The Long Day: The Story of a New York Working GirlThe Long Day is a wonderfully readable personal narrative of the trials and tribulations of an "unskilled, friendless, almost penniless girl of eighteen, utterly alone in the world" who arrives in New York City in 1905 to earn her livelihood. The book reveals much about the lives of working women in early twentieth-century urban America- the sort of jobs available to women, the ethnic and demographic makeup of the female labor force, the harshness of the conditions, the less-than-satisfactory living arrangements, the physically demanding nature of the work, and the long working hours. |
Contents
IN WHICH I ARRIVE IN NEW YORK | 3 |
IN WHICH I START OUT IN QUEST | 16 |
IV | 44 |
IN WHICH I AM LEARNED | 58 |
IN WHICH PHOEBE AND MRS SMITH | 75 |
VII | 92 |
WHEREIN I WALK THROUGH DARK | 108 |
INTRODUCING HENRIETTAS SPECIAL | 123 |
XI | 151 |
IN WHICH I SPEND A HAPPY FOUR | 180 |
THREE LADYFRIENDS AND | 197 |
IN WHICH A TRAGIC FATE OVERTAKES | 215 |
BECOME A SHAKER IN | 229 |
IN WHICH IT IS PROVED TO ME THAT | 249 |
EPILOGUE | 266 |
IN WHICH I FIND MYSELF A HOMELESS | 142 |
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Common terms and phrases
ain't apron asked began Bessie Bleecker Street boarding-house boss box-factory brother Mason cents church coffee corner corsets dark dollars a week door dormitory Dorothy Richardson Eunice eyes face factory female floor flowers foreman hand head heard Henrietta Manners heroine kimono kindergarten knew labor lady lady-friends laughed laundry Little Rosebud Little Women live lodging-house Long Day looked married ment middle-class Minnie Plympton Miss Gibbs Miss Higgins Miss Jamison morning muslin never night o'clock one-eyed girl Paul Howard Pearl Phoebe pig-pens replied Richardson rose Rose Fortune Salvation Army seemed shirt-waist smile sort stairs story strange street talk tell thing thought tion told truck turned voice waifs walk wicked city window woman women workers York York City young