Why I Wrote Comedy                                 5

employment offices exists today—with their blatant blue and white
painted signs: SERVANTS, jutting out from the top level of the
stores in which they are located.

I grew restive under the enforced waiting of three monotonous
days. Mother and I would arrive in the morning, wait until twelve
when we would go out and buy an apple from a street peddler,
return and wait until four and finally return home. I would play
outside by myself or accept overtures from the "Yankee" children
after they had teased me to their hearts' content.

When I grew tired I would sit on the floor of the store and watch.
Employers, usually the womenfolk, would come down to interview
applicants. Did the girl like children? Could she cook? Frequently
the ever-ready assistant would be dispatched for a fortunate girl's
suitcase left with her landlady. Sometimes the latter would refuse to
give up the suitcase and would herself come down to the store. The
girl owed her money. Who would pay her? Oh, the girl had a job!
Well, the valise would go, but not before the address of the girl's
situation is written out "black on white." Meanwhile the girl would
be glancing apologetically at the face of her prospective employer
and pluck at her hands in fear.

Then, the employer, the servant and the assistant with the suit¬
case would be off together in an uneven line.

We had to wait and wait because no one wanted a servant with a
child.

Finally our turn came.

We went to the house of a man who wore his tightly curled hair
parted in the middle. When he smiled, he kept his pink lips shut and
wrinkles chased themselves across his face like the ripples on water.
His wife was in the hospital and mother was to be the servant, until
she returned and was well enough to take care of the house and the
three children.

I don't remember seeing any children, but I do remember the
peculiar arresting odor of leather in the house. Of the day, we spent
there, I know nothing. At night, I remember my mother com¬
plained of the weariness that she felt after scrubbing those five