‘BUSINESS IS GROWING IN THE CITY, MARY,’ CONFIDED MENA. ‘WHAT with all the big new fancy houses with staff, and grand hotels like the St Nicholas that are opening up. There are garment shops springing up all over, but as my work is custom made, I am thinking that I will soon need to find a bigger premises, away from the Five Points in a better area. The customers expect more of me than these two small rooms here in Pearl Street.’
‘That is good news.’ Mary smiled, pleased that Mrs Stronge was including her in whatever plans she was making.
‘To be honest, I’ll be sad to say goodbye to this place, but I have built a good business and reputation over the years, and I don’t intend to lose either.’
‘That wouldn’t happen!’
‘People can be fickle. They’ll flock to whatever new fancy place or dress shop that opens, believe me!’ She laughed. ‘But I’ve seen a suitable one on Centre Street, which needs a bit of work. It’s got three larger rooms and if I can agree a fair rent with the landlord, I’ll take it.’
‘Three rooms? Then there will be lots of space!’
‘Yes. As you know well, Mary, we are kept busy with so much work, but I was considering hiring a young apprentice. A suitable quiet girl.’
‘My Nora is good at sewing and is a steady, honest girl,’ she ventured, hoping she hadn’t overstepped herself with Mena by mentioning her daughter.
‘I intend on interviewing a few girls, so you send your Nora here to meet me. Mind you, I am not making any promises.’
Mary smiled. ‘Of course.’
She’d far prefer her daughter to work for Mrs Stronge than one of the nearby garment shops, which employed large groups of women making clothes. Sweatshops – that’s what people called them!
Nora was nervous about meeting Mena. Mary remembered how anxious she had been when she had first met the tall Belfast woman, but the one thing she had come to learn from working for her was that she was fair.
‘Show her the few pieces you have made,’ Mary encouraged her daughter. ‘Your skirt and the blouse, and remember to tell Mrs Stronge that you want to learn.’
‘I do, Mam. I really do,’ said Nora, her pretty face the picture of eagerness as she set off to Pearl Street.
Mena had examined her work thoroughly and then made her sew part of the hem of a dress, Nora told her mother when she returned home.
‘I was scared but I did my best.’
Two days later, Nora was offered the apprenticeship, but would not start until they moved into Mena’s new premises.
‘She’s a credit to you, Mary,’ Mena told her. ‘She is bright and polite, and will no doubt prove a good learner.’
‘Thank you, Mrs Stronge. I am grateful to you for giving Nora the opportunity.’
‘To tell the truth, Nora was head and shoulders better than the other girls. One, I suspect, had never even sewn a stitch in her life!’
Three weeks later, they moved into the new shop at the better end of Centre Street and, as Mena had predicted, the customers followed. As did many new clients – New York families that had come up in the world and could now afford staff.
Nora, to her delight, since leaving school was proving herself a good and willing worker, and got on well with the dressmaker, learning quickly from her.
A friend of Catherine’s, who lived only a block away, had offered Sarah a position. She was in need of a kind, bright girl to help with cooking and caring for two small children.
‘Lord knows you have plenty of experience of that,’ agreed Mary when Sarah accepted the job gladly.
Jude was happy in his work and, to his delight, his wages as an inker had been increased.
‘My poor da never got regular money. He was always full of plans but from what I remember never got a proper wage,’ he admitted quietly. ‘But I’m not like him, Auntie Mary, I want to stay where I am and work my way up.’
‘Your mam and da would both be so proud of you, Jude,’ she encouraged, hugging him tightly. ‘I know they would.’
Tim and Annie both remained healthy and well, and were good students, thriving in school.
Sometimes when she walked down by the wharf and along the river, Mary would catch sight of the haunted look of fear and hope on the worn faces of weary men, women and children who were disembarking from ships that had crossed the Atlantic, or walking the city streets in their filthy rags. It still reminded her of when they had first arrived and how much their lives had changed.
However, she saw also the hope in the eyes of all those arriving month after month, not just from Ireland but from Germany too, hardworking people who lived near by in the Kleindeutschland neighbourhood. It grieved her to see some of her fellow countrymen fall victim to despair and drink. The hunger had marked and scarred them, and homesickness consumed them as they often struggled to survive in the overcrowded Five Points.
‘God help them,’ she sighed. ‘There is just too much sadness in them.’