One morning I received the following order:
"Investigate Sokol, Monroe Street, No. ----. Night visit preferable."
When I asked the Manager what he meant by night visit he told me between
ten and eleven o'clock. Accordingly, at ten P. M. I knocked at the door
of the above named family. In the few minutes that elapsed between the
knocking and the opening of the door I heard a man groaning--as men
groan under excruciating pain.
The woman, Mrs. Sokol, opened the door for me, and inquired who I was. I
was instructed by the office not to tell them my identity under any
circumstances. So I said I was from the Board of Health--that neighbours
had claimed that they could not sleep on account of the man's groans,
and I told Mrs. Sokol that we would have to see him and send him to a
hospital. I entered the apartment. There were two rooms. In one room was
the bed with the sick man in it. The other room was the kitchen, dining
and reception room. A cold stove, a table, four chairs, and on one side
two more folding beds. This was the furniture.
The man kept groaning. His wife whispered to him to keep still, but his
pains were probably so great that he could not understand what she said.
I lit the gas and approached the bed. A strong odour of putrefaction
compelled me to withdraw, and the next moment the wife told me that he
had a cancer, that he had been operated upon several times without
success and that he now suffered the most excruciating pains; that the
doctor came only once in two days, only to have a look--"to see if he is
already dead," as she put it.
"Why don't you send him to the Skin and Cancer Hospital?" I asked.
"We are only two years in this country," was the woman's reply, "and
they will send us back to Russia."
"And the Jewish hospital?" I suggested.
"He has been there twice--they operated on him."
"Well, well," I urged, "why does he not stay there?"
The man groaned, the woman cried, some sick child in the neighbourhood
woke with the noise and mixed his sickly crying with theirs and the
moaning of the wind outside. It was a pitiful scene. I started my
interrogation.
The man was a musician, a fiddler. He was not a member of the Union. He
had been in America two years, and sick from the first moment he had
come. "And how do you get along?" I asked. "From where do you get money
for bread?" Again the woman cried. Soon the man fell asleep. I heard his
heavy breathing and felt the odour of putrefaction emanating from his
body. Pitilessly I insisted on getting an answer to my question: "From
what do you live?"
"There was not a piece of bread in the house to-day," was the answer.
"Yes, but where did you get yesterday's bread?"
"We had no coals for the last four days."
"But from where did you get it before that?" I argued.
"From--from--from the charity," the woman broke down hysterically.
The two folding beds in the kitchen attracted my attention and I asked
her whether she had any boarders. This was the touchstone of her
suffering. We drew our chairs away as far as possible from the sick bed
and there she told me.
"These are not boarders' beds. They are the beds of my two daughters,
Amy eighteen years old and Leah twenty--two daughters have I, like two
flowers. Envied by the whole world. I was the proudest mother. Well,
I'll tell you the whole story.
"Two years ago we, my husband, myself and the two daughters, arrived
here from Warsaw. My husband was a healthy, strong man. My daughters
were dressmakers. We had a little money. We rented these same two rooms
and a few days afterward, through the influence of friends, both
children found work at their trade. Only my husband remained idle. They
did not want to take him into the Union. A few weeks he walked around
without work, then he went to a leather finding factory where he had to
cut out pieces of leather. It was piecework. They worked in a cellar,
sixteen or eighteen hours a day. At the end of the week he had two
dollars. It was very hard on him. He had never done physical work, still
he returned there the next week, hoping that he would do better, having
a week's experience. He went away at five in the morning and returned at
eleven at night, yet he could not make more than forty cents a day.
"His daughters made the first week six dollars each, working nine hours
a day, and he, the father, working twice as hard and twice as many hours
made two dollars a week. He took sick. We called the doctor. He gave a
potion and left. My husband got worse and worse every day. We went to a
hospital. There it was found that he had cancer, and must be operated
on. But just as we were ready to go and do it we found out that there is
a law that we had no right to use a public hospital before we have been
here five years. We applied to the Jewish hospital. My husband was
operated upon.
"My daughters worked. On account of the illness of their father they had
no opportunity to buy clothes, American clothes. They were still in
their greenhorn dresses, and the whole shop made fun of them. They
simply had to buy clothes. The money we brought here was long since
gone, so when their father was brought home after the first operation
there wasn't a penny in the house. The visiting doctor gave me a letter
to the charities and told me that they would help me. I went there. I
don't want to tell you through what I went at their hands. Enough to say
that when I came home I felt as though I had committed the greatest sin.
I felt guilty towards myself. I felt like a criminal awaiting his day of
judgment.
"Finally the investigator, a young lady, came. She saw my daughters.
They were neatly dressed, and as young girls generally are, they thought
of their own life, were gay and healthy. The investigator started to
examine them and after every answer she tried to confuse them and prove
that they lied. She stayed a half hour. When she left the poor children
were as pale as death--a terrible gloom had settled upon them--as though
death itself had visited our shelter.
"From then on we had no repose. They helped us with a few dollars, but
every other day some one else inquired about us--at the neighbours--at
the grocer--butcher. They visited us at all hours of the day and night.
Sometimes when we had visitors the investigator would question them,
until all our friends have left us. They followed the poor children to
their work and went to take information from the employer. On one
occasion, when the girls struck together with the other workers of the
shop the boss cried out to my girls: 'I'll show you! When the charity
will come I'll give such information that you wouldn't get a cent.' This
was too much for the poor children. They came home, packed their
belongings--and--" Here the poor woman broke out in hysterical weeping,
approaching the two empty beds, and cried: "My house is empty. Cursed be
the hour when I applied to charity. I should have gone out begging in
the street."
And as I slipped out of the house the cry of the woman pursued me.
"Cursed--Cursed be the hour that I applied to charity!"
I reported the next day the situation of the family and urged immediate
relief. The Manager called me into his sanctum and told me that my
information was not complete, since I had not learned where the
daughters were. "I am sure," he said, "that she knows where they are.
You must get it out of her."
"All right," I said, "but in the meantime send them relief. There is no
coal, no bread."
"Are you sure?" he asked. I assured him of the fact.
"Then it's all right," and he rubbed his hands with great satisfaction.
"It's all right," he repeated. "We'll break her stubbornness, all right.
We'll get their address now. So they have no bread, eh?"
Cries from the waiting room came to my ears, as though a chorus of those
unfortunate beings would blaspheme all together: "Cursed be the hour
when we applied to charity--cursed--cursed--cursed."
We were interrupted by some one else coming in on some business.
I felt my head swimming and I looked longingly outside through the large
window over the Manager's desk. A little bird flew around the sill, and
hungry, she tried to pick the putty from around the pane. Mr. Rogers
probably followed my wandering gaze for he was soon standing near me
and having also remarked the little bird he exclaimed: "Poor little
thing, is it not pitiful? Hungry and cold!" So saying he opened the
window and invited the bird to enter. Yet the bird preferred to remain
outside.
Mr. Lawson was called in and a conference took place as to how to force
Mrs. Sokol to give the address of her children.
"But do you suppose that she has sold her children for immoral purposes
that you are so anxious to learn their whereabouts?"
"No, we don't suppose _that_," Mr. Rogers answered, "but when we give
them money we want to know everything, you understand, everything. Here
she has two daughters and she keeps their address a secret! Whatever we
have done was of no avail. We must curb her. Isn't that so, Mr. Lawson?
We must show her that she cannot keep secrets from us. What would you
suggest, Mr. Baer?"