Carnegie's Maid

by Marie Benedict

Why didn’t anyone tell me that industrialization would look like biblical hell?

What did it say about society that the best a lowborn, educated girl could hope for was respectable servitude? It was as if all of Dad’s teaching gave me a glimpse into a world for which I longed but had no means of entering.

I learned that when you’ve gone astray, a helping hand will always emerge from the darkness.

The government created the Enrollment Act so that rich folk could avoid fighting. Perfectly legal.”

‘The world of books is still the world.’”

This library, he maintained, made him into a successful man.

cannot describe to you the impact that library had on my life and my success. It quite literally made me who I am today.” “Countless other men undoubtedly

Although not all knowledge comes from books. Life presents its own education.”

“We all tell tales, Clara. Sometimes for ourselves, and sometimes for others.”

Knickerbockers. These families were the descendants

“These old New York society people maintain that all people are not equal, that they are superior to all other classes. I thought you believed in freedom and opportunity for all people. That view is the antithesis of what these people espouse.”