Lower East Side Poem

By Sarah Brice

The stomping of horses hoofs,

that you can barely hear because of all of the pushcarts,

screaming,

crying,

and people trying to sell their goods.

Ladies rush into work,

scared that they will get yelled at for being late.

The noisy cobblestone grounds filled with immigrants.

Yelps from the workers at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory.

I’m sleepy and tired,

and I am sure everybody feels the same.

Everybody is bored of doing the same every day over and over and over again.

The familiar smell of raw fish.

I am so used to walking to work that I could do it with my eyes closed if I wanted to.

I wish I could work at the luxurious Triangle Shirtwaist Factory.

As I look into the horizon, it just goes on and on and on with people, Pushcarts and more people.

Margaret

MM: What is your name?

SB: My name is Sarah Brice.

MM: Why did you come to The Lower East Side?

SB: I came to The Lower East Side because in Greece, there had been a lot of economic chaos and a lot of boys moved from Greece to America. I had been so eager to go to america, because I could not get a job. I pretended to be a boy and went to america. A lot of people were killed during the economic chaos.

MM: How old are you and who did you live with in Greece?

 SB: I am 47 years old. In Greece, I lived with my two cousins, my  mom, my dad, two of my nieces and my nephew. I came to the Lower East side with my two cousins (Jacob and Marcus) , one of my nephews (Nathan), my uncle (Abraham) and my dad (Leonard). I left everyone else in Greece because they all had jobs and were not eager to leave.

MM: Do you live in a tenement? If so, what are the conditions in your tenement?

SB: I live in a messy tenement, with no light and poor air. The light has gotten a little bit better since a couple of strikes have changed all of that. Every time the tenement inspector comes, me and my tenement almost do not pass the test because we have rags on the floor and you can barely breathe inside it. The only reason why we pass the test is because the tenement inspector wants to get out of our tenement so badly, they don’t even want to take the time to tell us that our tenement did not pass the test.

MM: Is your landlord or landlady nice? Does he or she take care of your tenement?

SB: My landlady is nice, but she is not very smart and she only comes to our tenement once a week. I do not think that she understands the horrible conditions in our tenement.

MM: Where do you work?

SB: I work in a factory and they pay me a decent amount of money. I get 3:00 a week which is enough to support my family, but they should pay me a lot more for what I am doing for them. Every day that the inspector comes into the factory, I have to help the little kids who are too young to work, get into the barrels.

MM: How are the conditions in the factory If they are bad, have you ever gone on strike because of it?

SB: I am one of the older people working in the factory. The conditions in the factory have gotten a little bit better, but not much. We get better air and that is all. I came to the Lower East Side at age 23. I have been here for a while. I have gone on strike seven times. Three of the times very little change happened, like we got a little bit more pay and had to work  for a little bit less time.  Four of the times nothing happened at all. One of the strikes where little change happened was the big strike with Carol Lemlich.

MM: Does your family need any borders to pay the rent?

SB: My family does not need any borders. When I try to think of the quote that Leonard Covello said which is “The gold you will find in America will not be in the streets… It will be in the dreams you realize-in the golden dreams of the future,” but whenever I think of that, I start thinking of the horrible conditions I live in.

MM: Do you ever wish that you could go back to Greece?

SB: I hope that someday, I will get to go back to Greece. I loved how I did not have to work that much, I could just do stuff that I liked to do. It used to be, and I bet still is so light and pretty in Greece. I loved to study greek mythology. The water in greece tasted so good, and now, I can barely get any bad tasting water. I really liked to garden in greece, and eat all of the vegetables that I gardened.

MM: Did you ever get to go to school?

SB: When I lived in Greece and was  young, I got to go to school. That had been one of the only times in my life that I actually got someone teaching me. The teacher had been sort of mean, but at least I was learning and that was enough for me. When I went to school, I made a couple of friends who stayed my friends until I was a grown-up but then they too, died in the economic chaos. Most of my family died in the economic chaos.

MM: Did you ever join the union?

SB: A couple of years ago, I joined the union. I joined it because I wanted to be able to stand up for myself, knowing that there would be more strikes to come. One time I almost lost my job because my boss almost found out that I was in the union. One year ago, I quit the union because I thought that it was too much of a risk, I could have lost my job. The union wasn’t really helping me anyway so I just thought that it was best for my to quit the union and keep my job.

This is a picture of an immigrant character that I made in art:

Here is a picture of a tenement that I made in art: