Home night.
I arranged with Mr. Snidert
to sell gowns to individuals
on a percentage basis.
—————
Matt’s Notes
It looks like Papa, like countless New Yorkers before and after him, figured it couldn’t hurt to supplement his income with a little side business, and I imagine this was especially common among Papa’s contemporaries in the garment industry. Labor laws had pretty much put and end to the days when full-blown garment manufacturing actually took place in the living rooms of tenement apartments, but Jewish New Yorkers (and other recent immigrants, of course) still took in plenty of sewing and washing and tailoring. I’m sure it was typical for people like Papa to work as sales reps, too.
I wonder whether the man he sold gowns for was his factory boss as well, or if he was a neighbor or acquaintance he’d met through friends or co-workers. I also wonder what his name really was. It looks like Papa wrote “Mr. Snidert,” but I can’t really tell:
