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February 16 - February 20, 2023
seven sisters came to the city from New England years ago and each one set up her own house of ill repute . . . Well, I don’t think the madams at the houses next door are really Mrs. Walker’s sisters, but they call that street Sisters’ Row.”
“They cater to the wealthiest men in the city, which means they pay lots of protection money to the police. If you get in trouble there, no one will help you, Sarah.”
“Rahab’s Daughters.” Sarah had learned the story of Rahab the Harlot in Sunday school, although she hadn’t known exactly what a harlot was back then. Rahab had hidden the Israelite spies whom Joshua had sent to Jericho. In exchange for protecting them from her own people, she asked them to spare her and her family when they took the city. Rahab had done well for herself afterward, Sarah recalled, although she couldn’t remember the details.
All of the charities in this building cooperate with each other very closely. We keep careful records of everyone we help and share that information with each other, so that people can’t just go from one charity to another every time they get into difficulty. That would encourage them to be dependent and weak instead of forcing them to take responsibility for their own lives.”
Gratuitous charity works evil rather than good, you see. If we continue to support these women, they will learn the dreadful lesson that it’s easy to get a day’s living without working for it.”
‘Faith without works is dead,’ ” she added, quoting a scripture verse.
“Mrs. Van Orner was a lady,” Herman said wisely. “Ladies don’t show what they really feel.”
Too much charity encourages sloth. People must learn to make their own way in the world.”
‘Miss Biafore, we must treat these women the same way we would treat them if they was respectable if we ever hope they will become respectable.’ ”
“But you can see how important it is to find out who knew about Mrs. Van Orner’s flask. Only someone who did could have killed her.” Mrs. Spratt-Williams considered this very carefully, leaning back in her chair and watching Sarah closely as she thought it over. Finally, she said, “It was a well-guarded secret, as you can imagine. Only two others knew of it—her husband and Tamar Yingling.”
Jobs for women don’t pay very well, I’m afraid. Most employers assume the girls live with their families and are just helping out until they find husbands. As soon as they marry, they have to quit their jobs and make room for the next batch of girls. No one expects them to support themselves on what they can earn in a factory, but these girls have to.”
“She didn’t like reporting the women we helped. They keep track, you know. All the charities keep a list of the people they help so nobody can get help from more than one charity. Antonia didn’t think that was right, but she could never convince Vivian. We had to abide by the rules whether we liked them or not.”
“Because ladies might disagree, but they never argue and they never, ever poison each other.”
“Oh, didn’t you know? Tamar Yingling was the first whore Vivian ever rescued.”
“Sarah, I was trying to be discreet. When I don’t want to do something, I always blame your father. How unkind of you to make me admit it.”
“Sometimes gratitude is a good reason to kill someone,”
“I’ve seen it happen where a person starts to resent the one who’s helped them the most. Sometimes people don’t want to remember how much help they needed or how little they deserved it.” Maeve nodded enthusiastically. “The person who helped is always a reminder of how low you were, too. Nobody likes to remember that.”
“Aren’t you afraid they’ll get the wrong idea seeing you there?” “Not at all. I’m much too old to be a rescued prostitute.” “You’re not that old! You’re not even thirty!” “But very few prostitutes live to even be as old as I am.”
Mrs. Lowell’s belief that ‘Gratuitous charity works evil rather than good.’ ”
“Mrs. Josephine Shaw Lowell. She founded the COS. She believed that if a widow receives too much assistance to support her children, for example, she might lose her love for them because she was relieved of the anxiety of providing for them.”
“She also believed that while giving a handout to an unemployed man would help him for the moment, it would also teach him the dreadful lesson that it’s easy to get a day’s living without working for it.”
“The trouble with friendships like that, where one person is indebted to the other, is that the person who is indebted gets very tired of being grateful.”
