The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-08-16
Ten Days in the Workhouse

! reply Ills uudJeSIy, IIe warden OF
the workhouse, whose hobbies, we
were informed, were dinners and ban
quets and card parties, and whose
table overlooked with all good things,
including certain stimulating and
; soothing delights, could make no ex-
ceptions for such lawless individuals
as strikers. This was prison, and we
were criminals. That settled the
matter. We waited a week for our
fruit, and then-But of that later.
Health Endangered
We Investigated our surroundings.
Our quarters were called the Annex.
Next to us was the Special Ward.
Here were supposed to be first
timers, and those not suffering from
any veneral disease-street walkers,
keepers of houses of prostitution,
pickpockets, drunkards, young ones,
old ones, all together. Upstairs were
the drug eaddicts, the colored ward,
the medical ward. Outside, in the
FLATS" were single cells for diseased
prostitutes, etc. We were compelled
to use their toilet, to wash our dishes
in the same ROOM
We learned much of what goes on
there in the workhouse. We heard
from those unfortunates stories to
make ones blood run cold Said one,
a young girl, arrested for prostitu-
ton, '"The next time l come here, it
will be for something real" And
another, with sly grin, "What I've
I I0ary1DI bnTsn I i
Said third, hard-boiled, Indifferent,
"They caught me again-this is the
second time I'm here. The next time
they'll have a harder time getting
me-"
And this is the House of Correction.
In these surroundings, no. doubt,
Judge Ewald thought we would be
cured of our criminal tendency to
strike, to picket. On the contrary, it
made US feel only the more keenly
the injustice existing in the present
system of society, the miserable fail
ure of millions of lives which capt.
talism is responsible for. 1t made
us even more eager to fight to put an
end to the system of exploitation and
oppression that makes such condi-
tions possible.
All of the regular inmates are given
some work to do. And here before
proceeding further, let me make a
confession. | am sure it will be very
disappointing to all who read this
tale of our experiences in the work
house; but cost what it may, the truth
must be told.
, No Work.
Many comrades have asked me, Did
they put you to work? What did YOU
all do? Perhaps it would be more
interesting to speak of chopping
wood, or cutting stones, or peeling
potatoes, scrubbing floors, and sew
ing prison uniforms. That would
surely lend more of glamour, an air
of romance, to our experience. But
alack and alas-we must admit the
sorrowful, prosaic fact We were not
) put to work. Physical labor didn't
cause our muscles to ache at. the end
of the day. We were ladies of
leisure, within the four walls of our
prison room
Our chief tasks was sweeping and
washing the floor, every morning
after breakfast. That, indeed, was a
sight to crafty the most exacting
housekeeper. Thirty girls, or more,
busy pushing beds aside, carrying
, pals of water, sweeping, hopping,
wringing-a real physical relief, in
which we all gladly joined. There
was no other work to give US. In
fact, we were bit of a puzzle to the
matrons, right from the start. They
had never dealt much with strikers
before. They didn't exactly know
what to do with us. But we taught
them, before we left, what a political
prisoner means.
But Hard Beds.
If our muscles didn't ache from
workhouse labor, they sched from
other causes. To sleep on those hard
cots, with only two thin blankets
separating us from the hard spring
was quite test of physical endur-
; ance. When we woke in the morn
ing, we felt every mark of the spring
on our backs and sides.
W. O1loCo ClldCS uCWGNGT. Ou6 OF
the first habits our little community
, established was exercise, before
breakfast and after supper. For ten
: or fifteen minutes, twice daily, we
jumped, kicked, bent, twis d
turned our heads and arms and legs
, all in narrow space between two
rows of cots. The stout ones among
us began to lose excess weight Cor
so they hoped), round shoulders be-
gan to straighten out, chests ex-
banded. In the beginning only 10 or
II joined in. Later, there were more
? than 20. The matrons stopped to
watch in amazement Exercise of
that sort had never been seen, APP
! parently, in the workhouse. But as
3 for us, we enjoyed it. 1t helped the
days pass more quickly and it
/ brought us more closely together.
: First Experience.
But let it not be thought that we