Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, The Rebel Girl: An Autobiography, My First Life (1906-1926)
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We were horrified, too, at the conditions we had never met in our travels elsewhere the prevalence of pests in the old slum houses, mice, rats, cockroaches and bedbugs. My poor mother carried on a desperate struggle to rid us of these parasites. And then something horrible happened to us in school-pediculosis is the scientific term; "lousy" the children called it. One child can infect a whole classroom, as every teacher knows. Yet often you will hear a smug prosperous person say: "Well, at least the poor can keep clean." I remember my friend, Rose Pastor Stokes, answering a woman who said this: "Did your mother ever look at a nickel in her hand and decide between a loaf of bread and a cake of soap? Well, mine did!"

— Elizabeth Gurley Flynn on Rose Pastor Stokes

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "We were horrified, too, at the conditions we had never met in our travels elsewhere the prevalence of pests in the old slum houses, mice, rats, cockroaches and bedbugs. My poor mother carried on a desperate struggle to rid us of these parasites. And then something horrible happened to us in school-pediculosis is the scientific term; "lousy" the children called it. One child can infect a whole classroom, as every teacher knows. Yet often you will hear a smug prosperous person say: "Well, at least the poor can keep clean." I remember my friend, Rose Pastor Stokes, answering a woman who said this: "Did your mother ever look at a nickel in her hand and decide between a loaf of bread and a cake of soap? Well, mine did!"" in the context of "Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, The Rebel Girl: An Autobiography, My First Life (1906-1926)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Rose Pastor Stokes" (Quotes about Rose Pastor Stokes) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 19, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

About Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (August 7, 1890 – September 5, 1964) was a labor leader, activist, and feminist who played a leading role in the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Flynn was a founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union and a visible proponent of women's rights, birth control, and women's suffrage. She joined the Communist Party USA in 1936 and late in life, in 1961, became its chairwoman.