Newspaper Page Text
THK ATLANTA GEORGIAN.
m HI»AV. .11 ni:
h 7
UPTON SINCLAIR PICTURES THE VARIED TORTURES OF THE WORKINGMEN IN PACKINGTOWN
“THE JUNGLE” TELLS HOW KILLING BEEF KILLS MEN
GRAPHIC STORY REVEALS LINKING OF CRIMINAL POLITICS WITH THE PACKERS’ OPPRESSION OF LABOR
SYNOPSIS OF PREVIOUS CHAPTERS
r
The story of “The Jungle," Upton Sinclair'* novel, which hae caueetl
the government investigation Into the method* employed by the Beet Trust,
ha* It* origin In an actual Packlngtotvn romance.
The first chapter shows a broad-shouldered butcher being wedded to a
young girl who sees In him a hero. The Wedding, in all Its grotesqueness,
Is described.
Practically penniless, Jurgls tells his bride she shall not return to work
In the packing house—he will work early and late.
On arriving in Chicago, J. Sxedvilas, a Lithuanian, who ran a deli
catessen store In Packlngtown, guided Jurgls, One, Marlja and the remain
der ot the party through the stock yards, after he had given them lodg
ing.
The little coterie decided to purchase a house. They were to pay Hi
a month for It. They find they have been swindled—that the company
changes such interest that they will be unable to pay.
Jurgls refused to Join a labor union that would have promoted the In
terests of all- He did not understand that the life was being worked out of
him.
The little family discovers that the real estate agent of the Packing-
town concern for which its mature members worked had taken advantage ot
their Ignorance, and thrust Into the lease of the house Jurgls, On*. Marlja
and the rest had obtained a clause compelling them to pay exorbitant Inter
est on the structure. Stanlslovas, the youngest of the party, was then sent
to work. The certificate of age held by him lied. It said he was sixteen.
He was years younger. Ona, too, was forced to seek a Job. She paid <10
us tribute to the forelady who engaged her. Jurgls' health la falling from the
terrible grind, and Ona suffers for weeks with excruciating peine because
of dampness and overwork.
Yesterday's Installment told how Marlja lost her Job, because the fac
tory closed down: how Jurgls, working on “time” during the slack season,
was In the paeklng house ten or twelve hours a day, and yet received pay
only for the few hours he worked. Sometimes thirty-five rents represented
his dully earnings. The working members of the family Join a labor union
and attend the meetings. The eyes of Jurgls are opened to the fact that
men of wealth are oppressing- those who labor for them in Packlngton-n.
and, strange thing for him, he begins to think of deep problems and ways
of rectifying conditions.
Copyright, 190$, by Upton Sinclair. All
Rights Reserved.
CHAPTER IX.
One of the first consequences of the
discovery of the union was that Jurgls
became desirous of learning English.
He wanted to know what was going
,k on at the meetings and to be able to
take part In them, and so he began to
look about him and try to pick up
words. The children, who were at
school and learning fast, would teach
him a few: and n friend loaned him
a little, book that bad some In It, and
Ona would read to him. Then Jurgls
became sorry that he could not read
himself, and later on In the winter,
when some one told him that there
was a night school that was free, he
went and enrolled. After that every
evening that he got home from the
yards In time he would go to the
school: he would go even If he were
v in time for only half an hour. They
were teaching him both to read and
to speak English—and they would have
taught him other things If only he hud
had n little time.
Also the union made another great
difference with him—It made him be
gin to.pay attention to the country. It
wn» th“ beginning of .democracy with
him. It wus a littlo state, the union,
a miniature republic; Its affairs were
every man’s nffalrs. and every man
had a real say about them. In other
words. In tho Union Jurgls learned to
. talk politics. In the place where he
bad come from there had not been
* nny politics—In Russia one thought of
Juf the government as an nffllctlon. like
A a. tlio lightning and the hall. “Duck. Ilt-
.J tie brother, duck." the wise old pest-
ants would whisper: "everything pass
ing es away." And when Jurgls had first
JsV come to America he had supposed that
l ' l It was the same. He' had heard people
say that It was a free country—but
w what did that menn? He found that
here, precisely os In Russia, there were
rich men who owned everything; and,
If one could not find any work, was
not the hunger he began to feel ths
same sort of huegerf
- When Jurgls had been working about
three weeks at Brown'e there had come
to him a man who was employed as a
night watchman, and who asked him
r,i If he would not like to take out nat-
in urallsation papers and become a cltl-
[r xen. Jurgls did not know what that
meant, but the man explained the ad
vantages. In the first place, it would
not cost him anything, and It would
get him half a day off, with his pay
Just ths same; and then when elec
tion time came he would be able to
vote—end there was something In
that. Jurgls was naturally glad to ac
cept, and so the night watchman said
u few words to the boss, and he was
excused for the rest of the day. When,
later on, he wanted a holiday to get
the election was very close, and that
was the time the poor man came In.
In the stock yards this was only In
national and state elections, for In
local elections the Democratic party
always carried everything. The ruler
of the district was, therefore, the Dem
ocratic boss, a little Irishman named
Mike Scully. Scully held an Important
party office In the state, and.bossed
even the mayor of the city. It was
said: It was his boast that he carried
the stockyards In his pocket. He wns
an enormously rich man—he had a
hand In all the big graft In the neigh
borhood. It was Scully, for Instance,
who owned that dump which Jurgls
nnd Ona had seen the first day of
their arrival. Not only (lid he own
the dump, but he owned the brick fac
tory as well: and first he took out
the clay and made It Into bricks, and
then he had the jetty bring garbage to
fill up the hole, so thst he could build
houses to sell fb the people. Then, too,
he sold the brick* to the city, at hts
own price, and the city came and got
them In It* own wagon*. And also
he owned the other hoie near by, where
the atagnant water wo*; and It wa*
he who cut the Ice and *old It; and
what wa* more. If the men told truth,
he had not had to pay any taxes for
the water, and he had built the lee
house out of city lumber, and had not
had to pay anything for that.
The newppapers hud got hold of that
story and there had been a scandal;
hut Scully had hired somebody to con
fess and take all the blame, and then
skip the country. It was said, too, that
he had built his brick kiln In the same
way, nnd that the workmen were on
the city pay roll while they did It;
however, one had to press closely to
get these things out of the men,
for It was not their business, and
Mike Scully was a good man to,
stand In with. A note signed by hint
was equal to a job any time at the
got out an Injunction to stop him. and
afterward* frathered, it themselve*. The
banks of **Bubbl> crecli’* are plastered
thick with hair, and this also the liack
era gather and clean.
And there were things eTen stronger
than this, according to the gossip of the
meq. The packers had sac ret mains,
through which they stole billions of
gallons of the city's water. The news
papers had been full of this scandal—
once there had even been an Investi
gation. and an actual uncovering, of
the pipes; but nobedy had been pun
ished. and the thing went right on.
Ar.d then there was the condemned
tneaf Industry, with.Its endle*“ hm
The people of Chicago saw the govern
ment Inspectors In Packlngtown. and
they all took that to mean that they
were protected frotn diseased meat;
they did not understand that these hun
dred and sixty-three Inspectors had
been appointed at ,the request of the
packers, and thst they were paid by the
United States government to certify
that all the diseased meat was kept In
the state. They had no authority be
yond that; for the'inspection of meat
to bo sold la ths ettr and state the
whole force In Packlngtown consisted
of three henchmen of the local political
machine! • •
And shortly afterwards one of these,
physician, made the discovery that
the carcasses of steors which had been
condemned as tubercular by the gov
ernment inspectors,, and which there
for* contained ptomaines, which ore
deadly poisons, wvre left unon an open
platform and carted awav to be sold In
the city; and so he insisted that these
carcasses be treated with an Injection
of kerosene—and Was ordered to re
sign the same week! So Indignant were
the packers tyat they went further and
compelled the ‘ mavor to abolish the
whole bureau of inspection; so that
since then there has not been even a
pretense of anv Interference with the
graft. There was said to be $200 a
week hush money, from the tubercu
lar steers alone, nnd ms much again
from tha hogs which hud died oC
cholera on the trains, and which 5*ou
might see hny day being loaded Into
box cars and hauled away to a place
called Globe, In Indiana, where tney
made a fancy grade of lard.
Jurgls heard of these things little by
little, In the gossip’of those who W’ere
obliged to perpetrate them. It seemed
as If every time you met a person from
a new department you heard of new
swindles and new' crimes. There was,
for Instance, a Lithuanian who was a
cattle butcher for the plant where
Marlja had worked, which killed meat
for canning only; and to hear this msn
describe the animals which came to
his place would have been worth w'hlle
for a Dante or a Zola. U —mid that
they must have tgmeflaa an IM Hm
country, to hunt up old nnd crippled
and diseased cattle to be canned. There
were cattle which had been fed upon
“whisky malt," the .refuse of the brew
eries, and had become what the men
called “steerly"—which means covtred
with bolls. It was a nasty Job killing
these, for when you plunged your knife
Into them they would burst and splash
foul smelling stuff into your face; and
when a man’s sleeves were smeured
with blood, nnd h|s hands steeped U
It, how was be ever to wipe his face,
or to clear his eyas so that he could
see? It was such as this that made the
“embalmed beef* that killed. several
times as many United Btatea soldiers
as all the bullets of the Spaniards; only
»ha nrmv h**^ turn Mss svaa’nnl fr*ah
SINCLAIR SENDS SCATHING LETTER TO WADSWORTH
married he would not get It;" nndas
for a holiday with pay Just the same—
what power had wrought that miracle
heaven only knew! However, he went
with the man. who picked up several
other newly-lshded Immigrants, Poles,
Lithuanians ond Slovaks, and took
them all outside where stood a great
four-horse tally-hocoach with flfteen or
twenty men already In It.
It was a fine chance tn see the sight*
of the city, and the party had a merry
time, with plenty of beer handed up from
Inside. So they drove down-town and
stopped before an Imposing granite
building. In which thVy interviewed an
official, who had the papers all ready,
with only the names to be filled In.
, So each man In turn took an oath of
which he did not understand a word,
and then was presentsd with a hand
some ornamented document with a Mg
red seal and the shield of the United
States upon It, and was told that he
hpd become a citizen of the republic
and the equal of tm, president him
self.
A month nr two later Jurgls had an
other Interview with this same man.
who told Mm where to go td “regis
ter." - And- then finally, when election
day came, the packing houses posted a
notice that men who desired to vote
might remain away until • that morn
ing. and the same night-watchman
took Jurgls and the rest of his flock
Into the bock room of a saloon, and
Showed each of them where and how
to mark a ballot, and then gave each
two dollars, and took them to the
they got through all right. Jurgls fef
quite proud of this good luck until he
got home end met Jonas, who had
taken the leader aside and whispered
t-i him, offering to vote three times for
f-.ur dollars, which offer bad been ac
cepted. ■
And now In the union Jurgls met
men who explained all this mystery
tn him; and he learned thet America
difff red from Russia In that Its govern-
[ mewl existed under the form of a
1 dem- ergey. Tha officials who ruled It.
I nnd go: all the graft, had to be elected
I nr-( t: nnd so there were two rival sets
1i ! c'nftcrs. known as political parties.
■ nnd the- on- got the office which
bo-l.nl tin most vnU-. Nov. and ttn-n
a good many men himself, and worked
them only eight hour* a day, and paid
them the highe»t wage*. This gave'
him many friends—all of whom h*
had gotten together Into the "War-
Whoop League," whose club house yotf
might see Just outside of the y*rd*.
It was the biggest club house and th-:
biggest club In all Chicago; and the;?
had prise fights every now and then.
and cock fights and even dog fights.
The policemen In the district all be
longed to the league, and Instead of
suppressing the lights they sold tick
ets for them. The man that had tak
en JurgJs to be naturalised was om*
of these “Indians," as they wore called,
and on election dayi there would be!
hundreds of them out, and all with big
wads of money In their pockets, an'!
free drinks at every saloon In the dls
trict.
That was another thing, the men
said—all ths aalnoakeoer" had to bt*
Indiana,” and put up on demand,
erwlse they could not do business on
Sundays, nor have any gambling at
In the same way Scully had all
Jobe In the fire department at his
.osal: hs was building a block of
flats somewhere on Ashland avenue,
and Ih* man who was overseeing It for
Aim was drawing pay as a city In
spector of sewers. The city inspector
of water pipes had been dead and bur
led for over a year, but somebody
still drawing his pay. The city
spector of sidewalks was a barkeeper
at the War-Whoop Cafe—and maybe
he could not make It uncomfortable for
npy tradesman who did not stand In
with Scully!
Even the packers were In awe of him,
so the men said. It gave them pleasure
to believe this, for Scully stood SB ths
people's man,,and boosted of It bodly
when election day came. The packers
had wanted a bridge at Ashland avs-
nue, but thay had not beef! able tn
get It until thay had seen Scully; and
It waa the same with "Bubbly Creek,"
which the city had threatened to make
the packers cover over, until Scully
had come to their aid. "Bubblv Creek”
Is an arm of the Chicago river, and
forms tha southern boundary of tho
yards:-all the drainage of the square
mile of packing houses empties Into It.
so that It I* really a great open sewer
a hundred or two feed wide. One long
arm ot It )* blind, and the filth etays
there forever and a day.
The grease and chemical* that are
poured Into It undergo all sorts of
strange transformations, which nrc the
causes of It* name: It I* constantly In
motion, a* if huge fish were feeding In
It. or great leviathans disporting them
selves In lla depth* Bubbles of car
bonic acid gas will rise to the surface
and burst, and make rings two or three
feet wide. Here and there the grease
and filth have caked solid, and the
creek looks like a bed of lava; chirk- |
ens walk about on It, feeding, and many
limes an unwary stranger has started
to atroll serosa, and vanished tempora
rily. The packers used to'leave the
creek that way, until every Dow and
then the surface would catch on Ho
und burn furiously, and the fire dr- i
parttnent would huts to come and put
It out. Once, however, an Ingenious
stranger < ame and started t» gather
Ms nlUi In acow* to make lard sat I
ii.'-n It.'- j 1- e-r, looi. tit'- . uc, ,
the army beef, besides, wa* not fresh
canned; It waa old stuff that had been
lying for years In the cellars.
Then, one Runday eV-nlng, Jurgls sat
puffing his pipe by the kitchen stove,
nnd talking with an old fellow whom
Jonas had Introduced, and who worked
In tho conning room* at Durham's;
and so Jurgls learned a few things
about the great and only Durham
canned goods, which had become a na
tional Institution. They were regular
alchemists at Durham's; they adver
tised a mushroom catsup, and the men
who made It did not know what a
muMhrnom looked like. They advertised
"potted chlcken"- 1 *nd It was like the
boarding house soup ot the comic pa
pers, through which a chicken had
walked with rubber*.on. Perhaps they
had a secret process for making chick
en* chemically—who know*? aald Jur
al*' friend; the thtpga that went Into
the mixture were tripe, and the fat of
pork, nnd beef suet,', and hurts of beef,
and finally the waste ends of veal,
when they had any. They put these
up In several grades, and sold them at
uveral prices; but'ths content* of the
cans all came out vf tho same hopper.
And them there was! "potted game and
"potted grouse," “potted ham,” and
•devilled ham"—de-vyled. u the men
called II. "De-vyled" ham waa made
out of tho waste ends of smoked beef
that were too small to be sliced by the
machines; and also tripe, dyed with
chemicals so that It would not show
white; and trimmings of hama and
Princeton, N. J., June 10 Upton
Sinclair sent the following letter to
Representative Wadsworth, chairman
of ths house committee on agriculture,
today:
"On Friday morning, last, I wired
you requesting n hearing before your
committee, and th* request wu re
fused. I again wired you protesting
against this decision, and have re-
reived a reply to the effect that the
committee adheres to it.
"I have, of rourae, no appeal from
the verdict, except to the aenae of fair
Play of the American people. It was
because ot my charges that tho in
vestigation was begun Into conditions
In the Chicago packing houses, ai.d
ths niieatlon of iny honesty Is Inex
tricably bound Up with th* subject.
I have been quoted before your cum-
muter as making all sorts of state
ments tbat 1 have never made, and I
should have an opportunity to
heard.
"I am able to speak from flrst-hmd
knowledge uf conditions In Parking
town, and of the need ot legislation.
1 apent seven week* there, living with
the men, and atudytng the plenta. In
side and out. before the packers
had any warning and had done any
cleaning up. 1 anw with my uWn eyea
spoiled hams being doctored In Ar-
, the stenrh of them being
great that I could scarcely remain
the room: I aaw sausages hanging In
vats, to be dyed. In order to saw the
time nnd loss of weight Incidental io
smoking; I saw poisoned rats lying
near nnumigc meat, and waste ends
smoked beef stored In cellars. In damp
barrels, moldy and defiled by the
workingmen. I saw men spitting upon
dies ot fresh meat, and wushlng their
hands In water which waa ladled Into
th* sausage hoppers while 1 stood and
watched. I stood for forty minutes
In Armour's and saw hogs killed with
no Inspector on duty. 1 aaw cattle
killed In Morris' under the samo cir
cumstances for nearly as long.
"I consider that these things should
be of concern tn your committee. You
wire me that 'condition* In the packing
houses have been fully reviewed.’
Possibly you think so, hut I can as
sure you that the public does not think
so. A* a matter of simple fact, not
one shred of evidence unfavorable to
the packers ha* been ullowed to get
before your committee, excepting on|y
V
UPTON SINCLAIR.
Author of “Tho Jungle."
which you' could not get away
"That your hearings were held, not
to elicit nny facts, but solely In order
to whitewash the packers, was proved
by th* treatment-which you accorded
to these gentlemen. A paid ugent of
the beef trust was received by ynu
with open nrms; you heard hla trick*
and dishonest statements with cordial
approval, and the commissioners an<-
personal friends of the president yon
treated a* criminals before the bar of
Justice,-browbeating and Insulting them
outrageously.
"You will doubtless continue In your
present course to tho end; but I pre
dict, sir, that you will live to regret
the Insult which you have offered to
the Intelligence of th* American peo
ple, They are thoroughly arouted upon
this question, and bent upon Justice.
They realise- that your committee lias
been largely to blame for the contra
ry since It baa been your task, year
after year, to smother the request of
the secretary of agriculture for funds
to maintain an efficient Inspection:
and now that you have been toned
Into the open, as the aervant and
champion of th* criminals Involved. 1
shall be surprised If the people do not
find a way to make you feel the weight
of their displeasure.
/ “UPTON SINCLAIR."
that the horses were being canned.
Now It wa* against the law to kill
horses In Packlngtown, and the law
was really compiled with—for the
I present, at any rate. Any day, how
ever, one might see sharp-horned and
Ishaggy-halreil creatures running with
the sheep—and yet what a Job you
have to get the public ballsve that a
good part of what It buy* for lamb and,
mutton 19 really goat’s flesh.
There was another Interesting set of
statistics that a person might have
gathered In Packlngtown—thiam of ths
vnrloua afflictions of th* work. When
Jurgls had first Inspected the packing
plants with Ssedvllas h* had marvelled
while lie listened tn the tale of all the
thing* that were made out of the car
cass** of animals, and of all the lesser
industries that were maintained there;
he found tbat each one of thesei
industries waa a separate little In:
fomo, In II* way a* horrible as the
killing beds, the source and fountain
of them nil. The workers In each of|
them had their own peculiar dl^H
all: and finally
K llets of beet
sn
... S cartilaginous
after th* tonguea had
n cut out.
All this Ingenious mixture wax
ground up and flavored with spices to
make It taste Ilka something. Any
body who could Invent a new Imitation
had baen aura of a fortune from old
Durham, aald Jurgrn' Informant; hut It
waa hard to think of «nvihlng,new In
a place wher* so mhny sharp wits had
been at work for go long: where men
welcomed tuberculosis In the cattle
they were feeding, because It made
them fatten more quickly, and wher*
they bought up all the old rancid but
ter left over In the'grocery store* of a
continent and "oxidized" It by a forced
air process, and sold It In bricks in the
cities. Up to a year or two ago It had
been the custom td kill horses In the
a rds—ostensibly for fertiliser; but
ter long agitation'the newspapers had
been able to make the public realize
sceptical about all the swlndlea,
could not be sceptical about these,
for the worker bore the evidence of
them about on hla own person—gen
erally h* had only to hold out hla hand.
There were men In the pickle rooms,
for Instance, where old Antanaa had
gotten his death. Scares a one of these
that had not some spot of horror on his
iierson. Let a man so much os wraps
his finger pushing a truck In th* plekl*
rooms and he might have a sore that
would put him out of the world; all th*
joints uf his Ungers might be eaten by
the arid, one by one. Of the butchers
and floorsmen, the beef-boner* and
trimmers, and all those who used
knives, you could scarcely And a per
son who had the use of his thumb;
time and time again tha base of It had
been slashed, till It was a mere lump
of flesh against which the msn pressed
the knife to hold It. The hnnds of these
men would be criss-crossed with cut*
until you could no longer pretend to
count them or to trace them. They
would have no nails—they had worn
ig hides; thslr knuckles
were swollen so that their lingers
spread nut Ilka a tan. There were
meir who worked In the cooking rooms,
In the midst of steam and sickening
time limit that a man could work In
the chllllnff room wa* sold to be nvo
year*.
There were the wool pluckere, whose
hands went to pieces even sooner than
the hand* of the pickle men; for the
pelts of th# sheep had to be painted
with add to loosen the wool, nnd then
the pluckere had to pull out Hits wool
with their bare hands, till the acid had
eaten their Angers off. There were
those who made the tin# for Ih* canned
meat; and their hand*, too. were a
tmut* of cuts, and each cut represent
ed a chance for blood poisoning. Home
worked at th* stamping machines, and
It was very seldom that one could
work long there at th* pace that was
set und not give out or forget humeelf
and have a part of- hie hand chopped
off. There were ths "holstera," aa they
were railed, Whose task It was to pres*
the lever which lifted th# dead cattle
off the floor. They ran along upon n
rafter, peering down through the damp
end the steam, nnd, as old Durham a
nrrchltectu bad not built the killing
room-for ths convenience of the holst
ers, at every few feet they would
have to stoop under n beam, any
four feet above th# one they
ran on.'which got them Into-tha habit
of stooping, »o that In a. few year*
they would b* walking like chlmpan-
***#. Worst of any, however, were the
fertiliser men, and those who served
In the cooking rooms.
Thesej people could not bo shown to
the visitor—for Ih* odor of a fertiliser
man would scare any ordinary visit
or at a hundred yards, and as for the
other men, who worked In.tank rooms
for two years, but th* supply was
renewed every hour. Thera were the
beef luggers, who carried 100-pound
o'doek In the morning and that wore
out tha most powerful, of them In
few years. There were those who
worked In the chilling. room* whose
special disease Waa rheumatism; the
WAREHOUSES
Mow la tbo lira* to
build. So rooting on
near adapted te tfcla
ptirpoa* aa
Vulcanite.
Oaod on oio+tt or
flat roof a. <>rd*r It
today and aw It to*
morrow. Iterom-
n*rad#d kjr the So-
tlooal Board of l,n
darwrltora awl
ScjtU-afft.Tii Tariff
AMnrJatfoo and
“VOU CAM PUT IT
ATLANTA SUPPLY CO.,
Sole State Agents for Georgia.
29 and 31 South Pryor Street. ATLANTA, GEORGIA.
i. c. ctumtio, muhi
c i rim. Sfcobrr
there were open vats near th* level
th* floor, their peculiar trouble waa
that they fell Into the vata, and when
they were Ashed nut there waa never
enough of them left to be worth ex
hibiting—sometime* they would be
overlooked for days, till all but the
bones of them hnd gone out to th*
world as Durham's Purs Leaf Lard!
CHAPTER X.
During the early part of th* winter
th* family had had money enough to
live and a little over to pay their debts
with; but when the earnings of Jur-
gla fell from nine or ten dollars a week
tn live or six there wee no longer any
thing to spare. The winter went end
came and found them still living thus
from hand to mouth, hanging on day
by day, with literally not a month'r
wages between them and starvation,
Marlja was In despair, for there wa*
stilt no work about th* reopening of
ih* canning factory, and her saving*
were almost entirely gone. Bhe had
had to give up all Idea of marrying
then; the family couhf nor get along
without her—though for that matter
she wax likely soon to become a burden
even upon them, for when her money
wa* all gone they would have to pay
back vrhat thev owed her In board.
Ho Jurgls and Ona and Tela Elsblet*
would hold anxious conferences until
r to figure how they
could manage this, loo, without starv-
log.
Buob was the cruel term* uoon which
their life waa pomlble, that thay might
never hava or expect a »ln*le Inptant’a
from worry, a Mingle Inatant In
rh they were not haunted by t&*
thought of money. Thay would no
sooner escape, da by a miracle, from
one difficulty than a new one would
come Into view. In addition to all
their physical hardships, there waa
thus a constant sfrala upon their
minds; they wan harried’ all day and
nearly all night by worry and fear.
This waa In truth not living; It was
scare*!/ even existing, and they felt
that It was too little for the price thev
paid. They were willing to work all
the time, and w'hen people did their
best ought they not be able to keep
alive?
There seemed never to be an end
the things they had to buy and to
the unforeseen contingencies. Once
their water pipes frose and burst; and.
when. In their Ignomnr#, they thawed
them out. they had a terrifying Hood
In their house. It happened while the
men were away, and poor lUfltdeta
rushed out Into the street screaming
for help, for she did not even know
whether the flood could be stopped,
or whether they were ruined for life.
|l V .r Il'-Mlls 11“ I HO I II !■ the lit 11 *• I ,
they found In tho end, for tho plumber
charged them 76 cents an hour, and 75
cents for another man who hnd stood
nnd watched him, and Included nil tho
time tho two had been going and
rotnlng, ond also a charge for all sorts
of material ond extras. And then,
again, when they went to pay their
January installment on the house, the
agent terrified them by asking them
if tin \ li.i'l Hi*- l’i mnirn ■ ntii m- 1« -I ' ■>
[yet. In nhswer to such Inquiry* be
»ho wed them a clause In the deed
which provided that they were to Keep
the house Insured for $1,000 as soon as
e presont policy ran out, H|
■ >uld happen Ifv a few days. ■
Kizblotn. upon whom again fell the
blow, demanded how much It would
cost them. Beven dollars, the man
aald; und that night came Jurgls, grim
and determined, rfln—ftng Inst the
agent would be good enough to inform |
him, once for all, aa'to all the ex|
they were liable for.
■The deed waa algned now, he said,I
with sarcasm proper to the new way
of life he had learned—the deed was
signed, and so the agent hao no longer
anything te gain by keasrfng quiet.
And Jurgls looked tho iellov/ oquarely
In the eye, and so he did not waste
rn the died. They’would lave
to renew th* Insurance every year;
they would hava lo pay the water tax.
about I* a year—(Jurgls silently re
solved to shut off tha hydrant). Tills,
braid** the Interest and th* monthly
Installments, would b* all—unless by
chance the city should happen lo de
cide to put In a sewer or to lay a
sidewalk. Yea, said the agent, they
would have to have these, whether
they wanted them or not. If the city
said so. The sewer would coat them
about >22 and the sidewalk >16 If it
were wood; >25 If It we/e cement.
Ho Jurgls went home again: It was
a relief to know tMe worst, at any ret*,
so that he could no more b* surprised
by freak demands He saw now bow
he had been plundered; but they wore
In for It; there was no turning bark
They could only go <>n and nuk. IW
flglit and win—for defeat wa* a Hilt s'
that .’nulil not even be thought of.
. When the springtime came they
wvre delivered from the dreadful cold,
end Hint was a great deni; hut In ad
dition Iher had counted on the money
they would not have to pay for coal--
It wa* Just at this time that M.r.
hoard began to tall. Then, 1o«v
warm '.veather brought trials of
It* own. Each season hud It* trial",
as thus found. In tlu< spring there
were cold ruins, that turned th* strvel*
Into canals und Ixun; the mud would
be so deep that Kigun* would el'-k
up to the hubs, an that half a dmu-n
horses could not move them. Then,
ot course, it was Impossible fot anv
one to get to work with dry feet; and
thla was bud for men that were poorir
clad and shod, and etlll worse for
women and children.
teller cam* midsummer, with the
stifling heat, when the dingy klllloz
beds of Durham's became a very pur
gatory; one time, In a single day, thri "
men fell dead (rum sunstroke. All
day long the rivers of hot blood ponr-
ed forth, until, with the sun heating
down and the air motionless, Hr
stench waa enough to ksmik a msn
over; all the old smells of a genera
tion would be drawn onl'by tma bant
—for there was never any washing «
ths walls and rafters and pillars; nnd
they were relied with the tilth of a
lifetime. The men wno worked on the
killing beds would come lo reak with
foulness, an that you could smell one
of thiun 50 feet away; there waa sim
ply nil such thing a* keeping decent;
the mSet careful man gave it up In the
end, and wallowed In uneleannra-
There waa npi evf 1 a place where i
men could »aeh his hands, and th*
insn at* as much raw blood aa food
at dinner time. When they were nt
work they could not even wipe off
their face*—they were aa helplee* ■«
new-born babes In that respect, and
It may saem like a email mailer, but
when th# sc.-ea! began to run d"""
their necks and tickle them, or a flv
tn bother them. It waa a lortura MB
being burned alive. Whether It «a-
the slaughter hnusee or the dump,
that were responsible, one could not
say, but with th# hot wenthcr tlicra
descended upon Packlngtown a ren
table Egyptian plague of Itlee: ther-
could be no riescrlbng this—the hou»''"
would be black with them. fbera
was.no escaping; Y°u might provide
all your door* und window*
acretna, but their bussing outeld"
would be like the swarming of be-e.
and whenever you opened th# d"";
they would rush In aa It a storm of
wind.wore driving them.
Perhaps, (he summer time suggr-i -
to you thoughts of the country, vis
ion* Of green fields und mountains nod
parkllng lakes. It had no such sug
gestion for the people In the yaruc.
The great [lacking maehlb# ground on
remorselessly, without thinking "«
green fields; and th# men and women
nnd children who were pert of It n«ver
saw any green thing, not even a (loser.
Four or five mile* to the oast of ihcm
lay the blue water* of Lnkn Michigan:
but for nil -the good It did them P
might have been a* tar away ns Hi"
Pacific ocean. They had only nun-
leys, and then they were loo tired io
walk. They were lied to the great
pecking machine, anf) tied to It for Ilf*'.
The manager* and superintendent- and
clerk* of Packlngiown were nil re
cruited from another class, nnd nev i
from tho worker*; they scorned iha
workers, th# very meanest of them.
A poor devil of a bookkeeper who hnd
been working In Durham'*, for tweniy
years at a salary of >6 a week, uno
might work there fof twenty mole nnd
do no better, would yet consider him -
salt a gentleman, aa fur renteVtd an
the poles from *h# ni„-'t skilled W"rk-
<r oil Hie killing le-'ls. In- would dress
differently, and live In another i-nrt "f
the town, and come to work at a dif
ferent hour of the day, and In » very
way make sure that ho neve: nibbed
elbow* with a Inhnrlng man. P#rh*r» ;
lids waa due to the r-pulslv. ness of
!!„. work, .-It n li v lllle, I lie people Wh"
worked with tbetr hands w i- .i in»s
apart, and were mnd# to fsci it.
It wa* a long story. Marlja Insisted
that It waa b*caue* of her anlvliv In
tbs union. The packers, ..f course,
had spies In all th* unions, and In
addition they mad# a prnette# of buy
lag up a certain number of the union
Otnrlals, a* many a* they thought ihev
needed. Bo every week they rec 1
IHthey knew things bt
members of the union knew them.
Any on* who wn* eoneldered to he
dansgrmu by them would Hnd that h»
was not a favorite with his boss; amt
Marlja had been a great hand for go
ing after th# foreign psapl" nnd
prvachlngsto th'm. However th-r
might ba, the known fact* were Hint
I* few weeks before the fart in
closed, Marlja hed been cheated out "f
her pay for three hundred canr.
(Continued In Monday's Georgian )
BPIUM
outpaia. Hook of jxr*
tlfuUr• »*nt PRKR.
Our "Bost" Bolster Spring; $4.30 and up
according to size.
Indispensable for the load. Prolongs life of your
wagon. Relieves strain on team. Desi
rable for driver. Economical in
cost. Universally useful.
“EVERYBODY KNOWS.”
Special Discounts
on Quantities.
Gin Width of
Stakes.
E. 0. CRANE & CO.
Front New Depot
