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The half-score or more of girls, who work under the superintendence of a forewoman, are all dressed in clean Holland pinafores an industrial uniform.
Miss Ruth, I must have that dress! At any price, I must have it!" "It is to go to New Orleans, madame," replied Ruth. "It was ordered by Mrs. Senator la Motte, and is to be worn at some grand wedding." "No matter I tell you I must have it! Where is Mademoiselle Victorine?" Ruth summoned the forewoman. Victorine advanced very deliberately, and her bearing had a touch of patronage and condescension.
A girl over sixteen seldom works in a factory for less than four dollars a week, and always cherishes the hope of at last being a forewoman with a permanent salary of from fifteen to twenty-five dollars a week. Whether she attains this or not, she runs a fair chance of earning ten dollars a week as a skilled worker.
Ruth, Alice and the two other actresses went with them. And not until the last girl had left the room did the forewoman make a move toward the escape. "You gentlemen will please leave now," she said. "After you," returned Mr. Pertell, with a look of admiration in his eyes. "No," she said, firmly. "The rules of the fire drill require that I leave the room last. You will please go first."
The screaming of the girls ceased almost instantly. Clang! sounded a big gong through the room. Clang! Clang! "Fire drill!" called the efficient forewoman, and afterward Ruth and Alice felt what a blessing it was she kept her wits about her. "Fire drill! Form in line and march to the fire escapes!" "Oh! Oh, I know I'm going to faint!" cried Miss Pennington. "This is a regular fire trap!
The women at the boards near to her scrambled, first, to the hot iron to save the cloth, and then to her, while the forewoman hurried belligerently down the aisle. The women farther away continued unsteadily at their work, losing movements to the extent of a minute's set-back to the totality of the efficiency of the fancy-starch room.
Fortunately the same efficient fire drill instituted by the forewoman on the floor where Ruth and Alice had been prevailed in other parts of the building, and not a life was lost, though there were many narrow escapes. And you may well believe that Russ did not miss this opportunity to get moving pictures.
"Now we are friends," she said, and sat down indolently in a chair placed by the worktable. "Friends," repeated Mademoiselle Virginie, with another laugh. "And now for business," she continued, getting a row of pins ready for use by putting them between her teeth. "I am here, I believe, for the purpose of ruining the late forewoman, who has set up in opposition to us? Good! I will ruin her.
She was a power to reckon with in the room in which she worked, as Faith was quick to discover. Even the forewoman, who was thin-lipped and shrewish, seemed a little afraid of her. Presently she asked another question: "What was your father?" Faith flushed sensitively. "He was a gentleman," she said proudly. Peg's blue eyes opened wide and for a moment she stopped work.
Sally had never been used to such a thing. She had not even brought an apron. While the others settled down, whispering among themselves and looking sharply at Sally, the forewoman, after a greeting, ignored her until she had attended to all that was more important. In her hands was the giving out of work. Sally saw that she was supposed to know what each girl could do.
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