Newark leader. ([Newark, Ohio]) 1917-1946, 1920-02-06

She was SeVenteen-year-Old err
rand girl to whom life had become
| Just one ten-dOllar-a-week job after
another. At length she added poor
little job of thieving to her record of
"makin' living" running errands-
and thereby pulled the strings for a
whole Grand Opera show. The Con-
stitution of the United States, the
Department of Labor, a sobbing
mother, judges, policemen, probation
officers and choruses innumerable of
journalists, employers, lawyers, and
commissioners all danced, gesticu-
lated, argued, fought, scrambled, and
spent public funds, in mad unison,
because of Mildred Larson.
! Behind the scenes, humbly pulling
the strings with every move she made
IN her desperate little career, you can
hear her singing her plaintive song,
whose burden the chorus of journalists
takes up and multiplies a thousand
! fold for all the world to hear:
"I never did wrong thing before
never did a wrong thing before,
And I've never been happy since | took
What didn't belong to me; but if you
| Only understood what a problem life
| Has been,
Earning SO and trying to stretch it
| To pay rent and board and carfare!
"Why, | worked in a gum factory
For of while,
And | ate the gum for lunch,'
Because | was hungry and didn't have
! Money enough
To buy what | needed to eat.
"You can't get a good job,
! Or be treated with respect,
| Unless you dress well.
I was so tired of being snubbed,
And turned down when | asked for a
Good job!
used to watch the girls write on
lTypewriters where | worked,
And wish | could get education enough
To run a typewriter.
"Gee, if l could only go to school
And learn something!
81 can't get room that's clean
For less than $3.50 or $4.0U a week.
Here is what l use my money for:
Breakfast ......................l5 cents
Lunch ..........................30 cents
Dinner ...........................50 so cents
Rent .S4 Ga week)
Carfare .........................84 cents
Total, per week ..........$11.49
"That doesn't include tooth paste,
Soap or laundry,
Which l do at night after work.
1t doesn't include a movie now and
Then-or any candy or any clothes.
I'll bet the folks that arrested me
Couldn't live on that, and
They're older and wiser than | am.
81 ran errands at the Standard Club,
And the watchman told me
That if / took the club silver,
He would dispose Of it.
Ny share was $40,
And the watchman left the city.
| got a $50 coat, fancy electric
Hot water bottle, some
Pink underclothes, manicure set,
And a record against me.
"But if you knew how hard I've tried
To look neat and stylish
A lady gave me hat.
| saw a picture in the paper
Of hat with funny feathers on it.
| went to the ten-cent store and got
Some feathers
And made a hat like that.
Ive sewed and fixed over everything
| could get, but clothes get dirty
When YOU work in a citV.
"Once got job running the elevator
At 1841 South Wabash Avenue,
And | worked from 7 in the morning
Until II at night, for SIS week,
So | could get some clothes.
| got $50 and gave $40 to my mother,
Mrs. Mary Hendricks,
Who lives in that building,
And then she told me to get out.
"Whatever the Juvenile Court does
With me, l hope it puts me
Whore / can get some education.
want to be somebody, but
(Here Mildred weeps contritely)
You can't be anybody on SO week.
The chorus of journalists now sub
sides into passing hat, through the
columns of the daily newspapers, for
this ONE out of all the Mildred Lar
sons in every Great City, while the
policemen and probation officers, led
by a Prosecuting Attorney, in neat
blue costumes glittering with stars,
are heard in the background, chant
ing
"She's fully eightee-een!
She's fully eigh-eigh-teen!"
Then, with vast, unanimous shrug
of their shoulders, they burst out in