Flowers for factory girls

Wednesday, 12 May 2010 05:00

Toronto World, May 12, 1912.“Flowers Given To Urchins And Tired Girls,” read the headline in the Toronto World.

All the wealth of the flower beds of the Old Government house was opened to tired factory girls and vagrant street urchins yesterday afternoon and hundreds of these girls, weary from a long day at bench and machine in the neighbouring factories, rubbed elbows with the waifs of the sidewalks in a wild scramble for a nosegay to brighten whatever place stands for them as a home…

Hundreds of tired girls with white faces, and bright-eyed eager urchins crowded into the heretofore sacred precincts, and, overrunning the beautiful lawns, which are now being cleared of their sod, strove to carry off as much of the flowers as they could gather.

The invitation to the fete of the flowers was conveyed to several nearby factories, and when the employees were dismissed they hastened to avail themselves of the boon provided…

It was a spectacle filled with human interest to scan the faces of these hundreds of children and grown girls as they came out with their treasures. The flowers were bright, but no brighter than the smiling eyes of those to whom they came as a blessing as great as it was unusual. When they left there was not a flower to be seen in all the gardens, but there were flowers in the homes and in the hearts of hundreds where such are all too rare.