My name is Esther and I'm 17 years old and I came to America in 1892 to work in a textile mill making cloth. As the daughter of a poor farmer I was getting no where just working in the fields getting no pay with only enough from the farm to sustain my poor parents and me. Then I heard there were new opportunities in America, lots of land (some free) and industries that needed workers that paid well. I finally could have my own money and buy things like a new dress, and if I saved enough I could travel on the train to new places I've never seen. Well my dreams have been shattered, I work in the factory at least 10 hours a day and 6 days a week sometimes 7 so when I get home I'm so exhuasted I'm too tired to eat and go right to bed. Cause I'm not eating properly I've lost weight and I keep getting sick so what little money I save goes for medicine, At work we hear every once in awhile where another worker has died of an illness we think is due to overwork and exhaustion. It's scary!
the apartment I live in is so small 1 room and no ventilation with 1 tiny window and it smells of everyone's cooking and garbage, nothing like the fresh air on the farm. Some of us girls talked about organizing like the Knights of Labor that died in 86 and we also heard of the AFL getting better wages for their workers. Striking would be out of the question cause we heard about the 200 railroad strikers killed in Pittsburg and someone else told us about the Hay Market strikers4 killed and 4 hanged and in Homestead, Penn. more killed. Our boss must have heard us talking because he said if anyone wanted to protest they'd be fired so we all stopped our talking since we all need what little money we get even though our wages have been reduced.What really bothers me is when my boss makes rude Jewish jokes at my expense but I'm a little better off than the poor colored girls he slaps and makes very bad remarks about. The WASP girls have it a little better than us Jewish and colored girls. I work lots of hours but I never have any money. I never got my new dress. And I miss my parents.