the week through the weeks of the year and
through the years,-to the end they guided the
strips of cloth the breadth of the machines
twelve hours day, every day except Saturday. Oc-
casionally man dropped out, and new face took
his pace,-a fresh youthful face, with lustrous eyes
and rosy cheeks rejecting the health of the farm in
the old country. And gradually the cheeks lost their
bloom the shoulders became stopped the head bent
and the eyes faded into dullness if the fire of the
soul being snothered in the blanket of work that
EMBODIED it.
When the noon whistle blew in the adjacent fac
tory, the song of the machines ended abruptly but
the pause short, for the men paid by piece
work. Two slices of bread with layer of garlic and
small tin pail of coffee, comprised their lunch
Sometimes the sandwich contained thin cuts of meat
the eavngs of last nights supper usually it
was bread, and garlic and cotfee,-the same monot-
ony in food in toll
Only on exceptionally clear days they able to
work without gaslight; for the obstructng elevated
structure in the narrow slit between two rows of
dlapidated houses which misnamed a street, cut
off the rays of the like black canopy And un-
der the glare of the yellow flames by which they
worked, their eyes grew DINNER and DINNER until
only the most youthful ones able to follow the
stitches without glasses.
NEAR the window in the front line of machines,
- Isaac Moscowitz was following the of
half finished garment with his thumb carefully
watching each stitch His eyes were uncertain in the
burriag light. the whites of the orbs covered with
network of red veins. He used his thumb much as
his eyes; for misstitch might the spelling of
the garment and the consequent docking of his pay
When the last slit of cloth from the pile his left
had passed beneath the needle, he didn't call for
more work Instead he placed the cover over the
top of the mechanism and made his way past the line
of workers to the foreman.
It's Esthers Jahrsei," he whispered. his voice
husky from the dust that lined his throat there
fore am going home little earlier to-day. When
one has lost daughter he should neglect burn
the little lamp the anniversary of her DEATH
if it is the busy season.
The foreman understood 1t was two years since
the memorable day when Isaac stood in the middle of
the room, his hands untitled in solemn invocation
of in he call hat
began with s. Hear ye o Israeli and commanded all
to take notice that his DAUGHTER Esther had passed