I used to work at Sherry's and at the Wistaria Hotel.

But I lost my job through the war." How the war in Europe could strike at a telephone girl in New York was puzzling; but Mary Kelly made it clear.

"The Wistaria is very popular with Southerners," she explained, "They make their money in cotton and blow it in New York.

But now they can't sell their cotton, and so they have no money, and so they can't come to New York.

And the hotel is run at a loss, and the proprietor discharged me and the other girl, and the bellboys are tending the switchboard.