Anarchism and Other Essays | Page 6

have never failed her. Even in the darkest hours of
later persecution Emma Goldman always found a haven of refuge in the
home of this loyal sister.
Emma Goldman finally resolved to achieve her independence. She saw
hundreds of men and women sacrificing brilliant careers to go V

NAROD, to the people. She followed their example. She became a
factory worker; at first employed as a corset maker, and later in the
manufacture of gloves. She was now 17 years of age and proud to earn
her own living. Had she remained in Russia, she would have probably
sooner or later shared the fate of thousands buried in the snows of
Siberia. But a new chapter of life was to begin for her. Sister Helene
decided to emigrate to America, where another sister had already made
her home. Emma prevailed upon Helene to be allowed to join her, and
together they departed for America, filled with the joyous hope of a
great, free land, the glorious Republic.
America! What magic word. The yearning of the enslaved, the
promised land of the oppressed, the goal of all longing for progress.
Here man's ideals had found their fulfillment: no Tsar, no Cossack, no
CHINOVNIK. The Republic! Glorious synonym of equality, freedom,
brotherhood.
Thus thought the two girls as they travelled, in the year 1886, from
New York to Rochester. Soon, all too soon, disillusionment awaited
them. The ideal conception of America was punctured already at Castle
Garden, and soon burst like a soap bubble. Here Emma Goldman
witnessed sights which reminded her of the terrible scenes of her
childhood in Kurland. The brutality and humiliation the future citizens
of the great Republic were subjected to on board ship, were repeated at
Castle Garden by the officials of the democracy in a more savage and
aggravating manner. And what bitter disappointment followed as the
young idealist began to familiarize herself with the conditions in the
new land! Instead of one Tsar, she found scores of them; the Cossack
was replaced by the policeman with the heavy club, and instead of the
Russian CHINOVNIK there was the far more inhuman slave-driver of
the factory.
Emma Goldman soon obtained work in the clothing establishment of
the Garson Co. The wages amounted to two and a half dollars a week.
At that time the factories were not provided with motor power, and the
poor sewing girls had to drive the wheels by foot, from early morning
till late at night. A terribly exhausting toil it was, without a ray of light,

the drudgery of the long day passed in complete silence--the Russian
custom of friendly conversation at work was not permissible in the free
country. But the exploitation of the girls was not only economic; the
poor wage workers were looked upon by their foremen and bosses as
sexual commodities. If a girl resented the advances of her "superiors",
she would speedily find herself on the street as an undesirable element
in the factory. There was never a lack of willing victims: the supply
always exceeded the demand.
The horrible conditions were made still more unbearable by the fearful
dreariness of life in the small American city. The Puritan spirit
suppresses the slightest manifestation of joy; a deadly dullness
beclouds the soul; no intellectual inspiration, no thought exchange
between congenial spirits is possible. Emma Goldman almost
suffocated in this atmosphere. She, above all others, longed for ideal
surroundings, for friendship and understanding, for the companionship
of kindred minds. Mentally she still lived in Russia. Unfamiliar with
the language and life of the country, she dwelt more in the past than in
the present. It was at this period that she met a young man who spoke
Russian. With great joy the acquaintance was cultivated. At last a
person with whom she could converse, one who could help her bridge
the dullness of the narrow existence. The friendship gradually ripened
and finally culminated in marriage.
Emma Goldman, too, had to walk the sorrowful road of married life;
she, too, had to learn from bitter experience that legal statutes signify
dependence and self-effacement, especially for the woman. The
marriage was no liberation from the Puritan dreariness of American life;
indeed, it was rather aggravated by the loss of self-ownership. The
characters of the young people differed too widely. A separation soon
followed, and Emma Goldman went to New Haven, Conn. There she
found employment in a factory, and her husband disappeared from her
horizon. Two decades later she was fated to be unexpectedly reminded
of him by the Federal authorities.
The revolutionists who were active in the Russian movement of the
80's were but little familiar with the social ideas then agitating Western

Europe and America. Their sole activity consisted in educating the
people, their final goal the destruction of the