four months before Triangle Shirtwaist
flames engulfed the Newark sweatshop
Wolf Muslin arranged to make undergarbs
using machines young girl fingers made run
four antebellum floors choked with hazards
managed with utter indifferent depravity
six dozen were injured and twenty-five died
some from burns most in desperate terrified leaps
despite mountains of evident manifest
negligence no one was ever taken to task
and the story was lost in grim shadows
of the hundred-and-forty-six Triangle ghosts
Wolf Muslin Factory Fire – Newark NJ
Poesy plus Polemics 
This is so good.
LikeLike
your comment is deeply appreciated
LikeLike
I like that I get some history from you…
LikeLike
history is about all that geezers like me have to offer
LikeLike
Powerful description of despicable exploitation.
LikeLike
thanks so much
LikeLike
Very very good
LikeLike
thank you, Bee
LikeLike
You’re right to call it misogyny and thank you for the history lesson. Was just thinking of the sweatshops overseas on this sweaty day.
LikeLike
it seems to always be with us
LikeLike
Sounds familiar – Bangladesh 2013! I don’t know that I’d call it misogyny – rather, exploitation of workers. It happened in other places in that era too. How sad that it’s still happening in our world.
LikeLike
you may be right
LikeLike
Beautiful and sad. Poignant and a wonderful reminder of an event that should never be forgotten.
LikeLike
amen
LikeLike
Reblogged this on Poesy plus Polemics.
LikeLike
Emotion and imagery captured in passionate words. Brilliant.
LikeLike
much appreciated – this bit of history always stuck with me because it occurred in my home town
LikeLike
That so many stories of shame are “lost” grieves me deeply.
LikeLike
it should grieve us all
LikeLike
Have you ever read Leon Uris’s Trinity? One of the characters dies in a shirt factory fire in Belfast. It’s very powerful.
I homeschool my six kids and often use historical fiction to teach them about history, as history is (or should be) the study of human lives (while literature is the study of human nature). I find it sad that so much of what gets taught in schools is little more than lists and names that have come to mean more than the people who actually inhabited the names.
LikeLike
I did read Trinity, but a long time ago – didn’t remember that storyline – I agree with you about the clinical nature of history curricula
LikeLike
the story goes on in bangla desh .. where many of our textiles come from
LikeLiked by 1 person
and we all share complicity
LikeLike
… unfortunately …
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pingback: 108 years ago, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. Before it? Newark history you should know. | Blue Jersey