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^Etna Insurance Company, HARTFORD, CONN. '- A ON JUNE 19th HAD ADJUSTED . 789 CLAIMS AND PAID $1,126,506.00 OF its SAN FRAN CISCO LOSSES. When You Have a Loss The Best Is None Too Gopd. Why Not Buy The Best? ASSETS, . ...... $16,815,296.87 SURPLUS,. $11,036,010.33 LIPSCOMB & GO., Sole Agents, 619-20-21 Century Building. ’Phone, Bell 172. ;.U$ (Copyright, 1906, by Upton Sinclair. AH rights reserved.) CHAPTER V (CONTINUED). % So, after all, there was a crack In the fine structure of Jurgls' faith in things as they are. The crack w’as wide, while Dede Antanas was hunting a job—and It was yet wider when he finally got It. For one evening the old man came home itv'a great state of ex citement, with the tale that. he had been approached by a. man In one of the corridors of the pickle rooms* of Dur ham’s, and asked what he would pay to get a job. He had not known what to make of this at first; but the man had gone on with matter-of-fact frank ness to say that he could get him a job, provided'that he were willing to pay one-third of his wages for it. Was he a boss? Antanas had asked; to which the man had replied that that was nobody’s business, but that he could do what he said. Jurgls had made some friends by this time, and he sought one of them and asked what this meant. The friend, who was named Taraoszlus Kuszlelka, was a sharp little man who folded hides on the killing beds, and he listened to what Jurgls had to say without seem ing at all- surprised. They were com mon enough, he said,. such cases of petty graft. He was simply some boss who proposed to add a little to his In come. After Jurgls had been there a while he would know that the plants were simply honey-combed with rot tenness of that sort—the bosses graft ed off the men, and they grafted off each other; and some day the superin tendent would find out about the boss, and then he would graft off the boss. Warming to the subject, Tamosxlus went on to explain the situation. Here was Durham’s, for Instance, owned by a man who was trying to make as much money out of It as he could, ana did not care In the least how he did It; and underneath him, ranged In ranks and grades like an army, were managers and superintendents and foremen, each one driving the man be low him and trying to squeeze out of him ns much work as possible. And all the men of the same rank were pitted against each other; the ac counts of each kept separately, • and every man lived In mortal terror of los ing his Job, If another made a better record than hd. So from top to bot tom the place was simply a seething cauldron of jealousies and hatreds; there was no loyalty or decency any where about It; there was no place In It where a man counted for anything against a dollar. And worse than there being no decency, there was not even any honesty. The reason for that? Who could say? It must have been old Durham In the beginning; It was a heritage which the self-made merchant had left to hts son along with his mil lions. Jurgls would And out these things for himself. If he rtayed there long enough; it was the men who had to do all the dirty Jobs, and so there was no deceiving them; and they caught the •pint of the place, and did like all the- rest. Jurgls had come there, ana thought he was going to make himself useful, and rise and become a skilled man; but he would soon find out his erorr—for nobody rose in Packingtown by doing good work. You could lay that down for a rule—If you met a man who was rising In Packingtown, you met a knave. That man who had been sent to Jurgls’ father by the boss, he would rise; the man who told tne tale and spied upon his fellows would rt*e; but tne man who minded his own business and did hls work—why, they would "speed him up” till they had worn him out, and then they would thr >w him Into the gutter. , „ ^ Jurgls went home with his head buz zing. Yet he could not bring himself to believe such things—no. It could not be •o Tamosxlus was simply another of th* grumblers. He was a man who ■pent all hls time Addling; and he would go to parties at night and not get home till sunrise, and so of course he did not feel like work. Then, too, he a puny little chap; and so he had b^n left behind fn the race, and that was why ha was sort. And yet so many SYNOPSIS OF PREVIOUS CHAPTERS B acking sought c. On srrlrlng In Chicago, He could not work lmrdcr, but support wan abhorrent to him. HsedTlhs, a Lithuanian, who ran a delicatessen store In Packingtown, guided Jurgls, Oun, Mnrljn and the remainder of the party through the stock yards, after be had given them lodging. In this section of the story the author reveals soms of the things that hare startled the country. Finding tho cost of living high, the little coterie decided to purchase a small house, dividing the cost between them, against the advice of Hzedrllns, who said the papere. lie discovered the word "rental" In the Instalment contract, women, believing they had been trapped, were terrified. A Ibwyer proa the pnper regular. Their .fright was shared by Jurgls. Another lawyer tn the paper regular. Their .fright was , hls wild fancies. Needed furnishings were purchased on the same "easy payment" plan. pronounced ■“ mollified Jurgls, In hls enormous strength, gloried in being able to keep up with picked n, who set the pace In the awful ordeal known ns "speeding the gang’’ at slaughter house. When asked to Join the union, which was trying to correct this evil, he declined with fine rage. lie could do the work hfinself, and so could the rest of them, he declared. If they were good for anything. Antanas ltudkus, broken In health, was a victim of this system, llelng no logger robust, he sought work In vain. "Kudkas had been Into, every of the story concludes. "He baa dcred him out, sometimes with curses, and question." STATUARY. Arc you interested in works of art? If so, you "ill appreciate very much the choice gathering of studies in our Art Rooms. The purest Carara and aCs- tilian marble wrought into hums of compelling beauty ami appealing grace. These studies arc charm ing for gifts as well as for individual possession. -VTAIER b BERKELE. strange thing, kept coming to Jurgls' notice evry day! - He tried to persuade hls father to have nothing to do with the otter. But old Antanas had begged Until he was worn out, and all fils "courage wan J one; he wanted a lob, any sort of a ob. So tha next day he went and found the man who had spoken to him. and promised to bring him ft third of all he earned; and that samo dny he was put to work In Durham’s cellars. It was a "pickle room,” where there wa, never a dry spot to stand upon, and so he had to take nearly a whole of hi# first week's earning, to buy him a pair of heavy-soled boots. He was a "squeeilglc” man: hi, lob was to about all day with a long-handled mop, swabbing up the floor. Except that It was damp and dark. It was not an un pleasant lob, In summer. Now Antanas Rudkus was the meek est man that God ever put on earth; and so Jurgls found It a striking con firmation of what the men all said, that hls father had been at work only two day, before he came home as bitter as any of them, and cursing Durham's with all the power of hls soul. For they had set him to cleaning out the traps; and the family sat round and listened In wonder while he told them what that meant. It seemed that he was working In the room where the men prepared the beef for canning, and tha beef had lain In vats full of chemlcnls, and men with great forks speared Ul out and dumped It Into truck*, to b* taken tooths cooking room. When they had speared out all they could reach, they emptied the vat on the floor, and then with shovel* scraped up the bal ance and dumped It Into the truck. This floor wa, filthy, yet they set- An tanas with hls mop slopping the "pickle” Into a hole that connected with a sink, where It wa, caught and used over again forever; and If that were not enough, there was a trap In tha pe, where all the scrape of meat and __ds and ends of refuse were caught, and every few day* It was the old man's task to clean these out, and shovel their content. Into one of the trucks with the rest of the meat! This wa, the experience of Antanas; and then there came alao Jonas and MartJa with tales to tell. .Marijs wsa working for one of the Independent packers, and waa quit# beside herself and outrageous with triumph over the sums of money she was making as a painter of can*. But one -lay she walked home with a pale-faced little woman who worked opposite her, Jad- Marclnku* by name, and Jadvyga ter how she, Marlla. had chanced to get her lob. She had taken the place of an Irish- woman who had been forking In that factory for over fifteen -ears, ao she declared. Mary Dennis wa* her name, and a long time ago she had been betrayed, and had a little boyr he waa a cripple, and an epilep tic. but still he. waa all that she had In the world to love, and they had lived In a little room alone somewhere back of Halited street, where the Irish were. Mary had had consumption, and all'day long you might hear her cough ing a* she worked; of late she had been going all to pieces, and when Ma- rija came, the forelady” had suddenly decided to turn her off. The forelsdy bad to come up to a. certain standard herself, and could not atop for sick people. Jadvyga explained. The fact that Mary had been there ao long had not made any difference to her—It was doubtful If she even Knew that, for both the forelady and the superintendent were new people, having only been there two or.three years themselves. Jadvyga did not know what had be come of the poor creature: she would have gone to see her, but had been sick herself. She had pain* In her bade all the time, Jadwga explained. It waa not fit work for a woman, handling fourteen-pound cans all day. It was a striking circumstance that Jonas, too, had gotten hls lob by the misfortune of some other person. Jonas pushed a truck loaded ^tbjismsfrom and thence to the packing" rooms. The trucks were all of Iron and heavy, and they put about three-score hams on each of them, a load of more than a quarter of a ton. On the uneven floor It was a task for a man to start one of these trucks, unless he wo, a giant; and when It was once started he natur ally tried hls best to keep It going. There was always the boss prowling about, and If there was a second's tic Iny he would fait to cursing; Ltthuan Ians and Slovaks and such, who could not understand what was said to them, the bosses were wont to kick about the place like so many dogs. There fore tbese trucks went for tho most part on the run;'and the predecessor of Jonas had been lammed against the wall by one and crushed In a horrible manner. All of these were sinister. Incidents, but they were trifle, compared to what Jurgls saw with hls own eyes before long. One day a man Hipped and hurt hla leg, and that afternoon, -when the Inst of the rattle had been disposed of and the men were leaving, Jurgls wa, or dered to remain and do home special work which this Injured man had usually done. It was late, almost dark, and the government Inspector* had all gone, and there were only a dosen or two of men on the floor. That day they had killed about four thousand rattle, and these htd com* in freight trains from fsr states, and some of them had got hurt. There were some with broken leg, and aom* with gored •Ides; there wer* some that had died from what cause no.one could nay, and they were all to be disposed of here In darkness and silane*. ''Downers." the men called them, and the packing house had a special elevator upon which they were raised to tha killing beds, where the gang proceeded to handle them, with an air of bustneas-llke non chalance which aald plainer than any words that It was a matter of every day routine. It took a'couple pf hours to get them out of the way, and In the end Jurgls saw them go Into the chil ling rooms with the rest of the meat, being carefully scattered here and there so that they could not be Identl- lied. When he came home that, night h* waa In a very sombre mood, having begun to see at last how'those might be right who had laughed at him for hls faith In America. Jurgls and Ona were very much In love; they had waited a long time—It was now well Ipto the second year, and Jurgls Judged everything by the criterion of Its helping or hindering their union. All hls thoughts were terested'ln the house because It was to be Ona'a home. Even the triclca and cruelties he saw at Durham’s had little meaning for him lust then, save aa - - - - - - ‘ wttll Ona. The marriage would have been once. If they hsT ley might- happen to affect hi* future Ith Ona. a marriagi ■ , If they had had their way; but this would mean that they would have to do without any wedding feast, and G hen they suggested this they came ito conflict with the old people. To Teta Elxbleta especially the very sug gestion was an affliction. What! aha would cry. To be married on the road side like a parcel of beggars! No! No! —Eltbleta had some traditions behind her; she had been a person of Impor tance In her girlhood—had lived on a big estate and had servants, and might hare married well and been a lady but for the fact that there bad been nine (laughters and no sons In the family. Even so, however, she knew what was decent and clung to her traditions with desperation. They were not going to lose all casta; even It,they had come to- be unskilled laborers In Parking- town; and that Ona hod even talked Of omitting a vesselU* was enough to keep her stepmother ly.ng awake all night. It was In rain for them to _ say that they hqd so few friends; they smokeroom on to ail elevator, wera bound to have friends In time. and then the friends would talk about It They must not give up what waa right for a little money—If they did, the money would never do them any good, they could depend upon that Ana Kl/.tili-ln would mil upon In-do -111- tanas to support her; there was a fear In the souls of these two, lest this Journey to a new country might somehow undermine the old home vir tues of thslr children. Tho very first Sunday they had all been token to mass; and poor as they were, Elxbleta had felt It advisable to Invest a llttlo of tier resource* In a representation of the babe of Bethlehem, made In plaster and painted In brllllnnt colors. Though It was only a foot high, there was a shrine with four snow-white steeple*, and the Virgin standing with her child In her arms, and the kings and shep herds and wise men bowing down be fore him. It had cost fifty cents: but Elxbleta had a feeling thnt money spent for such things was not to he counted too closely, it would come back In hidden ways. The piece wns beauti ful on the parlor mantel, and ona could not have a home without some sort of ornament. The cost of the wedding feast would, of course, be returned to them; but the problem wns to raise It even tempora rily. They hod been In tho neighbor hood so el."II ■! 11ui- Hun they could not get much credit, and tliero was no one except SzedvlIaH from whom they Could borrow even a little. Evening after evening, Jurgls and Ona would alt and figure the cxinnses, calculating the term of their separation. They could not possibly manage It decently fur less than $200, and even though they wera welcome to count In the whole of the earnings of Marlla and Jonna, aa a loan, they could not hope to raise this sum In less than four or flvo months. Bo Ona began thinking of seeking employment herself. Baying that if she had even ordinarily good luck, she might be ablo to take two months off the time. They wero Just beginning to adjust themselves to this necessity, when out of the clear sky there fell a thunderbolt upon them— a calamity that scattered all their hopes to the four wlndB'. About a block away from them there lived another Lithuanian family, con slating of an elderly widow and one grown son; their name was Majausx- kls, and our friends struck up nn ac quaintance with them before long. One evening they came over for a visit, and naturally the first subject upon which the conversation turned was the neighborhood nnd Its history; and then Grandmother Mnjausxklenc, as the old lady was railed, proceeded to recite to them a string of horrors that fairly froze their blood. She was a wrlnkled-up and wizened personage— she must have been eighty—and as she mumbled the grim story through her toothless gums, she seemed a very old witch to them. Grandmother MaJauHz- klene had lived In tho midst of mis fortune so long that It had come tn be her element, and ah* talked about starvation, sickness and death aa other people might about weddings and hull days. Tha thing cam* gradually. In the first place aa to the house they had bought,- It waa not new at all, as they had supposed; It was about fifteen there waa nothing new upon It but the paint, which was so bad that It needed to be put on hew every year or two. The house was one of a whole row that was built by ■ company which existed to make money by swindling poor people. The family had paid II,SOU for It, and It had not coat th* bulldsm 1500 when it was new. Grandmother Malausxklene knew that, because her son belonged to a political organxatlon with a con tractor wbo put up exactly auch houses. They used the very flimsiest and cheapest material; they built the houses a dozen at a time, and they cared about nothing at all except the outside shine. The family could take her word aa to the trouble they would hava, for-ahe had been through It all —she and her eon had bought their house In exactly the seme way. They had fooled the company, however, for her son was a skilled man, wbo made as high as 1100 a month, and an he had had aenae enough not to marry they had been able to pay for the bouse. Grandmother Majauatkltne saw that her friends were puzzled at this rs* Mid not quite see how pay- house wee "fooling the company.” Evidently they wera very Inexperienced, (.'heap as the houses were, they were sold with th* Idee that the people wbo bought their, would not be able to pay for them When they failed—If It wer* only by a single month—they would lose the house and all that they had paid on It, and then the company would sell And did they often get a chance to do that? Dleve! (Grandmother Malausxklene raised her hands.) They did It—how often no one say, but certainly more than half of the time. They might ask any one who knew anything at all abuut I'a.-u- Ingtonn aa to that; an* had been liv ing here ever since this house was built, and she could tell them all about It. And had It ever been sold before? UPTON 8INCLAIR. Author of "Th* Jungle." Suslmllkle! Why, since It had been I but they had worked hard, and the built no less thnn four families that | father had been a steady man, and their Informant could name hod tried to buy It und ■ failed. She would tell them a little about It. The first family had been Oermans. The families had all been of different nationalities— thore lm<l been a repre sentative of several rare* thnt had displaced each other In the stock yards. -Grandmother Majauszklrne had coma to America with her sen at a time when so far ns she knew there wns only one other Lithuanian family In the district:,the workers had all been German, then—skilled cattle butchers that the packers had brought from abroad to start the business. After wards, ns cheaper labor had come, those German* had moved away. The next were th* Irish—there had been six or eight years when Park had been a regulnr Irish city. There wero a few colonies of them still here, enough to run nil the unions nnd the police force and get all the graft; but the moat of those who were working n the packing houses had gone away at the next drop In wages-nfter the big strike. The Bohemians had conn then, nnd after them the Poles. Peo- J le said that old man Durham hlm- elf wa* responsible for tbese Immigra tions; he had sworn that he would fix the people of Parklngtown so that they would never again call a strike on him, and eo he had sent hls agents Into every city and village In Europe to spread the tale of the chances of work and high wages at the stock yurda The people had come In hordes, and old Durham had squeezed them tight er nnd tighter, speeding them up and grinding them to pieces and sending for new ones. • The Poles, who had come by tens of thousands, had been driven to the wall by the Lithuanians, and now the IJthuinltn* were giving way to the Slovaks. . Who there wo, poorer and more miserable, thsn the Hlovaka, Grandmother Malausxklene had no Idea, but the packers would find them, never fear. It was easy to bring them, for wages were reslly much higher and tt was only when It was too late that the poor people found out that everything else was higher too. They were like rat. In a trap, that was the truth; and more of them were piling In every day. By and by they would have their revenge, though, for the thing was getting beyond but they had a good deal more than half paid for hla house. But he had been killed tn an elevator accident In Dur ham's. Then there had come the Irish, end there had been lot* of them,, too. The husband drank end beat the children— the neighbors could hear them shriek ing aiy night. They wera behind with their rent all the tlmo. But the com pany was good to them. Thera was some politics back of that. Grand mother Malausxklene could not aay lust what, but the Laffertys had be longed , lo "the "War Whoop League,” which wa* a sort of political club of all the thugs and rowdlsa In the dis trict, and If you belonged to that you could never be arrested for anything. Once upon a time old Lsfferty hud been caught with a gang that had atolen Cows from several of the poor people of the neighborhood and butch ered them In nn old shanty of the yards .and sold them. He had been tn Jail only three day* for It, and had com* out laughing and had not even lost hi* place In th* packing house. He had . gone all to ruin with tha drink, however, and lost hls power; one of hls sons, who was a good man, had kept him and the family up for a year or iwo, but then he had got alck with consumption. There waa anoiher thing. Grand mother Majsusxkltn* Interrupted her self—this house was unlucky. Every family that lived In II, some on* waa sura to get consumption.' Nobody could tall why that was; (hare must be something about a" house or the wsy It we* built—some folks said It waa because the building had been be gun In the dark of the moon. There were dozen* of houses that wey In Packingtown. Sometime* thsre would be a partkhilar room that you could point oik—If anybody slept In that room he was Just as good as dead With this house It had been the Irish first; nnd then a Bohemian family had lost a child of II—though, lo be sure, that was uncertain, line* It waa hard to tell what was the matter with chil dren who worked tn the yards In thos* days tlwrs had been na law about the age of children—the pack ers had worked all but th * of getting a living. Very often a man could get nn work In Pai Mngt-mn for months, while a child could gn and got n place <n*tty; there wns always some new machine, by which the packet s could get ns much work out of n child ns they had been nblo to gel nut of a man, and for n third of the pny. To come back to tho house again, It wns the woman of the next family that had died. Thai was nfter they had been Ihcre nenrly four years, and this woman had had twins regularly every year—and there had been more than you could count when they moved In. After she died the man would go to work all dny nnd leave them to shift for themselves—the neighbors would help them now nnd then, for they would almost freeze to death. At tho end there were three dny» thnt they were alone before It wns found out Hint the father wtns dead. Ho wns a "Mo'icnii.tn" of .l.'ii. -", anil m wounded steer had broken loose nnd tuashed 1dm ngalnit n I-Illar Then the (tilt- dri ll had t" • u tiilun away, and tho complin-, tind sold til-- house Hull very snme week to a party of emigrants. So this grim old woman went on with Iter Into of horrors. How much of It wns exnggerntlon—who could tell? It was only loo plnuslble. There whs thnt about consumption, for Instance. They knew nothing about consumption whatever except thnt it made people cough; ntul fur two weeks they hud been worrying about a coughing snetl -.f A ul a lias II seemed t-> shake him all over, ami tl never Htoppeil. You could see a red stain wherever he had npll up.,11 III-- Hum And yet all thoso things were ns nothing to what enmo n little later. They had begun to question the old Indy ns to why one faiylly hsd beep unoble to pny, trying to show her by figures thnt It ought to have been pos sible; nnd Grandmother Msjniiszklene had disputed their figures—-you snv II? n month: fait thnt does not Include 111' 1 Illt-’l l-Hl ” Then they stared nt her. "Interest!" I lie V - rled "Interest on the money you still owe," she answered. "Hilt we don't have to ray any In terest!” ttiev exclaimed, three or four at once. ”W# only have to pay 111 each month." And for Uils she laughed nt (hem. "You nro like nil the rest,” she said: "they trick you and eat you alive. They never sell the houses without lnisroxt. Get your deed nnd see." Then, with a horrible sinking of the heart. Teta Klxhtetn unlocked her bu reau nnd brought out the paper that had already caused them so many agonies. Now. they sat round, scarce ly breathing, while th* old Indy, who could rend English, ran over It, "Tes,” sho said, finally, "her* It Is. of course; 'With Interest thereon monthly at the rate of 7 per o*nt per annum.'." And there followed » dead silence. "What does that mrnn?” risked Jurgls finally, almost In a whisper. "That means." replied the other, "that you hnve to pay them $7 next month, ns well as the $12." Then again there whs not n sound. It we* sickening, like n nigh turn re. In which suddenly something gives wny beneath you. and you feel feel your self sinking, sinking, down Into bot tomless abysses. As If In a llusli of lightning they saw themselves Wrtlia f a relenth .« fate, cornered, trapped. In the grip of destruction All the fair structure of their hopes cam* rrashliig about their ears. And all Hi* tlmo the old woman was going on talking. They wished that she would be still; her voice sound-d lust like the crank ing of some dismal raven. Jurgls sat With hls hands clenched and ben,)* of perspiration on hls forehead, nnd there was n great lump In Ona’s throat, choking her. Then suddenly Teta Ellz- bleta broke the silence with n watt, and Martin began to wring her hands and nob, *AI! AI! Jieda man!" Ail their oljtery did them nn good, course. Thern sat Grandmother Msjsuszklcne. unrelenting. typlfxing fate. No, of courts* It wns not fair, but then fnlrnenM had nothin* to do with It. And of fours** they hud not known It. They had not been Intended s know It. But It wan in the deed, nd that waa ail that waa neceiunry. r n,. 1111 it* tl.t v would find h*n t h»* time Homehnw or other they * their guest, and then they night of lamentation. The woke up and found out that i waa wrong, and they walled i not be comforted. In the in. cotime, moat of them had rid of N»ed a htldren lething ! Would dng. nt , .. . . . At thla remark the family looked work; the packing puzzled. an*l Grandmother Majunz- their zorrowii; but by _ . klene again had to tnake an ex plana- her, stepmother wer* endurance. and tha people would rlee j tIon—that it wee against the law for door of the office* of and murder the pockere. Grand moth- (children to work before they were six-1 he told them, —*— Majauszklene waa a socialist,' or 1 teen. What some such strange thing; another son they asked, of hers was working in the mines of letting Ktanl: Siberia, and the old lady herself had ■ there was nc made speeches In her time—w htch , mother Maji made her seem all the more terrible , made no dMTt to her present auditors. | *d people to They called her back to the story of»children. On ie house. The German family had 1 the law-make _ __ __ been a good sort. To be sure, there I there w ore families that had no p* **l- the hsd been a great many of them, whlgh ble means of support except the children debt was a common falling In Facklngiown; and tin* law provided them no other way i (Cor qul pay Intel broke forth ini Anil the that? quit# true that Ui 9y had been thinking of ras go to work. Weil, r^d to worry. Grand- proache*. *• i/.klen** said -the law "topped and h e except that It fore- The agent i about the ages of their deeply ould Ilk** to know what not told thr ted them to do; I supposed th had P ' would not stop ii'« lock < >na and landing at tha h«* ngent Yes, ** ‘■nme. It was would have to n Teta Blzbletq fpftf'Mtutlons and re- th«* people out elds d In at the window. bland ** ever. H* 1. he paid. He had ipiv because he had ul«l understand that Interest upon their of course. morrow * Georgian.)