"Can't you do better with something else?"
"I have made flannel skirts—tucked—at a dollar a dozen, but I can only make eight of those in a day, so that is less. I have received a dollar and twenty cents a dozen for making chemises, which sell at seven dollars a dozen; and seventy-five cents a dozen for babies' slips, three tucks and a hem; forty cents a dozen for corset covers. I have a friend who works a machine in a ruffling factory; she makes a hundred and fifty yards of hemmed and tucked ruffling a day, for which she receives twenty-five cents. So, you see, I am better off than some."[A]
[A] See "Campbell's Prisoners of Poverty" for still more harrowing statistics.
"And can you live on five dollars a week?"
"Six dollars, Madame; Jim earns one dollar and the milk."
"You pay for rent—"
"Six dollars a month; yes, it is hard to earn that."
"You must be thankful that you have only Jim to provide for."
"The Sandys, on the floor below, have six children; five of them earn wages. I think they earn more than their cost."
"But," said Miss Sartoris, "I thought child labor was prohibited by law."