"Where Can a Girl Alone in New York Find Assistance?" - Emmeline Pendennis - New York Evening World

Part 1 of Emmeline Pendennis's article series "Where Can a Girl Alone in New York Find Assistance?" Written for the New York World in 1905.

Description

Emmeline Pendennis, under the editorship of Charles Chapin at the New York Evening World, presented herself as Helen King, a young woman who had lost her bags and purse, to produce a series that explored what someone without means in New York City could do to get help.

Authors

Emmeline Pendennis

Links and Resources

Subjects

Effects and Outcomes

The newspaper followed up with a crowd-sourcing exercise, although no one at the time called it that, inviting readers to share similar experiences.

Media History

The reporting was intended for these media types: Newspaper

I - "Where Can a Girl Alone in New York Find Assistance?" - Emmeline Pendennis - New York Evening World

"Story of a Young Woman's Quest of Shelter and Work on Finding Herself Stranded in the Great Metropolis Without Any Friends; Her Status Akin to an Alien Immigrant Who Should Be Deported -- An Experience at the 'Maggie Lou'- 'Go Home' - Ever the Cry"""

1905-02-04

" . . . There are hundreds of young women who come to New York from small country towns and villages with plans for making their living if not their fortunes. They find work as teachers, clerks, stenographers, usually upon slender salaries and all is well so long as wages come in regularly. The difficulty is that most bachelor girls earn so little that they are unable to save anything for the raindy day; and if the weekly stipend is stopped what does a girl do in such a predicament?"

II - "Where Can a Girl Alone in New York Find Assistance?" - Emmeline Pendennis - New York Evening World

"Second Day's Experiences of a Young Woman in Quest of Shelter and Work in the Great City Told to Evening World Readers"

1905-02-06

"I told the readers of the Evening World on Saturday how I had visited the Y.W.C.A. for help and guidance and how the one remedy reiterated to me at that really worthy institution was to return home at once. . . ."

Undercover Reporting