Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1921-05-23
Visitors VieU Inner Life
of Local Factory Girl
Living Conditions of FOrLorn Child = Mother
Bring Shoulders TO Those Well off,

How a white waist had emerged from
the grimy home was as much OF mys-
terry as the emerging of a pure, cleans
minded child from a tenement district
The probation officer soon had located
among a group Of chocolate dipp0rs"
the girl whose gosslpy tongue had lost
Fannie her place at the l. factory
FANNY LETS
OTHERS TALK.
''Yes'm," she was saying as their con<
versation drew to a close. At told the
girls in the other factory about Fannies
baby being adopted by strangers and
Fannie don't know where it is. But I
didn't think he'd fire her. I won't talk
about her no more"
Fannie was still talking with the two
women. Or rather, they were talking,
for Fannie had the self respecting
reticence Of the young animal traced by
1ntruders to its hiding place. Social
workers are familiar with this reluctance
on the part of the distressed to lay bare
the sickening details Of their Illuminating
poverty. They must often work long and
tactfully to break 1t down in order that
they may diagnose the CASE before pre-
scribing its cure
DIFFICULT TO BELIEVE
SHE WAS A MOTHER.
Turning to the probation Office one OF
the women said:
ut is difficult to believe that child
has been a mother. Ny sweet daughter
might have been in her place If had
died while she was young"
Yes" was the reply. and now that
Fannie does not have to worry about her
baby, she is free to-work, I suppose?"
Work" That was all there was in her
poor, starved life. All day long the
dipping of candy into its chocolate bed,
a bread andbutter sandwich at noon
and home" at o'clock.
what is the trouble, Fannie2 Why
do you not stay long at the places
where you work." the girl was asked.
If pain can shoot through the mind
as it does the body, the girl was suffer-
ing. All that saved her from a fash of
resentment toward her questioner was
the intuitive recognition Of the latter's
kindly motives.
DON'T THINK IT'S
ANY USE TRYIN'.7
"a woman down on R street is all
the time talking about me. She tells thu
girls about my baby, and they go and
tell the boss, and then he fires me. The
girls in the factory talk about me and
I can hear what they say. Sometimes
they don't want me to eat lunch with
them. l don't think it's any use tryin'."
1t was SO easy to give this child ad-
vice. The two north side women yielded.
The other knew how futile it was. She
lnew it was useless until the home and
working conditions had first been
changed.
But there was something that could
be done Immediately. The gossipping
tongues must be stopped.
The following day the probation Off
/ GER had hunted out the neighbor, who,
/ ike a poisonous snake, was spreading
broadcast the story Of Fannie's misfor-
tune. It was a case of Grass ignorance
with a touch OF malicious meddlesome-
ness. 1t was explained to her that
Fannie stood alone; that neither father
nor mother could ward off the blows
that ill-fortune was showering on her
/ defenceless head; that no one had told
her the danger.
REALIZES MISTAKE
OF GOSSIPING.
As the visitor was leaving the woman
looked UT from her wash tub long enough
to say: Yes m l know it amt right to
talk about Fannie She's, so young. She
never harmed me. Poor little girl.
never thought about it the way you say.
l guess she's had a hard time with that
pa o hers. Always drunk and cussin'
the fellers she brings to the house. She
sure has had a hard time"
Fannie has never been arrested.
| Do indianapolis mothers know that in
a group of girls to whose lips life held
the same cup of wormwoOd and gall that
/ Fannie's lips had quaffed, twenty-thres
out of forty-nine came from homes like
Fannie's; homes which poverty, filth.
/ sickness. ignorance, vicious habits, low
standards sent into the world children
pitifuIly susceptible to every influence Of
their enforced environment. Into this
environment, whether good or bad, and it
is usually bad, their footsteps lead them,
unfearing and unknowing.