I feel fairly confident that you
will accept my point of view, and act as best man at your sister's
wedding.
To Miss Margaret Riley
_Shop Girl, Concerning Her Oppressors_
Your letter has been destroyed, as you requested, and you need not fear
my betraying your confidence.
Your mother was so long in my employ that I feel almost like a
foster-mother to you, having seen you grow up from the cradle to
self-supporting young womanhood.
The troubles and evils which you mention as existing about you, I know
to be quite universal in all large shops, factories, and department
stores, indeed in all houses where the two sexes are employed.
I know that a certain order of men in power use that power to lower the
ideals and standards of womanhood when they can.
A pretty young girl once in my service related to me the cold-blooded
suggestions made to her by her employer to increase the miserable wage
paid her in a sweat-shop.
The sacrifice of her virtue seemed no more to this man than the sale of
an old garment.
The girl did not make the sacrifice, however, and she did not starve,
freeze, or die.
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