Chapter 11

by Upton Sinclair

　　During the summer the packing houses were in full activity again,and Jurgis made more money. He did not make so much, however, ashe had the previous summer, for the packers took on more hands.There were new men every week, it seemed--it was a regular system;and this number they would keep over to the next slack season,so that every one would have less than ever. Sooner or later,by this plan, they would have all the floating labor of Chicagotrained to do their work. And how very cunning a trick was that!The men were to teach new hands, who would some day come and breaktheir strike; and meantime they were kept so poor that they couldnot prepare for the trial!But let no one suppose that this superfluity of employees meanteasier work for any one! On the contrary, the speeding-up seemed tobe growing more savage all the time; they were continually inventingnew devices to crowd the work on--it was for all the world like thethumbscrew of the medieval torture chamber. They would get newpacemakers and pay them more; they would drive the men on with newmachinery--it was said that in the hog-killing rooms the speed atwhich the hogs moved was determined by clockwork, and that it wasincreased a little every day. In piecework they would reduce the time,requiring the same work in a shorter time, and paying the same wages;and then, after the workers had accustomed themselves to this new speed,they would reduce the rate of payment to correspond with the reductionin time! They had done this so often in the canning establishmentsthat the girls were fairly desperate; their wages had gone down bya full third in the past two years, and a storm of discontent wasbrewing that was likely to break any day. Only a month after Marijahad become a beef-trimmer the canning factory that she had left posteda cut that would divide the girls' earnings almost squarely in half;and so great was the indignation at this that they marched out withouteven a parley, and organized in the street outside. One of thegirls had read somewhere that a red flag was the proper symbol foroppressed workers, and so they mounted one, and paraded all aboutthe yards, yelling with rage. A new union was the result of thisoutburst, but the impromptu strike went to pieces in three days,owing to the rush of new labor. At the end of it the girl who hadcarried the red flag went downtown and got a position in a greatdepartment store, at a salary of two dollars and a half a week. Jurgis and Ona heard these stories with dismay, for there was no tellingwhen their own time might come. Once or twice there had been rumorsthat one of the big houses was going to cut its unskilled men to fifteencents an hour, and Jurgis knew that if this was done, his turn wouldcome soon. He had learned by this time that Packingtown was reallynot a number of firms at all, but one great firm, the Beef Trust.And every week the managers of it got together and compared notes,and there was one scale for all the workers in the yards and onestandard of efficiency. Jurgis was told that they also fixed theprice they would pay for beef on the hoof and the price of alldressed meat in the country; but that was something he did notunderstand or care about.The only one who was not afraid of a cut was Marija, whocongratulated herself, somewhat naively, that there had been onein her place only a short time before she came. Marija was gettingto be a skilled beef-trimmer, and was mounting to the heights again.During the summer and fall Jurgis and Ona managed to pay her back thelast penny they owed her, and so she began to have a bank account.Tamoszius had a bank account also, and they ran a race, and beganto figure upon household expenses once more.The possession of vast wealth entails cares and responsibilities,however, as poor Marija found out. She had taken the advice of a friendand invested her savings in a bank on Ashland Avenue. Of course sheknew nothing about it, except that it was big and imposing--whatpossible chance has a poor foreign working girl to understand thebanking business, as it is conducted in this land of frenzied finance?So Marija lived in a continual dread lest something should happento her bank, and would go out of her way mornings to make sure thatit was still there. Her principal thought was of fire, for she haddeposited her money in bills, and was afraid that if they were burnedup the bank would not give her any others. Jurgis made fun of herfor this, for he was a man and was proud of his superior knowledge,telling her that the bank had fireproof vaults, and all its millionsof dollars hidden safely away in them.However, one morning Marija took her usual detour, and, to her horrorand dismay, saw a crowd of people in front of the bank, filling theavenue solid for half a block. All the blood went out of her facefor terror. She broke into a run, shouting to the people to ask whatwas the matter, but not stopping to hear what they answered, till she hadcome to where the throng was so dense that she could no longer advance.There was a "run on the bank," they told her then, but she did notknow what that was, and turned from one person to another, trying inan agony of fear to make out what they meant. Had something gone wrongwith the bank? Nobody was sure, but they thought so. Couldn't she gether money? There was no telling; the people were afraid not, and theywere all trying to get it. It was too early yet to tell anything--the bank would not open for nearly three hours. So in a frenzy ofdespair Marija began to claw her way toward the doors of this building,through a throng of men, women, and children, all as excited asherself. It was a scene of wild confusion, women shrieking andwringing their hands and fainting, and men fighting and tramplingdown everything in their way. In the midst of the melee Marijarecollected that she did not have her bankbook, and could not gether money anyway, so she fought her way out and started on a runfor home. This was fortunate for her, for a few minutes later thepolice reserves arrived.In half an hour Marija was back, Teta Elzbieta with her, both of thembreathless with running and sick with fear. The crowd was now formedin a line, extending for several blocks, with half a hundred policemenkeeping guard, and so there was nothing for them to do but to taketheir places at the end of it. At nine o'clock the bank opened andbegan to pay the waiting throng; but then, what good did that doMarija, who saw three thousand people before her--enough to take outthe last penny of a dozen banks?To make matters worse a drizzling rain came up, and soaked themto the skin; yet all the morning they stood there, creeping slowlytoward the goal--all the afternoon they stood there, heartsick,seeing that the hour of closing was coming, and that they were goingto be left out. Marija made up her mind that, come what might,she would stay there and keep her place; but as nearly all didthe same, all through the long, cold night, she got very littlecloser to the bank for that. Toward evening Jurgis came; he hadheard the story from the children, and he brought some food anddry wraps, which made it a little easier.The next morning, before daybreak, came a bigger crowd than ever,and more policemen from downtown. Marija held on like grim death,and toward afternoon she got into the bank and got her money--all inbig silver dollars, a handkerchief full. When she had once got herhands on them her fear vanished, and she wanted to put them back again;but the man at the window was savage, and said that the bank wouldreceive no more deposits from those who had taken part in the run.So Marija was forced to take her dollars home with her, watching toright and left, expecting every instant that some one would try torob her; and when she got home she was not much better off. Until shecould find another bank there was nothing to do but sew them up in herclothes, and so Marija went about for a week or more, loaded down withbullion, and afraid to cross the street in front of the house, becauseJurgis told her she would sink out of sight in the mud. Weighted thisway she made her way to the yards, again in fear, this time to seeif she had lost her place; but fortunately about ten per cent of theworking people of Packingtown had been depositors in that bank,and it was not convenient to discharge that many at once. The causeof the panic had been the attempt of a policeman to arrest a drunkenman in a saloon next door, which had drawn a crowd at the hour the peoplewere on their way to work, and so started the "run."About this time Jurgis and Ona also began a bank account. Besideshaving paid Jonas and Marija, they had almost paid for their furniture,and could have that little sum to count on. So long as each of themcould bring home nine or ten dollars a week, they were able to getalong finely. Also election day came round again, and Jurgis made halfa week's wages out of that, all net profit. It was a very close electionthat year, and the echoes of the battle reached even to Packingtown.The two rival sets of grafters hired halls and set off fireworks andmade speeches, to try to get the people interested in the matter.Although Jurgis did not understand it all, he knew enough by this timeto realize that it was not supposed to be right to sell your vote.However, as every one did it, and his refusal to join would not havemade the slightest difference in the results, the idea of refusing wouldhave seemed absurd, had it ever come into his head.Now chill winds and shortening days began to warn them that the winterwas coming again. It seemed as if the respite had been too short--they had not had time enough to get ready for it; but still it came,inexorably, and the hunted look began to come back into the eyesof little Stanislovas. The prospect struck fear to the heart ofJurgis also, for he knew that Ona was not fit to face the cold andthe snowdrifts this year. And suppose that some day when a blizzardstruck them and the cars were not running, Ona should have to give up,and should come the next day to find that her place had been given tosome one who lived nearer and could be depended on?It was the week before Christmas that the first storm came, and thenthe soul of Jurgis rose up within him like a sleeping lion. There werefour days that the Ashland Avenue cars were stalled, and in those days,for the first time in his life, Jurgis knew what it was to be reallyopposed. He had faced difficulties before, but they had beenchild's play; now there was a death struggle, and all the furieswere unchained within him. The first morning they set out two hoursbefore dawn, Ona wrapped all in blankets and tossed upon his shoulderlike a sack of meal, and the little boy, bundled nearly out of sight,hanging by his coat-tails. There was a raging blast beating in his face,and the thermometer stood below zero; the snow was never short of hisknees, and in some of the drifts it was nearly up to his armpits.It would catch his feet and try to trip him; it would build itselfinto a wall before him to beat him back; and he would fling himselfinto it, plunging like a wounded buffalo, puffing and snorting in rage.So foot by foot he drove his way, and when at last he came to Durham'she was staggering and almost blind, and leaned against a pillar,gasping, and thanking God that the cattle came late to the killingbeds that day. In the evening the same thing had to be done again;and because Jurgis could not tell what hour of the night he wouldget off, he got a saloon-keeper to let Ona sit and wait for him ina corner. Once it was eleven o'clock at night, and black as the pit,but still they got home.That blizzard knocked many a man out, for the crowd outside beggingfor work was never greater, and the packers would not wait long forany one. When it was over, the soul of Jurgis was a song, for hehad met the enemy and conquered, and felt himself the master ofhis fate.--So it might be with some monarch of the forest that hasvanquished his foes in fair fight, and then falls into some cowardlytrap in the night-time.A time of peril on the killing beds was when a steer broke loose.Sometimes, in the haste of speeding-up, they would dump one ofthe animals out on the floor before it was fully stunned, and itwould get upon its feet and run amuck. Then there would be a yellof warning--the men would drop everything and dash for the nearestpillar, slipping here and there on the floor, and tumbling overeach other. This was bad enough in the summer, when a man could see;in wintertime it was enough to make your hair stand up, for the roomwould be so full of steam that you could not make anything out fivefeet in front of you. To be sure, the steer was generally blind andfrantic, and not especially bent on hurting any one; but think ofthe chances of running upon a knife, while nearly every man had onein his hand! And then, to cap the climax, the floor boss would comerushing up with a rifle and begin blazing away!It was in one of these melees that Jurgis fell into his trap. That isthe only word to describe it; it was so cruel, and so utterly not tobe foreseen. At first he hardly noticed it, it was such a slightaccident--simply that in leaping out of the way he turned his ankle.There was a twinge of pain, but Jurgis was used to pain, and did notcoddle himself. When he came to walk home, however, he realized thatit was hurting him a great deal; and in the morning his ankle wasswollen out nearly double its size, and he could not get his foot intohis shoe. Still, even then, he did nothing more than swear a little,and wrapped his foot in old rags, and hobbled out to take the car.It chanced to be a rush day at Durham's, and all the long morninghe limped about with his aching foot; by noontime the pain was so greatthat it made him faint, and after a couple of hours in the afternoonhe was fairly beaten, and had to tell the boss. They sent for thecompany doctor, and he examined the foot and told Jurgis to go hometo bed, adding that he had probably laid himself up for months byhis folly. The injury was not one that Durham and Company could beheld responsible for, and so that was all there was to it, so far asthe doctor was concerned.Jurgis got home somehow, scarcely able to see for the pain, and withan awful terror in his soul, Elzbieta helped him into bed and bandagedhis injured foot with cold water and tried hard not to let him seeher dismay; when the rest came home at night she met them outside andtold them, and they, too, put on a cheerful face, saying it would onlybe for a week or two, and that they would pull him through.When they had gotten him to sleep, however, they sat by the kitchen fireand talked it over in frightened whispers. They were in for a siege,that was plainly to be seen. Jurgis had only about sixty dollars inthe bank, and the slack season was upon them. Both Jonas and Marijamight soon be earning no more than enough to pay their board, and besidesthat there were only the wages of Ona and the pittance of the little boy.There was the rent to pay, and still some on the furniture; there wasthe insurance just due, and every month there was sack after sack of coal.It was January, midwinter, an awful time to have to face privation.Deep snows would come again, and who would carry Ona to her work now?She might lose her place--she was almost certain to lose it. And thenlittle Stanislovas began to whimper--who would take care of him?It was dreadful that an accident of this sort, that no man can help,should have meant such suffering. The bitterness of it was the dailyfood and drink of Jurgis. It was of no use for them to try todeceive him; he knew as much about the situation as they did, and heknew that the family might literally starve to death. The worry of itfairly ate him up--he began to look haggard the first two or threedays of it. In truth, it was almost maddening for a strong manlike him, a fighter, to have to lie there helpless on his back.It was for all the world the old story of Prometheus bound. As Jurgislay on his bed, hour after hour there came to him emotions that hehad never known before. Before this he had met life with a welcome--it had its trials, but none that a man could not face. But now,in the nighttime, when he lay tossing about, there would come stalkinginto his chamber a grisly phantom, the sight of which made his fleshcurl and his hair to bristle up. It was like seeing the world fallaway from underneath his feet; like plunging down into a bottomlessabyss into yawning caverns of despair. It might be true, then,after all, what others had told him about life, that the best powersof a man might not be equal to it! It might be true that, strive ashe would, toil as he would, he might fail, and go down and be destroyed!The thought of this was like an icy hand at his heart; the thoughtthat here, in this ghastly home of all horror, he and all those whowere dear to him might lie and perish of starvation and cold,and there would be no ear to hear their cry, no hand to help them!It was true, it was true,--that here in this huge city, with itsstores of heaped-up wealth, human creatures might be hunted down anddestroyed by the wild-beast powers of nature, just as truly as everthey were in the days of the cave men!Ona was now making about thirty dollars a month, and Stanislovasabout thirteen. To add to this there was the board of Jonas andMarija, about forty-five dollars. Deducting from this the rent,interest, and installments on the furniture, they had left sixtydollars, and deducting the coal, they had fifty. They did withouteverything that human beings could do without; they went in old andragged clothing, that left them at the mercy of the cold, and when thechildren's shoes wore out, they tied them up with string. Half invalidas she was, Ona would do herself harm by walking in the rain and coldwhen she ought to have ridden; they bought literally nothing butfood--and still they could not keep alive on fifty dollars a month.They might have done it, if only they could have gotten pure food,and at fair prices; or if only they had known what to get--if theyhad not been so pitifully ignorant! But they had come to a new country,where everything was different, including the food. They had alwaysbeen accustomed to eat a great deal of smoked sausage, and how couldthey know that what they bought in America was not the same--that itscolor was made by chemicals, and its smoky flavor by more chemicals,and that it was full of "potato flour" besides? Potato flour is thewaste of potato after the starch and alcohol have been extracted;it has no more food value than so much wood, and as its use as a foodadulterant is a penal offense in Europe, thousands of tons of it areshipped to America every year. It was amazing what quantities offood such as this were needed every day, by eleven hungry persons.A dollar sixty-five a day was simply not enough to feed them, and therewas no use trying; and so each week they made an inroad upon the pitifullittle bank account that Ona had begun. Because the account was inher name, it was possible for her to keep this a secret from herhusband, and to keep the heartsickness of it for her own.It would have been better if Jurgis had been really ill; if he hadnot been able to think. For he had no resources such as mostinvalids have; all he could do was to lie there and toss about fromside to side. Now and then he would break into cursing, regardlessof everything; and now and then his impatience would get the betterof him, and he would try to get up, and poor Teta Elzbieta wouldhave to plead with him in a frenzy. Elzbieta was all alone with himthe greater part of the time. She would sit and smooth his foreheadby the hour, and talk to him and try to make him forget. Sometimes itwould be too cold for the children to go to school, and they wouldhave to play in the kitchen, where Jurgis was, because it was theonly room that was half warm. These were dreadful times, for Jurgiswould get as cross as any bear; he was scarcely to be blamed, for hehad enough to worry him, and it was hard when he was trying to takea nap to be kept awake by noisy and peevish children.Elzbieta's only resource in those times was little Antanas; indeed,it would be hard to say how they could have gotten along at all ifit had not been for little Antanas. It was the one consolation ofJurgis' long imprisonment that now he had time to look at his baby.Teta Elzbieta would put the clothesbasket in which the baby sleptalongside of his mattress, and Jurgis would lie upon one elbow andwatch him by the hour, imagining things. Then little Antanas wouldopen his eyes--he was beginning to take notice of things now; and hewould smile--how he would smile! So Jurgis would begin to forgetand be happy because he was in a world where there was a thing sobeautiful as the smile of little Antanas, and because such a worldcould not but be good at the heart of it. He looked more like hisfather every hour, Elzbieta would say, and said it many times a day,because she saw that it pleased Jurgis; the poor little terror-strickenwoman was planning all day and all night to soothe the prisoned giantwho was intrusted to her care. Jurgis, who knew nothing about theagelong and everlasting hypocrisy of woman, would take the bait andgrin with delight; and then he would hold his finger in front oflittle Antanas' eyes, and move it this way and that, and laugh withglee to see the baby follow it. There is no pet quite so fascinatingas a baby; he would look into Jurgis' face with such uncanny seriousness,and Jurgis would start and cry: "Palauk! Look, Muma, he knows his papa!He does, he does! Tu mano szirdele, the little rascal!"