friends or to read the books through which she shares the lives of
assorted heroines, or, better still, dreams of them as of herself. Even
if the living-room is not full of boarders or children or washing, it is
comfortable neither for receiving friends nor for reading, and she finds
upon the street her entire social field; the shop windows with their
desirable garments hastily clothe her heroines as they travel the old
roads of romance, the street cars rumbling noisily by suggest a
delectable somewhere far away, and the young men who pass offer
possibilities of the most delightful acquaintance. It is not astonishing
that she insists upon clothing which conforms to the ideals of this
all-absorbing street and that she will unhesitatingly deceive an
uncomprehending family which does not recognize its importance.

One such girl had for two years earned money for clothing by filling
regular appointments in a disreputable saloon between the hours of six
and half-past seven in the evening. With this money earned almost daily
she bought the clothes of her heart's desire, keeping them with the
saloon-keeper's wife. She demurely returned to her family for supper in
her shabby working clothes and presented her mother with her unopened
pay envelope every Saturday night. She began this life at the age of
fourteen after her Polish mother had beaten her because she had
"elbowed" the sleeves and "cut out" the neck of her ungainly calico gown
in a vain attempt to make it look "American." Her mother, who had so
conscientiously punished a daughter who was "too crazy for clothes,"
could never of course comprehend how dangerous a combination is the girl
with an unsatisfied love for finery and the opportunities for illicit
earning afforded on the street. Yet many sad cases may be traced to such
lack of comprehension. Charles Booth states that in England a large
proportion of parents belonging to the working and even lower middle
classes, are unacquainted with the nature of the lives led by their own