"Didn't you know about the fire in our factory?"
I hadn't known. That seemed to me so awful. There I was, fed and clothed and not worrying about rent, and here this thing had happened, and I nor none of us hadn't even heard of it. Miss Manners and Miss Spot didn't like us to read the newspapers too much.
"It broke out in the pressroom," Rose said. "That girl that was feeding your old press—they never even found her."
"Oh, Rose," I said. "Rose, Rose!" And when I could I asked her what it was that she had come wanting me to do.
She made a little tired motion. "It ain't only the fire," she said. "Things have got worse with us. We've got three times the fines. Since they've stopped locking the doors, they make us be searched every night, and the new forewoman—she's fierce. And we can't get the girls interested. They say it ain't no use to try. We want to try to have one more meeting to show 'em there is some use. And we thought, mebbe—we knew you could make 'em see, Cosma. If you'd come and talk to 'em."
"When would it be?" I asked her.
"They've called the meeting for to-morrow night," she told me.
"To-morrow!" I said. "Oh, Rose—no, then I can't. I'm going out of town to-night, for two days, up the Hudson...."