Jake Howard

Boott Essay
2:00PM
Irish Immigrant Worker
Dear Jayne,
I wake up, on an average day, next to my five other roommates with the sounds of
hundreds of workers chatting, yelling, whispering, and eating filling my ears. I
sometimes lie there and wonder why someone in the boarding house behind me has his
own goat but I will never know. After a night of rolling around on my straw filled
mattress I feel like I never went to sleep, I cant take the constant crunch and crackle of
straw as I turn over. I get up out of my bed, stepping over the five other trunks and chests
spread out around the room until I make it to the door, looking behind me at the 14ft. by
16ft. living space I share. When I make it out of my door I look down the hallway at the
dozens of identical rooms just like mine. Do I want to keep living this same life? I am
now immune to the stench that comes from behind each door because it is hard to do
laundry with the little leisure time we have.
I have been wearing the some clothes for two weeks now; the sweat, oil, dirt, and
food stains not only have been seared into my shirt but the smell matches the same smell
behind all of these doors. Of course there is always that one guy that has some sort of
spiritual bond with his clothes and decides not to wash them for months. We make jokes
to him about it because that scent is slightly stronger than the normal stench we are use
to. At the end of this week I might give in and pay the same person who cleans my linens
to wash my clothes also. But thats just a lazy Monday thought; I dont have the wage to
be paying for my clothes to be washed. I get paid two dollars but after living expenses
Im left with fifty cents of my own money I can spend. If business is bad and there isnt

Jake Howard
Boott Essay
2:00PM
much profit coming in I could be getting paid $1.50, but I cant complain work is work
and I need to support myself.
I walk down the stairs of my boarding house gripping my cuttie in my hand as I
past by the housekeepers bedroom on the first floor. He gets an advantage over everyone
in the building; he also is responsible for feeding us and cleaning our linens. Im finally
in my place of privacy, the outdoor privy. While in the privy the smell of all the mill
workers feces and dead rats is the best way to start a workday. Somebody must have
smashed a rats head last time they were in here because we have had a big problem with
them recently. The Board of Health issued that the privies should be removed and
replaced with a proper sewage system but that would cost the smug owner of the mill too
much money. So we have to deal with the constant overflow of waste and stench of the
disgusting privy. Sure, the privies do get cleaned by using the night cart technique but
that is never efficient. A few weeks ago I slipped, on my night walk around the
neighborhood puffing on my cuttie, on a trail of leakage from one of these night carts and
let me tell you something, I was covered in brownish-green sewage that seeped through
my clothes onto my skin. I have come across vulgar stenches in my days here but that
was certainly the top of the list.
I walk to the mill and work my twelve-hour day just like any other ordinary
workday, but its mealtime and leisure time that makes my life a little more interesting.
Im a machine at work but when Im amongst friends I tend to crack jokes here and there.
Food is usually not too bad here; my favorite meal of the day is breakfast because of the
French toast, bacon, and eggs we have the privilege of eating. Dinner is also good thats
near the end of the workday so everyone is a little loopier since the gruesome twelve

Jake Howard
Boott Essay
2:00PM
hours of work is ending soon. Its usually a nice cabbage stew, but occasionally we get
sirloin tips seasoned with salt and pepperwow do I hope our housekeeper is cooking
that up for us tomorrow. Its only Monday but Im planning my leisure time on Sunday
already because life at the mill is working all week then drinking secretly in our leisure
time. Im a grown adult and have to keep my drinking secret from the company because
they do not support it. Couple of my friends last Sunday dug a hole and buried our empty
bottles in the hole to hide the evidence. I need this job, I only drink occasionally because
I dont want to be dismissed from my building, but my cuttie is one of my best friends.
Its a shortened pipe with Home Rule printed on the side to show my independence
from the British hags. This cuttie is my only real possession so I try to keep it clean by
using the usually contaminated well water on my boarding house. Disease and viruses
are tossed around frequently because of how close we are all to each other. If someone
living in your tiny six-person room gets a virus, chances are that youre next. But the
Spanish Influenza is the most commonly known around the building here. My friends
have pins that say Kiss me Im sterilized, printed on a pin on their shirts. Obviously I
dont have one because I have you but my friends are dogs they are always going after
the woman workers. I would never touch one especially the loose woman, they puff on
tobacco all day as if they are one of the guys.
Im rambling on now but I hope this gave you an idea about how nauseating it is
to live here everyday. I love you and I hope you never have to smell me because I dont
even want to know how it would smell to a person who isnt use to it.
I love you, Sincerely,
Jake

Jake Howard
Boott Essay
2:00PM