A group of young women gather around Mutoscope slot machines that promise moving pictures of ‘Girls in their Night Gowns’. Their wry amusement suggests the way commercial entertainments can be used and subverted by those outside their intended audience. Unlike many intellectuals of the period Sloan was fascinated by, rather than simply dismissive of, popular culture, and nuances his critique of its crude enticements with the women’s playful responses.