"The colonel's lady and
Judy O'Grady were sisters under their skins"--and gowns.
It was not this, however, so much as their materialism, that shocked
me. It is true, these beautifully gowned, beautiful women prattled
sweet little ideals and dear little moralities; but in spite of their
prattle the dominant key of the life they lived was materialistic.
And they were so sentimentally selfish! They assisted in all kinds
of sweet little charities, and informed one of the fact, while all
the time the food they ate and the beautiful clothes they wore were
bought out of dividends stained with the blood of child labour, and
sweated labour, and of prostitution itself. When I mentioned such
facts, expecting in my innocence that these sisters of Judy O'Grady
would at once strip off their blood-dyed silks and jewels, they
became excited and angry, and read me preachments about the lack of
thrift, the drink, and the innate depravity that caused all the
misery in society's cellar. When I mentioned that I couldn't quite
see that it was the lack of thrift, the intemperance, and the
depravity of a half-starved child of six that made it work twelve
hours every night in a Southern cotton mill, these sisters of Judy
O'Grady attacked my private life and called me an "agitator"--as
though that, forsooth, settled the argument.
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