Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-01-29
HANDSOME ROSE LEWIS
WARNS GIRLS OF DRINK
Old Offender Tells How and
Where She Took Her First
and What 1t Meant
WANTS ANOTHER CHANCE
Sent to House of Correction Forty
Times, but Now Asks Place to
Work in Country Home

Rose was pretty She was eighteen. and
she loved a good time just like any other
normal girl But she did not know what
constituted a harmless good time,
And today, twcnty-one years later.
white-haired woman. aged before her time.
she starts another term in the House Of
Correction for drinking. She has been COM
mitted there more than forty times since
she, the belle of her crowd in Holmesburg.
her home town, went out in quest of a good
time, entered a cafe and took her first
drink It was the sort of cafe, catering
20 young folks that Helen O'Eane told
about in the Magistrates court in Ardmore
Saturday. Helen says she can get a drink
anywhere in Philadelphia, and she Is only
seventeen.
At the House Of Correction. on the Della
ware, workers shake their heads at men,
tion of the name of Rose Lewis.
Poor Rose" they say. she cannot help
It now 1t is too bad And she is such
a flne-looking woman, too. But booze got
her No matter how she tries IT gets her.
When she is here and cannot buy drink
she Is all right But when she gets out
where she can buy or be treated she is
not responsible And it is not long before
she is back with us again
RAVAGES OF DISSIPATION
Rose, despite dissipation, is a iuc-look-
ing woman, 5yan in House of Correction
garb, in the strafght-cut ugly prison clothes,
she is attractive. She has snowy hair.
fluffy and regal She walks with ~ dis
.tnctive tread She has lovely blue eyes,
but the circles under them dctract from
their beauty SHE is refined in appearance,
speaks in a wcll-modulated voice and uses
good English She is remarkable woman,
even If drink has left its ravagcs and left
her old at thrty-nne, Holmesburgs old
resldenters speak Of her as one Of the prct-
test girls in town when she was young.
Rose herself did not realize the path she
had trodden or the path hundreds Of
thoughtless Philadelphia girls are taking
until asked by a reporter to tell how it all
happened. Then she said she saw for the
first time what that first glass had meant.
At first she refused to talk about her
self When told her words OF warning
might save other girls she consented to
tell how she took her first drink.
II took my first drink-it was only beer
when | was eighteen" she said, "In my
time | have had many other kinds of
drink. | was in school then. going to
Eden Hall for Girls at Torrcsdalc. My
people were not wealthy, but | had Il
good home | wanted good time.
used to have lots of attention. ! went out
with men often ! had steady but it
was not he who asked me to have my
first drink, | was out in q cafe one even
ing with man, He asked me to have
q drink | did not think anything about
It. Other girls did it. | did not know.
So | took my first drink That led to
others. oh, yes, | have been here num-
bcr of times. But when ! get out ! will
never touch drink again. realize what
It has done to nre. | am through with it,"
WANTS ANOTHER CHANCE
Each time she leaves the House or Cor
Tectlon she goes with the same resolution
But her weakened will power cannot with
stand temptation Eventually the police
have to take her up again. and the Eagis-
trate has to send her out of drinks way
When one talks to Rose he instinCtivcly
thinks what might have becn--what a
womanly woman might have developed from
little Rose Lewis, had the thoughlcss school
girl never entered Il cafe and taken that
first drink.
Rose has been committed for three months
this time by Magistrate Dc!t2, of the
Twenty fourth District. AT Easter time She
will be out She has no home and she
wants chance She says she would like
to go to the country and work in a home
where there is no liquor.
She is a maid of all works. washes,
scrubs cleans and says she Is Il good cook
If given a chance in good home with no
tiquor to tempt her Rose says she is sure
she "can make good this time" She feels
this is a chance for temperance workers
TO do some real practical Christian work.