You Don't Strike

You don't strike. Most of your friends don't either; you all worry that the economy is not good and a strike will not succeed. Seventy very determined weavers do stage a strike, but it fails after a week. The mill agents replace the strikers with workers from other mills, Irish girls desperate for work, and Yankee girls who feel, as you once did, they have no future on the farm. Striking workers are not allowed to stay in company-owned boardinghouses, so you lend your friends money to pay for rooms somewhere else.

Ever since the strike ended, you have been thinking that you do not want to work in the mills for much longer. You lie awake at night and wonder what you should do. Should you leave Lowell, take your savings, and go home to the farm? Almost all of the boys you grew up with have moved to the city or headed west. It's unlikely you would ever marry and that thought makes you sad. Still, it would good to help out your parents in their old age and be close to your sisters and brothers. You wouldn't have much, but you would be secure.

You have another, more daring idea. Perhaps you should stay in Lowell and use your savings to open a dressmaking shop. Having your own business would give you independence. If it is successful, you will have enough money to give your parents a comfortable old age and yourself a good life in Lowell. If it fails, you will lose everything.

Your next choice is:

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