Newspaper Page Text
Upton Sinclair's
Novel of
Packingtown
T
‘The Jungle*
BY UPTON SINCLAIR.
rorvright, 1906, by Upton Sinclair. All
Rights Reservetl. 1
CHAPTER II (CONTINUED).
Thus waa the happy ending of a wpa.
ful voyage. The two families literally
Ml upon each other's necks—for It had
been years since Jokubas Szedvtlaa had
met a man from his part of Lithuania.
Before half the day they were lifelong
friends. Jokubas understood all the
Pitfalls of this new world, and could
explain all of Its mysteries; he could
tell them the things they ought to have
done In the different emergencies—and
what was still more to the point, he
could tell them tvhat to do now. He
would take them to Pont Anlele, who
kept a boarding house the other side
of the yards; old Mrs. Juknlene, he ex
plained, had not what one would call
choice accommodations, but they might
do for the moment. To this Teta Klz-
bietn hastened to respond that nothing
could be too cheap to suit them Jus;
then; for they were quite terrified over
the sums they had had to expend. A
very few days of practical experience
In this land of high wages hnd been suf
ficient to make clear to them the cruel
fact that It was nlso a land of high
[,rices, and that In It the poor man was
almost as poor as In any other corner
of the earth; and so there vanished In
a night all the wonderful dreams of
wraith that had been haunting Jurgls.
What had made the discovery all the
more painful was that they were
'pending, at American prices, money
which they had earned at home rates
of wnges—and so were really being
cheated by the world! ' The last two
days they had nil but starved them
reives—It made them quite sick to pay
the prices that he railroad people'
asked them for food.
Yet, when they saw the home of the
Widow Juknlene they could not but re
coil. even so. In all their Journey they
had seen nothing 1 so bad as this. Pont
Anlele had a four-room flat In one of
that wilderness of two-story frame ten
intents that lie "back of the yards.'
There were four such flats In each
building, and each of the four was a
"boarding house" for the occupancy of
foreigners—Lithuanians, Poles, Slovaks
nr Bohemians. Some of these places
were kept by private persons, some
were co-operative. There would be an
average of half n dozen boarders to
each room—sometimes there were thir
teen or fourteen to one room, fifty or
sixty to a flat. Each one of the occu
pants furnished his own accommoda
tions—that Is, a mattress and some
bedding. Tho mattresses would
spread upon the floor in rows—and
there would be nothing else In the place
except n stove. It was by no means
unusual for two men to own the same
mattress In common, one working by
day and using It by night, and the
other working at plght and using It In
the daytime. Very frequently a lodg
ing house keeper would rent the same
beds to double shifts of men.
Mrs. Juknlene was a wlzened-up lit
tle woman with a wrinkled face. Her
home was unthinkably filthy; you
could not enter by the front door at
nil, owing to the mattresses, and when
you tried to go up the back stairs you
found that she had walled up most of
the porch with old boards to make a
Place to keep her chickens. It was a
etnndlng Jest of the boarders that
Anlele cleaned house by letting the
chickens loose In the rooms. Undoubt
edly this did keep dqwn. the vermin, but
It seemed probable, In view of alt the
circumstances, that the old lady re
garded It rather as feeding the chlck-
enn than as cleaning the rooms. The
truth wns that she had definitely given
up the Idea of cleaning anything, under
pressure of an attack of rheumatism,
which kept her doubled up In one cor
ner of her room for over a week, during
which time eleven of her boarders,
heavily in her debt, had concluded to
try tholr chances of employment In
Kansas City. This was July, and the
fields were green. One never saw the
fields, nor any green thing whatever
In Packingtown; but one could go out
on the road and "hobo It," as the men
Phrased It, and see the country, and
have a long rest, and an easy time
riding on the freight cars.
such was the home to which the new
arrivals were xvelromed. There was
nothing better to be had—they might
n a do so well by looking further, for
Mrs. Juknlene had at least kept one
room for herself and her three little
children, and now offered to share this
with the women and the girts of the
party. They could get bedding at a
second-hand store, she explained; and
they would not need any, while the
weather was so hot—doubtless the;
would all sleep on the sidewalk sucl
nights ns this, as did nearly all of her
guests. "Tomorrow," Jurgls said, when
they were left alone, "tomorrow I will
get a Job. and perhaps Jonas will get
one also; and then we can get a place
of our own."
latter that afternoon he and Ona went
out to take a walk and look about
them, to see more of this district which
Was to be their home. In back of the
yards the dreary two-story frame
houses were scattered farther apart,
and there were great spaces bare—that
seemingly had been overlooked by the
great sore of a city as It spread It
self over the surface of the prairie.
These bare places were grown up with
dingy, yellow weeds, hiding Innumer
able tomato cans; Innumerable chil
dren played upon them, chasing one
another here and there, screaming and
lighting. The most uncanny thing about
this neighborhood was the number of
the children; you thought there must
be a school Just out, and It was only
af'er long acquaintance that you were
able to realize that there was no school,
but that these were the children of the
neighborhood—that there were so many
children to the block In Packingtown
that nowhere on Its streets could a
h- -rse and buggy move faster than a
Walk!
It could not move faster anyhow, on
•'count of the state of the streets.
Those through which Jurgls and Ona
"-re walking resembled streets less
than they did a miniature topogrephl-
(al map. The roadway was commonly
several feet lower then the level of
the houses, which were sometimes
Joined by high-bonrd walks; thsrs were
no pavements—there were mountains
»nd valleys and rivers, gullies and
CHINA OF QUALITY.
Among our new arrivals
in China are some exquisite
ppeeimens in both French
ainl English makes.
People who are fond of
truly artistic wares of this
kind will find much to at
tract them in our China Sec
tion.
< 'all any time.
-TAIER & BERKELE.
SYNOPSIS OF PREVIOUS CHAPTERS
The story of "The Jungle," Upton Sinclair's novel, which has caused
the government Investigation Into the methode employed by the Beef
Trust, had Its origin In an Actual Packingtown remoance.
In AaMand avenue—“back of the itock yards"—the wedding took
place.
The flrat chapter merely ehowa a broad-shouldered butcher . being
wedded to a young girl who -see* In him a hero. The wedding In all Ha
grotesqueneaa la described in this chapter. The wedding ceremony is
typical of Packingtown. It ends at dawn, when Jurgls and his bride,
On*, depart, sadly realising that the contributions, which ore a feature
of the feast, will not nearly bear the expense of the ceremony.
The romance le a prelude to the story of actual life 1n the stock
yards.
At the end ofthe wedding festivity, with guests drunk, Jurgls averts
froe-flghtlng, and hurries his bride off, carrying her. He says ehe must
not return to the packing house, but she tearfully protests that her Idle
ness would ruin their happiness. He gays, renssurlngly nnd tendenrly;
"Leave It to me. I will earn more money. I will work harder."
The "boss" under whom Jurgls slaved would have smiled had he
heard this assurance. Jurgls could not work harder.
The novelist then tells how Jurgls, poor, yet with the strength of the
oxen he was later fated to kill, aspired to the hand of Ona; how her fath
er objected; how the young glnnt wont sadly away and worked like mad
until he had accumulated a little money, and how eventually America
and the word "Chicago” lured them to this country, where they be
lieved all men were literally equal, and gold awaited thoso who worked
hard and faithfully. Ona's father being dead, Jurgls won his suit, after
he had obtained e Job In the yards.
Yesterday's Installment of the powerful narrative ended with telling
how the party of Immigrants providentially—while wandering aimlessly
through the streets after their arrival in the stock yards district—were
cared for In the delicatessen shop of J. Sxvedllas, who hnd emigrated
years before from Lithuania, and been reputed In Ills native country a
prosperous man.
ditches, and great hollows full of
stinking green water. In these poole
the children played end rolled about In
the mud of the streets; here and there
one noticed them digging In It, after
trophies which they had stumbled on.
One wondered about this, as also about
the swarms of flies which hung about
the scene, literally blackening the air,
and the strange, fetid odor which as
sailed one's nostrils, a ghastly odor,
of all the dead things of the universe.
It Impelled the visitor to questions—
and then the residents would explain,
quietly, that all this was "made” land,
and that It hnd been “made” by using
It as a dumping ground for the city
garbage. After a few yeare the un
pleasant effect of this would pass away.
It waa said; but meantime. In hot
weather—and especially when It rained
—the flies were opt to be annoying.
Wns It not unhealthful? the stranger
would ask; and the residents would
answer, "Perhaps; but there Is no tell
ing."
A little way further on, and Jurgls
and Ona, staring open-eyed nnd won
dering, came to the place where thla
"made" ground was In process of mak
ing. Here waa a grent hole, perhaps
two city blocks square, And with long
■' pf garbage wagon/ creeping Into
The place had an odor tor which
there are no polite words; and It was
sprinkled over with children, who
raked In It from dawn till dark. Some
times visitors from the packing houses
would wander out to see this "dump."
and they would stand by and debate
as to whether the children were eating
the food they got, or merely collecting
It for the chickens at hoine.a Appar
ently none of them ever went down to
And out.
Beyond this dump there etood a great
brickyard, with smoking chimneys.
First they took out the soil to make
bricks, and then they flllod It up again
with garbage, which seemed to Jurgls
and Ona n felicitous arrangement,
characteristic of an enterprising coun
try like America. A little way beyond
was another great hole, which they
had emptied and not yst tilled up. This
held water, and all summer It stood
there, with the near-by soil draining
Into It, festering and stewing In tho
sun; and then, when winter came,
somebody cut the Ice on It, and sold
It to the people of the city. This, too,
seemed to the new-comsrs an economi
cal arrangement; for they did not
read the newspapers, and their heads
were not full of troublesome thoughts
about "germs."
They stood there while the sun went
down upon this scene, and the sky In
the west turned blood-red, and the tops
of the houses shone like fire. Jurgls
and Ona were not thinking of the
sunset, however—their backs wefip
turned to It. and all their thoughts
were of Packingtown. which they could
see eo plainly In the distance. The line
of the buildings stood clear-cut and
black against tha sky; here end there
out of the men rose the great chim
neys, with the river of emoke stream
ing away to the end of the world. It
was a study In colors now, thla smoke;
In the eunaet light It wee black and
brown and gray and purple. All the
sordid suggestions of the place were
gone—In the twilight It was a vision
of power. To the two who etood watch
ing while the darkness swallowed It
up, It seemed a dream of wonder, with
Its tale of humar energy, of things be
ing done, of employment for thousands
upon thousands of men, of opportunity
and freedom of life and love jmd Joy.
When they came away, arm In arm,
Jurgls was saying, "Tomorrow I shall
go there end get a Job!"
CHAPTER III.
In hie capacity as delicatessen ven
der, .Jokubas Ssedrilas had many ac
quaintances. Among these waa one
of the special policemen employed by
Durham, whose duty It frequently waa
to pick out men for employment Joku
bas had never tried It, but he expressed
certainty that he could get some of
hie friends a Job through this man. It
waa agreed, after consultation, that he
should make the effort with old An-
tanas and with Jonas. Jurgls waa con
fident of hit ability to get work for
himself, unassisted by any one.
As we have said before he was not
mistaken In this. He had gone to
Brown's and stood there not more than
half an hour before one of the bosses
noticed hie form towering above the
rest and signalled to him. The collo
quy which followed waa brief and to
tha point;
'Speak English?”
•So: Llt-uantan.” (Jurgls had stud
ied this word carefully.)
"Job?"
-Je." (A nod.)
"Worked here before r
"No' stand."
(Signals and gesticulations on the
part of the bees. Vigorous shakes of
the heed by Jurgls.)
"8horel guts?"
"No ’stand." (More shakes of the
h juntos, pxgsilfcsxtJr, S*luou'." (Im
itative motions.)
“iSe door. Durys?" (Pointing.)
"Ja."
"Tomorrow, * o'clock. Understand?
BytoJI Prieespletys! Septynl!"
"Dekul, tamlstal!" (Thanks you,
sir.) And that was all. Jurgls turned
away, and then in n sudden rush the
full realization of his triumph swept
over him, and he gave a yell and a
Jump, and started off on n run. He
had a Job! And he went all the way
home as if upon wings, and burst Into
the house like a cyclone, to the rage
of the numerous lodgers who had Just
turned In for their dally sleep.
Meantime Jokubas had been to see
his friend the policeman, and received
encouragement, so It wns n happy par
ty. There being no more to bo done
that day, the shop was left under the
care of LucIJa, and her husband sallied
forth to show his friend? the sights of
Packingtown. Jokubas did this with
the air of a country gentlemnn escort
Ing a party of visitors over his estate,
he was an old-time resident, and nil
thsse wonder* had grown up under his
eyes, and he had a personal pride In
them. The packers might own the
land, but he claimed the landscape, and
there was no one to Say nay. to this.'
They passed down the buey street
that led to the yards. It was stllPearly
morning, and everything was at Its
high tide of activity. A steady stream
of employees was pouring through the
gate—employees of tho higher sort, at
this hour, clerks nnd stenographer*
nnd such. For tho women there were
waiting big two-horso wagons, which
set off at a gallop as fast as they were
filled. In the distance there was heard
1'guln tli" lowing of Hi" , nulo. u si,iiml
ns of a far-off ocean calling. They
followed It, this time, as eager as rhll
dren In sight of a circus menagerie—
which. Indeed, the scene a good deni
resembled. They crossed the railroad
tracks, ahd then on each side of the
atreet.were the pens full of cattle; they
would have stopped to look, but Joku
bas hurried them on, to where there
waa a stairway and a raised gallery,
from which everything could be seen.
Here they stood, staring, breathless
with wonder.
There Is over a square mile of apace
In the yards, and more than half of It
Is occupied by cattle pens; north and
south as far as tho eyo can reach„thero
stretches a sea of pens. And they were
filled—so many cattle no one had ever
dreamed existed In the world. Rod
cattle, black, white and yellow cattlo
old cattle and young cattle: great bel
lowing bulla and little reives not an
hour born; meek-eyed milch cowa and
fierce, long-horned Texas steers. The
sound of them here woe aa of all the
barnyards of the universe; and aa for
counting them—It would have taken all
day simply to count the pens. Here
and there ran long alley*, blocked at
Intervals by gates, and Jokubas told
them that the number of these gates
waa twenty-five thousand. Jokubas
had recently been reading a newspaper
article which was full of statistics such
as that, and ha was very proud as he
repeated them and made his guests cry
out with wonder. Jurgls, too, had a
little of this sens* of pride. Had he
not Juat got a Job, and become a sharer
In all thla activity, a cog In thla mar,
vellous machine?
Here and there about the alleys gal
loped men upon horseback, booted and
carrying long whips; they were very
busy, calling to each other, and to those
who were driving the rattle. They
were drover* and stock raisers, who
had come from far states, and brokers
and commission merchants, and buyers
for all the big packing houses. Here
and there they would stop to Inspect a
bunch of cattle, and there would be a
parlay, brief and bualneai-llk*. The
buyer would nod or drop hia whip, and
that would mean a bargain; and he
would note It In his little book, along
with hundreds of others ha had mndr
;bat morning. Then Jokubas pointed
out the place where the cattle were
driven to be weighed, upon a great
scale that would weigh a hundred
thousand pounds at ones and fecord It
automatically. It waa near to tha east
entrance that they stood, end all along
this east side of the yard* ran the rail
road tracks, Into which the car* were
run, loaded with cattle. All night long
this bad been irning on, end now the
pens were full; >-y tonight they would
all be empty, and tha mm* thing would
be done again.
"And what will become of alt these
ere*lures?" cried Teta Klzbleta.
"By tonight," Jokubas answered,
"they will all be killed and cut up; and
over thar* on the other side of the
packing houses are more railroad
tracks, where the cars come to take
them away."
There were two hundred ahd fifty
miles of tracks within the yards, their
guide went on to tell them. They
brought about ten thousand head of
rattle every day, and aa many hogs,
and half as many sheep—which meant
tom* eight or ten million live creator**
turned Into food every year. One stood
and watched, and little by little raught
the drift of the tide, ss It act In the
direction of the packing houses. There
were groups of cattle being driven to
the chutes, which were roadways about
fifteen feet wide, raised high above the
pens. In these chutes the stream or
animals was continuous; It was quite
uncanny to watch them, pressing on
to their fate, all unsuspicious—a very
river of death. Our friends were not
poetical, and tha sight suggested to
them no metaphors of human destiny:
they thought only of the wonderful
efllrlency of It all. The chulr* Into
which the bog* went climbed high up—
to the very top of the distant build
ings; and Jokubas explained that ths
A CLOTHING SALE!
THE LEADING COMMERCIAL EVENT!
'• A Liberal Discount Sixty Days in Advance of
Price Cutting Generally.
j
A Clothing
Event That
Eclipses
In Radical
Value-Giving
Any Atlanta
Has Ever
Known,
Coming As
It Does At
The Very ’
Height Of
The Season,
When
Thonsands
Of Men First
Think Of
Summer
Clothing.
r
A
v:
jr
From Our
Factory
Come
Several
Hundred
Suits. This,
Together
With Our
Immense
Stock, Makes
The Sale
Imperative.
The Values
In This Sale
Are Simply
Marvelous;
You’ll
Quickly
Agree With
Us When Yon
See .The
Tremendous
Price
Reductions.
Two and Three-piece Suits.
Two-piece Suits and Three-pioce
Suits in single and doublo breast
ed models, of weaves and fabrics
that aro perfect. Suits that are
worth and sold at $7.50, $8.50 and
$9.00, now
Two-piece Suits and Three-piece
Suits in single nnd double breast
ed models. Excellent worsteds,
tweeds, cheviots and easaimeres.
that are worth and sold at $10.00
and $11.50, now
Ql
c
Two-piece Suits and Three-piece
Suita in single nnd double-breast
ed models, in auit* as perfect as
tailor-made hinds, in every up-to-
tho-instant fabric, that nre worth
■ad MM It $16.50..,,
Two-piece Suits and Three-piece
Suits in single and double-breast
ed models, of hnndsome worsteds,
cheviots nnd velours. Suits thnt
nre worth nnd sold at $18, $20,
$25 nnd $80. Now
$11.90
$10.90
MAIL. ORDERS FILLED.
J
89-91 Whitehall St.
Manufacturing Clothiers.
The Globe Clothing Co.
hog* went up by the power of their
own legz. and then their weight car
ried them back through aU the pro
cesses necessary to make* them Into
pork.
"They don't waste anything here."
raid the guide, and then he laughed
and added a witticism, which h* was
Pleased that tala unidphtstlcated friends
should take to be his own: "They us*
everything about the hog except the
ueal.” In front of Brown's general
-.flee building there grow* a tiny plot
of gra**, nnd this, you may learn. Is
■ r Wt of green thing In Packing-
town; likewise this Jest about the hog
and his squeal, the stock In trade of
all the guides. Is the on* gleam of hu
mor that you will And there.
After they had seen enough of the
pen*, the party went up the street, to
the mas* of buildings which occupy the
center of the yards. These buildings,
made of brick and stained with In
numerable layers of Packingtown
smoke, were painted all over with ad
vertising signs, from which ths visitor
realized suddenly that he had come to
the home of many of tfce torment* of
hi* Ilf*. It was her* that they made
products with the wonders of,
silly little Jingles that he could not
get out of his mind and gaudy pictures
that lurked for him around every street
corner. Here wns where they made
Brown’s Imperial Hums and Racon,
Brown’s Dressed Beef, Brown's Ex
celsior Hausages! Here was the head
quarter* of Durham's Pure Leaf Lard.
Durham’s Breakfast Bacon, Durham's
Canned Reef, Potted Ham. Devilled
Chicken, Peerless Fertilizer!
Entering one of the Durham build
ings, they found a number of other
visitors waiting; and before long there
came a guide to escort them through
the place. They make a great feature
of showing stranger* through the
packing plants, for It Is a good adver-
tlaement. But Jonaa Jokubaa whis
pered maliciously that the visitors did
not see any more than the. packers
wanted them to. *'
They climbed a long series of stair
way* outside of the building to the
top of Its five or six stories. Here were
the chute, with Its rlxer of hogs, all
patiently tolling upward: the-e was a
® Place for them to rest to cool off.
which they postered him eo by placards I then through another passageway they
that defaced the landscape when be | went Into a room from which there Is
traveled and by staring advertisements no returning for hoge.
In the newspapers and magazines—by It was a long, narrow room, with a
gallery along It for visitors. At the while men were
head there was a great Iron wheel,
about twenty feet In circumference,
with rings here and there along Its
edge. Upon both sides of this wheel
there was s narrow space. Into which
cam* the hog* at the end of their
Journey; In the midst of them stood a
great burly negro, bare-armed nnd
hare-cheated. He was resting for the
moment, for the wheel had stopped
ning up. In a
minute or two, however, II begun slow
ly to revolve, nnd then the m»n upon
■ . I. -Me ,,r II si„oM K I,, work They
had chain* which they fastened about
the leg of the nearest hog, and the
other end of the chain the hooked
Into ono of the ring* upon the wheel,
Bo. aa the wheel turned, a hog "a*
suddenly Jerked ulf hla feet and born*
aloft.
(Continued in Tomorrow's Georgian.)
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69 Whitehall Street, will supply THE
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