Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/308

 294 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

through that street I walked seeking employment. I may men- tion incidentally that I covered my more than usually shabby clothes with a long coat, which I deposited in a pawn-shop before seeking work. Sweat-shops were everywhere. I groped my way to the third or fourth floor of many a house, asking if they needed a "hand," and as many times I was turned away,

SCENE IN SWEAT-SHOP.

and mostly with a savage look or word. One man said, with brutal frankness, and in broken English, that I was holding my head too high, and that he did not want my kind about. I retreated, communed with myself a little, and gave myself a few lessons in humility of spirit and practiced a hang-dog position of the head. Another was skeptical because my fingers were not needle-pricked, while still another objected to me on the ground that I was an American and likely to be lazy ! That seemed highly amusing. Is the native-born worker really dis- criminated against in his own country ? I found that* these foreign sweaters and there are more than three thousand in