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VOLUME I. NUMBER 28.
OLD CRY
OF THE
SINNER
"All I Ask Is a Chance!”
What Is the Duty of
Society to the Peni
tent Who Would Lead
New Life?
ST. LOUIS. —Frances Bloom no
longer rejoices in the appella
tion of “the meanest girl in St-
Louis.”
Seven weeks in the work
house have cured her of a deal of what
she calls her “meanness.”
She is willing, nay, she is eager, to
be good. All that she desires now is
to get out of the workhouse.
If he is convinced of the honesty of
her refomation Judge Earl Kimmel,
the “Golden Rule” police judge of SL
Louis, may parole Frances Bloom.
“Oh, I will be good when I get out,”
she said at the city hospital, where
she is at present. “I have had enough
of being bad.
“There is nothing in being bad. You
just fight the world and yourself and
you get tired of it. When you are bad
you are always in trouble. Life is
hard. First, there are the police to
fight Then there are the judges.
Then comes the workhouse, the
guards and prison discipline, and all.
that
“I tell you it is enough to kill a man
of steel, let alone a woman, to fight
society and the agents which society
employs to make you good.”
Frances Bloom Is not quite 19 years
old. Yet she has four years in the
Girls' Industrial school at Chillicothe
to her discredit. She has been mar
ried almost a year. She has six
months in the workhouse before her.
Was Charged With Vagrancy.
It all came about when Frances was
arrested at Sixteenth and Market
streets May 14 charged with vagrancy.
Patrolman Thies, who made the ar
rest, says that Frances “pulled a hat
pin on him” and stabbed him through
the arm.
Frances says that it all came about
through Patrolman Thies putting his
arm around her head and hat when he ;
took her to the patrol box to “call the ।
wagon.”
“He stuck the hatpin through his :
own arm," she said. “I admit that aft
erwards I bit and scratched him. But
that was no way to treat a lady. Now, i
honest, was it? How would you like i
your own wife, sweetheart, sister or '
daughter to be treated that way?” <
You shudder and admit that it does
not appeal to your idea of the courtesy 1
due a lady of your family. i
“They put me in the lockup, and i
next day took me before Judge Kim- <
mel. There was my first streak of
luck. I have been in hard luck ever <
since I lost my father, ten years ago. .
But Judge Kimmel is a nice man. He <
gave me nine months in the work- i
house. I felt like thanking him. He 1
did it so nicely.
“I liked it fine at the workhouse, s
too. Mr. White, the superintendent, is 1
true to his name. He is a white man. i
He treats you as if you were a human <
being, not a dog. They told me that
once he was a policeman, too. I can
hardly believe it He treated me sim- j
ply grand, talked to me and made me <
see that I was a very foolish girl to ]
act wildly.
“They sent me to the hospital. I am •
getting well fast.” * j
Tells Her Life Story.
In response to questions this waif of ’
the world told the following story: I
“I was born in Chicago. My father
was a shoemaker. He followed his f
trade in various large and small cities. 1
I have lived in New York and in small >
townst in Ohio, Illinois and Missouri, <
where my father worked. But for flf- 1
teen years I have recognized St Louis
as my home. i
“Ten years ago my father and moth
er separated. My mother married 1
again. I guess I gave her a lot of trou- (
ble. I was wild, but not a bad kid. 1
Perhaps my stepfather did not like
me. In any event, I was sent to the
Girls’ Industrial home at Chillicothe. <
I was 14 at that time. t
“That is one thing they do for you
at Chillicothe. They give you a good <
education. I had gone to work at 10 '
years old in a factory. I never had any ‘
education at home. But I learned to t
read and to write and to sew and to '
cook and do a lot of useful things in
the Industrial school. t
“The trouble is not with the author!- c
ties. It is with the girls themselves, i
“You see, there is no separation of
the bulletin
— । ””
* 00^^=-
V\
7V SEE. hWA'T * I
uro i
girls. Innocent young girls who are
sent there simply because they have
no homes, must mix with girls who
have been sent there for immorality
from the cities.”
Never had Fair Chance.
The girl never has had a fair chance.
Her father separated from her mother
and had no heed of his little daughter.
Her mother married again. Maybe the
little girl was wild. Her face is a
wild, wilful face.
She is strong and willful and full of
energy, an energy that if directed
rightly might be a power for good.
Misdirected it might be a power for
evil.
Quite evidently her parents failed
her. This might be taken as an argu
ment against parental and in favor of
state control, the argument of the So
cialists.
When Frances Bloom’s parents fail
ed her the state took her In charge.
Just how well the state fulfilled its
duty to 14-year-old Frances Bloom her
story of her life at the state indus
trial school sets forth in full.
“When my parents failed me,” she
says in effect, “I knew nothing of evil.
When the state took charge of
me I learnt everything that was
evil.”
Claim of the State.
Now the state which failed Frances
Bloom claims that she owes it a debt
of good conduct and of proper be
havior.
It has sent her to the workhouse for
270 days and demands that she shall
pay that debt, S6OO, in full.
Frances Bloom is paying the state
what the state claims she owes it for
infractions of its "be good” rules.
How can Frances Bloom collect
from the state what the state owes
her, the state which declares that all
men and women are born free and
equal and have got an equal right to
happiness and to prosperity?
What has the state done for its
ward, Frances Bloom?
It put her in a “home,” where she
learned evil. True, she admits her
debt to the state. She admits that it
gave her a scholastic education.
Associated With Thieves.
But in giving her that education it
obliged her to associate with thieves
and with immoral women.
"Innocent young girls, whose only
crime is that they have neither par
ents nor homes,” says Frances Bloom,
“are obliged by the state to associ
ate with thieves and with immoral
women.”
Is the state fulfilling its whole duty
to “innocent” young girls whose “only
crime is that they have neither parents
nor homes?”
“What will you do when you become
IRWINTON, WILKINSON COUNTY, GEORGIA, FRIDAY, JULY 26, 1912.
। a free agent again?” was the question
। asked of Frances Bloom.
“I will go to the home of my married
sister,” she said. “She has been good
to me. I will work. I do not care at
what I work. I will work In a factory
or in a store or In a private faifaily. I
■ can do good work, I am willing to
work. All I ask is a fair chance.”
, Karl Kimmel, the “Golden Rule” po
lice judge of St. Louis, is Inclined to
give Frances Bloom the fair chance
■ which she says she wants.
Will Frances Bloom accept the
chance which Judge Kimmel and, may
. be, society offers her?
Those who know her say that she has
one decided weakness, a liking for
masculine society, come as it may.
"I am willing to say that practically
all of the girls who have been In in
dustrial schools go wrong aftewards,”
says Frances Bloom.
Is the state, is society responsible
for the evil that Frances Bloom, prod
uct cf the school, may have done?
Evidently she owes but little to her
parents or to the state. But every
human being owes something to soci
ety. Frances Bloom owes that com
mon debt. It is up to her now to
make good the debt Her entire past
is against her.
Calvin White’s Opinion.
"There may be some hope for men
who come to the workhouse,” says
Calvin White, superintendent. "There
is no hope for the women who come
here.
"They are all weaklings. They
should all be in homes for the incom
petent, for the weak, for the hope
less.”
What good will keeping Frances
Bloom in the workhouse do?
What is to be done with this strong,
energetic young girl, whose parents
failed her and whose state sent her
where she learnt little save what was
evil?
Clearly, it is a question that, sooner
or later, society must answer in the
full. —Republic.
Less Necessity for Food.
The men who are, today, making
history, solving our economic prob
lems, adding to our scientific discov
eries’, and leading the thought of the
world In all directions, are men of
little food, of much- physical power,
and of great endurance, and this is
increasingly true, as each year goes
by. What is the logical outcome of
the assertion that f^od really bears a
very small relation to bodily strength
of man; that the lower animal still
continues to live and have his being
according to his food, but that man is
beginning to live by the force of his
will and intelligence?
THE BEGINNING OF
A GREATER CAREER
The Yesterday, Today and
Tomorrow of Our Career
During the yesterday of our busi
ness career, we anticipated the desire
of the people of this section of the
State, for an up-to-date store, with
modern ideas and modern business
principles. To this end we have
worked, we have spared neither mon
ey nor labor.
On July Ist, the old firm, under the
laws of Georgia, was formed into a
corporation, with Mr. W. S. Myrick,
who has been with the old firm since
its organization, as President and
Manager. Mr. T. H. Caraker, the
capable manager of the Shoe Depart
ment, Vice President, and Mr. J. W.
Daniels, former Manager of the
Clothing Department, as Secretary and
Treasurer.
This is a step forward. It has been done
that we might better serve you, that we might
make shopping more pleasant and congenial
for you in the future than it has been in the
past, also that the men who have worked to
help build up this great business, might be
identified with the firm.
Today we open the doors ot a great depart
ment Store to you that is at your service and
is up-to-date and progressive in every respect.
The tomorrow of our business career shall
keep pace with the strides of the most mod
ern and Progressive Stores in the Country.
The W. S. Myrick Co.
(Incorporated)
Milledgeville, Georgia
Everything For Everyone to
Wear
SI.QO A YEAR.