Within the Law

Horowhenua Chronicle, 24 April 1915, Page 3

Within the Law

vjlic tueiii a living cliance" that ie

tue cry nuicii iiayaixi v eliier, the antiior ui "VVitmii the; Law, sends ringing tiucc mure niio tiio ems oi tlie world. i( is the shopgirl lie champions in hit I'lay, and lie voices liu> plea througL the character of Alary Turner, a strong minded iittlo woman who is sentenced to ii Lerin ol tiiree years imprisonment ior a theft of which sue ie innocent, it is l-oi- her sister employees that she makes the appeal to an employer whose humanity consists of giving publicly large sums of money to charitable associations and institutions; whose humanity sends a girl to prison for three years so that her fellow employees may proiit by the example. On her way to pay the penalty exacted by the law tlie girl crys "Give them a living chance; we work nine hours a day for six dollars, a week and yet you don't want them to steal. IX) you know how we girls liveP No, of course you don't: Three of us in one room doing our own cooking over a two burner gas stove, our washing and ironing evenings, and then first time one of them steals, it is because she needs some luxury." "I'm not their guardian," replies Edward Gilder, proprietor of the mnporium. "I pay the sanie as any other store." Then come« the last agonised appeal of the girl who is doomed to suffer for another's crime. "But you don't pay them enough to live on; won't you do .something about it?" "How dare you speak to me like this. Take her away officer." Then the girl delivers her final speech. "Oh he can take me now; fhree years isn't for over, and when I come out you're going to pay me for every minute of them. There won't be a day or an hour that that I don't remember that it was your word at tho last tliat sent me to prison, and you're going to pay me for that; you're going to pay me for the five years that I've starved making money for you; you're going to pay me for everything tTiat I am kmhit h:-7:: V : --in'ro e-nuie: to pay." ( '' ;, ;ICIS ..,:■,;■ ; i n0 P i, f > ; -.|- "' ;, -' : ■'' '•'"'' '•■•:•<"<. illlil -i TO ;i!i ,:-i.y'\ ■ ■<■•' •■-■..:;.:• .;> :.-m- 0 •.r - : hv .\f ii: -;- Hir.-in- in tli, n>v .j ~,,, , ); ,-f. ( . it ,; y ■:■<:;■. n,.-.:i ■■>], .;. KUV:. ....,.,. Limited wii iU «L;i.-f.:i ;ii 1,,:--;,. : (v,. King's Theatre on Thursday. April Wth. and the box plan is on view at <on Aitken's where spate may be reserved without extra charge.