Paterson Evening News, July 31, 1913 

AN INTERVIEW WITH SARAH BRESSLER 

Reporter’s introduction: Sarah Bressler is one of our most distinguished and controversial citizens. As an indefatigable fighter for woman suffrage, child welfare and reproductive freedom Sarah is revered by women and reviled by many men. The Paterson Evening News is delighted Sarah has graciously accepted our request for an interview.

Reporter: Sarah, I would like to start at the beginning. When did you arrive in America?

I was born in 1885 in Lebau, Latvia. I immigrated to Paterson, New Jersey with my parents in 1902. Unlike many immigrants, I was fluent in English. My father was a school teacher and taught me. I had worked with my father and planned to become a teacher to help other immigrants.

Reporter: What happened to make you put off your plan to teach?

I fell in love, married, and my dreams died.

Reporter: How did falling in love destroy your dreams?

My husband, Abraham, was also from Lebau but left at age thirteen to avoid being drafted into the Czar’s army. I was three and barely remembered him except for thinking how tall he was. As I said, my father was a teacher and Abraham was one of his students. When we met again in Paterson of course he was still tall, but he was also very handsome and a charmer. He said he loved me and respected me and we married.

Reporter: That still doesn’t explain how your dream died.

Abraham had told me he felt the same way I did about the new calling of a modern woman. We had our first child right away, and I wanted to go back to teaching after he was born, but he demanded I stay home and take care of his house and his child.

Reporter: Isn’t that what wives are supposed to do?

Sarah frowned and exhaled sharply: Isn’t it interesting that men think that way until their family needs money, then they allow, or should I say demand, their wives go to work in the silk mills. I guess most women would envy me. My husband is a man of means and I didn’t have to work. Anyway, I acceded to his demands for eight years, bearing 4 sons.

Reporter: When did things change for you? How did you get so involved with woman suffrage?

Sarah: By accident. Newly arrived immigrants from Lebau brought news that the Czar’s pogroms against the Jews were getting worse. Abe’s father had passed and my husband decided to go back and bring his mother to the United States. I was really scared about his going, but he was a stubborn man and wouldn’t listen to me.

Reporter: You were scared that he would be killed?

Sarah: Of course.

Reporter: Because your children would grow up without a father?

Sarah: Certainly, but worse. My husband’s business depended solely on him. He did not own a mill. He was a jobber. He bought and sold silk yarn. Without him there was no business. If he were to befall an accident how could I support five children―

Reporter: Didn’t you say you had four children?

Sarah: I was pregnant with my fifth.

Reporter: Oh.

Sarah: As I was saying, how could I support five children on a teacher’s salary―

Reporter: And you would have to give up this big house and return to the tenements.

Sarah: I resent that question. I lived in the tenements before I was married. Many of my friends still live in the tenements.

Reporter: I’m sorry.

Sarah: You’re forgiven. What I was afraid of mostly was that my older children would have to go to work in the mills. You know what happens to children in the mills.

Reporter: Of course.

Sarah: Their hands get mangled in the looms. They get lung illness from the toxic fumes in the dye houses.

Reporter: Is that why you also became active to restrict child labor as well as fighting for woman suffrage?

Sarah: Yes. I wanted the same protection for all children, not just those of wealthy families.

Reporter: Let’s get back to how you began your campaigns.

Sarah: I started when Abe was away. I had a young girl helping me with the housework. I was able to leave the house for an hour or two to go to the market. But I couldn’t leave four rambunctious children with her for long. But one day I saw a sign about a suffrage meeting. I went. I decided right then that I was going to get involved no matter what my husband said. And I did.

Reporter: Weren’t you worried about what your husband would say when he got home?

Sarah: Of course, and to tell you the truth, I didn’t think I could become active in the movement because of him. Like I said, he is very insistent on the proper place for his wife. And now I was also going to have an elderly person in the house to care for.

Reporter: But of course you did become active.

Sarah: As it turned out, his mother was the one who allowed me to immerse myself into Paterson’s suffrage movement.

Reporter: How so?

Sarah: My mother-in-law was not feeble like I thought she would be. She had raised five sons. She knew how to handle rambunctious boys and was a great help tending to her grandchildren. For the first time since I married I felt like a free woman. I was able to attend meetings and I even held strategy meetings in my house. Did I tell you Alice Paul was in town one day and came to my house?

Reporter: Alice Paul! She’s quite the revolutionary. Wasn’t she arrested in England when she was part of Emmeline Pankhurst’s radical suffrage group?

Sarah: Yes she was.

They fell into a strained silence while the reporter wrote on his pad. Looking back at Sarah he asked: And you did all this without your husband getting suspicious?

Sarah: He worked all day. He obviously thought I was home taking care of his mother and the children.

Reporter: His mother said nothing?

 Sarah: She thought what I was doing was wonderful.

Reporter: Eventually your husband did discover what you were doing. How?

Sarah: When I was arrested. I thought he was going to explode. Would you like some tea?

Although anxious to hear the rest of her story, the reporter acquiesced to the break: Yes, thank you.

*~*

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SILK LEGACY has been called:

“An Epic Family Saga”

“A Tumultuous Love Story”

“A Slice of American History”

Jealousy, infidelity, arrogance, greed—the characters’ titanic struggles will catapult you into the heights of their euphoria and the depths of their despair.  Who will triumph and who will be humbled is not certain until the last page.

EXCERPT FROM SILK LEGACY:

Set up: 1904, Abe and Sarah were on their first date. They had been on the chasm bridge marveling at the great waterfall when she said she wanted to see his bar. (Abe owned a bar before getting into the silk business.)  Abe was reluctant at first. It wasn’t a place for a proper woman, but Sarah insisted. The following is a piece of the dialogue once they got to the bar.

“Can I see your apartment?” Sarah asked. (Note: His apartment was above the bar)

….

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone I was up there.”

….

As she moved around the living room, she ran her finger tips over the silk upholstery and silk draperies, barely caressing them, as she would a delicate flower whose petals might break off if touched too hard.

….

Sarah stared at the Edison phonograph.   “I wish we had one of those.”

“Would you like to hear it?”

“Oh, yes.”

….

“Sounds raspy, doesn’t it?” Abe asked.  “Not like real singing.”

“I love it.  I love all the new inventions.”

“The world is a thrilling place,” he said.

….

“I want to act in a flicker,” she said.

“You’d radiate off the screen and delight everyone in the audience.”

“You make me blush.”

….

“When you smile your eyes sparkle like the mist from the falls that bursts up into the rays of the morning sun.”

She dropped her eyes and reached out to the wing chair for support.

“Do you want to see the rest of the apartment?”

Raising her eyes to meet his, she said, barely louder than a whisper, “Yes.”

He opened the door to the master bedroom.  She looked in and absently said, “Interesting uniforms your bar-maids wear.”   She glanced at her chest.  “I wonder how I would look in one of them?”

“All the men would want only you to wait on them,” he said.

“You think I have enough to fill it out?”

….

His eyes drifted over the curves of her body.  You certainly have enough to fill out any dress, he thought, imagining her bare breasts, round and firm, their rosy nipples taut as he suckled them.  He moved his head to her cheek, inhaling her essence, so fresh and clean.  He kissed her ever so lightly.

She didn’t jump away, but turned to face him.  “Your mustache tickles.”

“You don’t like it?”

“No, I think it’s handsome.  It makes you look very distinguished.”

Their lips, slowly, cautiously came together.  Abe opened his mouth, drawing her lips apart with his.  He touched her tongue with his.  She pulled back, but only for a moment before following his lead.

*~*

Richard Brawer writes mystery, suspense and historical fiction novels. When not writing, he spends his time sailing and exploring local history.  He has two married daughters and lives in New Jersey with his wife.

Read more about SILK LEGACY and all Richard’s books at his website: www.silklegacy.com

SILK LEGACY is available on Kindle and any e-reader, computer, Apple or Android device that has a Kindle APP, or any tablet that can access Kindle books. (Note: Although not self published the book is no longer available in print as the publisher has gone out of business.)

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