fiancés back home had betrayed them, their new landlords cheated them, and the foreman in the shop was always creeping up behind them. Most had never thought of using a needle when a man got too close. So Delia forced herself to be patient. In addition to telling them about the strike, she gave advice on boots, landlords, hats, Coney Island, late night cafes, the stores with the best bargains, and the bakeries with the cheapest bread. “I am their mama, papa, older sister, rebbetzim, nursemaid, and union leader all rolled into one,” she told Lilly, half-exasperated and half-proud that so many should come to her for help.

And it wasn’t only the greenhorns who depended on her. Wealthy reformers, too, turned to her. Because Delia had lived withOlivia she was not as timid around the rich as some of the other girls. When the ladies from the Women's Trade Union League came to show their support, she would show them around the union hall in the evenings, always making sure they saw the blackboard where the organizers wrote the names of all the shops that had settled with the striking workers. City Coats, Klein’s, New Ladies Waists, and Fifth Avenue Dresses had all signed contracts with the union, she told them. Every day it seemed another boss came creeping up the stairs, shamefaced, hat in hand. He was busted, he moaned. The scabs had no idea what they were doing. He would lose everything, if the strikers didn’t come back to work. Whoops of joy