Chapter 4

by Upton Sinclair

　　Promptly at seven the next morning Jurgis reported for work. He came tothe door that had been pointed out to him, and there he waited for nearlytwo hours. The boss had meant for him to enter, but had not said this,and so it was only when on his way out to hire another man that he cameupon Jurgis. He gave him a good cursing, but as Jurgis did not understanda word of it he did not object. He followed the boss, who showed himwhere to put his street clothes, and waited while he donned the workingclothes he had bought in a secondhand shop and brought with him in abundle; then he led him to the "killing beds." The work which Jurgis wasto do here was very simple, and it took him but a few minutes to learn it.He was provided with a stiff besom, such as is used by street sweepers,and it was his place to follow down the line the man who drew out thesmoking entrails from the carcass of the steer; this mass was to be sweptinto a trap, which was then closed, so that no one might slip into it.As Jurgis came in, the first cattle of the morning were just making theirappearance; and so, with scarcely time to look about him, and none tospeak to any one, he fell to work. It was a sweltering day in July,and the place ran with steaming hot blood--one waded in it on the floor.The stench was almost overpowering, but to Jurgis it was nothing. Hiswhole soul was dancing with joy--he was at work at last! He was at workand earning money! All day long he was figuring to himself. He was paidthe fabulous sum of seventeen and a half cents an hour; and as it proveda rush day and he worked until nearly seven o'clock in the evening, he wenthome to the family with the tidings that he had earned more than a dollarand a half in a single day!At home, also, there was more good news; so much of it at once that therewas quite a celebration in Aniele's hall bedroom. Jonas had been to havean interview with the special policeman to whom Szedvilas had introducedhim, and had been taken to see several of the bosses, with the result thatone had promised him a job the beginning of the next week. And then therewas Marija Berczynskas, who, fired with jealousy by the success of Jurgis,had set out upon her own responsibility to get a place. Marija had nothingto take with her save her two brawny arms and the word "job," laboriouslylearned; but with these she had marched about Packingtown all day, enteringevery door where there were signs of activity. Out of some she had beenordered with curses; but Marija was not afraid of man or devil, and askedevery one she saw--visitors and strangers, or workpeople like herself,and once or twice even high and lofty office personages, who stared ather as if they thought she was crazy. In the end, however, she had reapedher reward. In one of the smaller plants she had stumbled upon a roomwhere scores of women and girls were sitting at long tables preparingsmoked beef in cans; and wandering through room after room, Marija cameat last to the place where the sealed cans were being painted and labeled,and here she had the good fortune to encounter the "forelady." Marija didnot understand then, as she was destined to understand later, what therewas attractive to a "forelady" about the combination of a face full ofboundless good nature and the muscles of a dray horse; but the woman hadtold her to come the next day and she would perhaps give her a chance tolearn the trade of painting cans. The painting of cans being skilledpiecework, and paying as much as two dollars a day, Marija burst in uponthe family with the yell of a Comanche Indian, and fell to capering aboutthe room so as to frighten the baby almost into convulsions.Better luck than all this could hardly have been hoped for; there was onlyone of them left to seek a place. Jurgis was determined that Teta Elzbietashould stay at home to keep house, and that Ona should help her. He wouldnot have Ona working--he was not that sort of a man, he said, and she wasnot that sort of a woman. It would be a strange thing if a man like himcould not support the family, with the help of the board of Jonas andMarija. He would not even hear of letting the children go to work--therewere schools here in America for children, Jurgis had heard, to whichthey could go for nothing. That the priest would object to these schoolswas something of which he had as yet no idea, and for the present his mindwas made up that the children of Teta Elzbieta should have as fair a chanceas any other children. The oldest of them, little Stanislovas, was butthirteen, and small for his age at that; and while the oldest son ofSzedvilas was only twelve, and had worked for over a year at Jones's, Jurgiswould have it that Stanislovas should learn to speak English, and grow upto be a skilled man.So there was only old Dede Antanas; Jurgis would have had him rest too,but he was forced to acknowledge that this was not possible, and, besides,the old man would not hear it spoken of--it was his whim to insist thathe was as lively as any boy. He had come to America as full of hope asthe best of them; and now he was the chief problem that worried his son.For every one that Jurgis spoke to assured him that it was a waste of timeto seek employment for the old man in Packingtown. Szedvilas told himthat the packers did not even keep the men who had grown old in theirown service--to say nothing of taking on new ones. And not only was itthe rule here, it was the rule everywhere in America, so far as he knew.To satisfy Jurgis he had asked the policeman, and brought back the messagethat the thing was not to be thought of. They had not told this to oldAnthony, who had consequently spent the two days wandering about fromone part of the yards to another, and had now come home to hear aboutthe triumph of the others, smiling bravely and saying that it would behis turn another day. Their good luck, they felt, had given them the right to think abouta home; and sitting out on the doorstep that summer evening, they heldconsultation about it, and Jurgis took occasion to broach a weightysubject. Passing down the avenue to work that morning he had seen twoboys leaving an advertisement from house to house; and seeing that therewere pictures upon it, Jurgis had asked for one, and had rolled it up andtucked it into his shirt. At noontime a man with whom he had been talkinghad read it to him and told him a little about it, with the result thatJurgis had conceived a wild idea.He brought out the placard, which was quite a work of art. It was nearlytwo feet long, printed on calendered paper, with a selection of colors sobright that they shone even in the moonlight. The center of the placardwas occupied by a house, brilliantly painted, new, and dazzling. The roofof it was of a purple hue, and trimmed with gold; the house itself wassilvery, and the doors and windows red. It was a two-story building, witha porch in front, and a very fancy scrollwork around the edges; it wascomplete in every tiniest detail, even the doorknob, and there was ahammock on the porch and white lace curtains in the windows. Underneaththis, in one corner, was a picture of a husband and wife in loving embrace;in the opposite corner was a cradle, with fluffy curtains drawn over it,and a smiling cherub hovering upon silver-colored wings. For fear thatthe significance of all this should be lost, there was a label, in Polish,Lithuanian, and German--"Dom. Namai. Heim." "Why pay rent?" thelinguistic circular went on to demand. "Why not own your own home?Do you know that you can buy one for less than your rent? We have builtthousands of homes which are now occupied by happy families."--So it becameeloquent, picturing the blissfulness of married life in a house withnothing to pay. It even quoted "Home, Sweet Home," and made bold totranslate it into Polish--though for some reason it omitted the Lithuanianof this. Perhaps the translator found it a difficult matter to besentimental in a language in which a sob is known as a gukcziojimas anda smile as a nusiszypsojimas.Over this document the family pored long, while Ona spelled out its contents.It appeared that this house contained four rooms, besides a basement, andthat it might be bought for fifteen hundred dollars, the lot and all.Of this, only three hundred dollars had to be paid down, the balance beingpaid at the rate of twelve dollars a month. These were frightful sums,but then they were in America, where people talked about such without fear.They had learned that they would have to pay a rent of nine dollars a monthfor a flat, and there was no way of doing better, unless the family oftwelve was to exist in one or two rooms, as at present. If they paid rent,of course, they might pay forever, and be no better off; whereas, if theycould only meet the extra expense in the beginning, there would at lastcome a time when they would not have any rent to pay for the rest oftheir lives.They figured it up. There was a little left of the money belonging toTeta Elzbieta, and there was a little left to Jurgis. Marija had aboutfifty dollars pinned up somewhere in her stockings, and Grandfather Anthonyhad part of the money he had gotten for his farm. If they all combined,they would have enough to make the first payment; and if they hademployment, so that they could be sure of the future, it might reallyprove the best plan. It was, of course, not a thing even to be talkedof lightly; it was a thing they would have to sift to the bottom. And yet,on the other hand, if they were going to make the venture, the sooner theydid it the better, for were they not paying rent all the time, and livingin a most horrible way besides? Jurgis was used to dirt--there was nothingcould scare a man who had been with a railroad gang, where one could gatherup the fleas off the floor of the sleeping room by the handful. But thatsort of thing would not do for Ona. They must have a better place of somesort soon--Jurgis said it with all the assurance of a man who had justmade a dollar and fifty-seven cents in a single day. Jurgis was at a lossto understand why, with wages as they were, so many of the people of thisdistrict should live the way they did.The next day Marija went to see her "forelady," and was told to reportthe first of the week, and learn the business of can-painter. Marija wenthome, singing out loud all the way, and was just in time to join Ona andher stepmother as they were setting out to go and make inquiry concerningthe house. That evening the three made their report to the men--the thingwas altogether as represented in the circular, or at any rate so the agenthad said. The houses lay to the south, about a mile and a half from theyards; they were wonderful bargains, the gentleman had assured them--personally, and for their own good. He could do this, so he explainedto them, for the reason that he had himself no interest in their sale--he was merely the agent for a company that had built them. These werethe last, and the company was going out of business, so if any one wishedto take advantage of this wonderful no-rent plan, he would have to bevery quick. As a matter of fact there was just a little uncertainty asto whether there was a single house left; for the agent had taken so manypeople to see them, and for all he knew the company might have parted withthe last. Seeing Teta Elzbieta's evident grief at this news, he added,after some hesitation, that if they really intended to make a purchase,he would send a telephone message at his own expense, and have one of thehouses kept. So it had finally been arranged--and they were to go andmake an inspection the following Sunday morning.That was Thursday; and all the rest of the week the killing gang atBrown's worked at full pressure, and Jurgis cleared a dollar seventy-five every day. That was at the rate of ten and one-half dollars a week,or forty-five a month. Jurgis was not able to figure, except it was avery simple sum, but Ona was like lightning at such things, and she workedout the problem for the family. Marija and Jonas were each to pay sixteendollars a month board, and the old man insisted that he could do the sameas soon as he got a place--which might be any day now. That would makeninety-three dollars. Then Marija and Jonas were between them to take athird share in the house, which would leave only eight dollars a monthfor Jurgis to contribute to the payment. So they would have eighty-fivedollars a month--or, supposing that Dede Antanas did not get work at once,seventy dollars a month--which ought surely to be sufficient for thesupport of a family of twelve.An hour before the time on Sunday morning the entire party set out.They had the address written on a piece of paper, which they showed tosome one now and then. It proved to be a long mile and a half, but theywalked it, and half an hour or so later the agent put in an appearance.He was a smooth and florid personage, elegantly dressed, and he spoketheir language freely, which gave him a great advantage in dealing withthem. He escorted them to the house, which was one of a long row of thetypical frame dwellings of the neighborhood, where architecture is aluxury that is dispensed with. Ona's heart sank, for the house was notas it was shown in the picture; the color scheme was different, for onething, and then it did not seem quite so big. Still, it was freshlypainted, and made a considerable show. It was all brand-new, so theagent told them, but he talked so incessantly that they were quiteconfused, and did not have time to ask many questions. There were allsorts of things they had made up their minds to inquire about, but whenthe time came, they either forgot them or lacked the courage. The otherhouses in the row did not seem to be new, and few of them seemed to beoccupied. When they ventured to hint at this, the agent's reply was thatthe purchasers would be moving in shortly. To press the matter would haveseemed to be doubting his word, and never in their lives had any one ofthem ever spoken to a person of the class called "gentleman" except withdeference and humility.The house had a basement, about two feet below the street line, and asingle story, about six feet above it, reached by a flight of steps.In addition there was an attic, made by the peak of the roof, and havingone small window in each end. The street in front of the house wasunpaved and unlighted, and the view from it consisted of a few exactlysimilar houses, scattered here and there upon lots grown up with dingybrown weeds. The house inside contained four rooms, plastered white;the basement was but a frame, the walls being unplastered and the floornot laid. The agent explained that the houses were built that way, as thepurchasers generally preferred to finish the basements to suit their owntaste. The attic was also unfinished--the family had been figuring thatin case of an emergency they could rent this attic, but they found thatthere was not even a floor, nothing but joists, and beneath them the lathand plaster of the ceiling below. All of this, however, did not chilltheir ardor as much as might have been expected, because of the volubilityof the agent. There was no end to the advantages of the house, as heset them forth, and he was not silent for an instant; he showed themeverything, down to the locks on the doors and the catches on the windows,and how to work them. He showed them the sink in the kitchen, withrunning water and a faucet, something which Teta Elzbieta had never inher wildest dreams hoped to possess. After a discovery such as that itwould have seemed ungrateful to find any fault, and so they tried to shuttheir eyes to other defects.Still, they were peasant people, and they hung on to their money byinstinct; it was quite in vain that the agent hinted at promptness--they would see, they would see, they told him, they could not decide untilthey had had more time. And so they went home again, and all day andevening there was figuring and debating. It was an agony to them to haveto make up their minds in a matter such as this. They never could agreeall together; there were so many arguments upon each side, and one wouldbe obstinate, and no sooner would the rest have convinced him than itwould transpire that his arguments had caused another to waver. Once,in the evening, when they were all in harmony, and the house was as goodas bought, Szedvilas came in and upset them again. Szedvilas had no usefor property owning. He told them cruel stories of people who had beendone to death in this "buying a home" swindle. They would be almost sureto get into a tight place and lose all their money; and there was no endof expense that one could never foresee; and the house might be good-for-nothing from top to bottom--how was a poor man to know? Then, too, theywould swindle you with the contract--and how was a poor man to understandanything about a contract? It was all nothing but robbery, and there wasno safety but in keeping out of it. And pay rent? asked Jurgis. Ah, yes,to be sure, the other answered, that too was robbery. It was all robbery,for a poor man. After half an hour of such depressing conversation, theyhad their minds quite made up that they had been saved at the brink of aprecipice; but then Szedvilas went away, and Jonas, who was a sharp littleman, reminded them that the delicatessen business was a failure, accordingto its proprietor, and that this might account for his pessimistic views.Which, of course, reopened the subject!The controlling factor was that they could not stay where they were--theyhad to go somewhere. And when they gave up the house plan and decidedto rent, the prospect of paying out nine dollars a month forever theyfound just as hard to face. All day and all night for nearly a wholeweek they wrestled with the problem, and then in the end Jurgis took theresponsibility. Brother Jonas had gotten his job, and was pushing a truckin Durham's; and the killing gang at Brown's continued to work early andlate, so that Jurgis grew more confident every hour, more certain of hismastership. It was the kind of thing the man of the family had to decideand carry through, he told himself. Others might have failed at it, but hewas not the failing kind--he would show them how to do it. He would workall day, and all night, too, if need be; he would never rest until thehouse was paid for and his people had a home. So he told them, and so inthe end the decision was made.They had talked about looking at more houses before they made the purchase;but then they did not know where any more were, and they did not know anyway of finding out. The one they had seen held the sway in their thoughts;whenever they thought of themselves in a house, it was this house thatthey thought of. And so they went and told the agent that they were readyto make the agreement. They knew, as an abstract proposition, that inmatters of business all men are to be accounted liars; but they could notbut have been influenced by all they had heard from the eloquent agent,and were quite persuaded that the house was something they had run a riskof losing by their delay. They drew a deep breath when he told them thatthey were still in time.They were to come on the morrow, and he would have the papers alldrawn up. This matter of papers was one in which Jurgis understoodto the full the need of caution; yet he could not go himself--every onetold him that he could not get a holiday, and that he might lose his jobby asking. So there was nothing to be done but to trust it to the women,with Szedvilas, who promised to go with them. Jurgis spent a wholeevening impressing upon them the seriousness of the occasion--and thenfinally, out of innumerable hiding places about their persons and in theirbaggage, came forth the precious wads of money, to be done up tightly in alittle bag and sewed fast in the lining of Teta Elzbieta's dress.Early in the morning they sallied forth. Jurgis had given them so manyinstructions and warned them against so many perils, that the women werequite pale with fright, and even the imperturbable delicatessen vender,who prided himself upon being a businessman, was ill at ease. The agenthad the deed all ready, and invited them to sit down and read it; thisSzedvilas proceeded to do--a painful and laborious process, during whichthe agent drummed upon the desk. Teta Elzbieta was so embarrassed thatthe perspiration came out upon her forehead in beads; for was not thisreading as much as to say plainly to the gentleman's face that theydoubted his honesty? Yet Jokubas Szedvilas read on and on; and presentlythere developed that he had good reason for doing so. For a horriblesuspicion had begun dawning in his mind; he knitted his brows more andmore as he read. This was not a deed of sale at all, so far as he couldsee--it provided only for the renting of the property! It was hard totell, with all this strange legal jargon, words he had never heard before;but was not this plain--"the party of the first part hereby covenants andagrees to rent to the said party of the second part!" And then again--"a monthly rental of twelve dollars, for a period of eight years and fourmonths!" Then Szedvilas took off his spectacles, and looked at the agent,and stammered a question.The agent was most polite, and explained that that was the usual formula;that it was always arranged that the property should be merely rented.He kept trying to show them something in the next paragraph; but Szedvilascould not get by the word "rental"--and when he translated it to TetaElzbieta, she too was thrown into a fright. They would not own the homeat all, then, for nearly nine years! The agent, with infinite patience,began to explain again; but no explanation would do now. Elzbieta hadfirmly fixed in her mind the last solemn warning of Jurgis: "If there isanything wrong, do not give him the money, but go out and get a lawyer."It was an agonizing moment, but she sat in the chair, her hands clenchedlike death, and made a fearful effort, summoning all her powers, and gaspedout her purpose.Jokubas translated her words. She expected the agent to fly into apassion, but he was, to her bewilderment, as ever imperturbable; he evenoffered to go and get a lawyer for her, but she declined this. They wenta long way, on purpose to find a man who would not be a confederate.Then let any one imagine their dismay, when, after half an hour, theycame in with a lawyer, and heard him greet the agent by his first name!They felt that all was lost; they sat like prisoners summoned to hearthe reading of their death warrant. There was nothing more that theycould do--they were trapped! The lawyer read over the deed, and whenhe had read it he informed Szedvilas that it was all perfectly regular,that the deed was a blank deed such as was often used in these sales.And was the price as agreed? the old man asked--three hundred dollarsdown, and the balance at twelve dollars a month, till the total offifteen hundred dollars had been paid? Yes, that was correct. And itwas for the sale of such and such a house--the house and lot and everything?Yes,--and the lawyer showed him where that was all written. And it wasall perfectly regular--there were no tricks about it of any sort? Theywere poor people, and this was all they had in the world, and if therewas anything wrong they would be ruined. And so Szedvilas went on,asking one trembling question after another, while the eyes of the womenfolks were fixed upon him in mute agony. They could not understand whathe was saying, but they knew that upon it their fate depended. And whenat last he had questioned until there was no more questioning to be done,and the time came for them to make up their minds, and either close thebargain or reject it, it was all that poor Teta Elzbieta could do to keepfrom bursting into tears. Jokubas had asked her if she wished to sign;he had asked her twice--and what could she say? How did she know if thislawyer were telling the truth--that he was not in the conspiracy? And yet,how could she say so--what excuse could she give? The eyes of every onein the room were upon her, awaiting her decision; and at last, half blindwith her tears, she began fumbling in her jacket, where she had pinned theprecious money. And she brought it out and unwrapped it before the men.All of this Ona sat watching, from a corner of the room, twisting herhands together, meantime, in a fever of fright. Ona longed to cry outand tell her stepmother to stop, that it was all a trap; but there seemedto be something clutching her by the throat, and she could not make a sound.And so Teta Elzbieta laid the money on the table, and the agent picked itup and counted it, and then wrote them a receipt for it and passed themthe deed. Then he gave a sigh of satisfaction, and rose and shook handswith them all, still as smooth and polite as at the beginning. Ona hada dim recollection of the lawyer telling Szedvilas that his charge was adollar, which occasioned some debate, and more agony; and then, after theyhad paid that, too, they went out into the street, her stepmother clutchingthe deed in her hand. They were so weak from fright that they could notwalk, but had to sit down on the way.So they went home, with a deadly terror gnawing at their souls; and thatevening Jurgis came home and heard their story, and that was the end.Jurgis was sure that they had been swindled, and were ruined; and hetore his hair and cursed like a madman, swearing that he would killthe agent that very night. In the end he seized the paper and rushedout of the house, and all the way across the yards to Halsted Street.He dragged Szedvilas out from his supper, and together they rushed toconsult another lawyer. When they entered his office the lawyer sprang up,for Jurgis looked like a crazy person, with flying hair and bloodshot eyes.His companion explained the situation, and the lawyer took the paper andbegan to read it, while Jurgis stood clutching the desk with knotted hands,trembling in every nerve.Once or twice the lawyer looked up and asked a question of Szedvilas;the other did not know a word that he was saying, but his eyes werefixed upon the lawyer's face, striving in an agony of dread to readhis mind. He saw the lawyer look up and laugh, and he gave a gasp;the man said something to Szedvilas, and Jurgis turned upon his friend,his heart almost stopping."Well?" he panted."He says it is all right," said Szedvilas."All right!""Yes, he says it is just as it should be." And Jurgis, in his relief,sank down into a chair."Are you sure of it?" he gasped, and made Szedvilas translate questionafter question. He could not hear it often enough; he could not askwith enough variations. Yes, they had bought the house, they had reallybought it. It belonged to them, they had only to pay the money and itwould be all right. Then Jurgis covered his face with his hands, forthere were tears in his eyes, and he felt like a fool. But he had hadsuch a horrible fright; strong man as he was, it left him almost too weakto stand up.The lawyer explained that the rental was a form--the property was saidto be merely rented until the last payment had been made, the purposebeing to make it easier to turn the party out if he did not make thepayments. So long as they paid, however, they had nothing to fear, thehouse was all theirs.Jurgis was so grateful that he paid the half dollar the lawyer askedwithout winking an eyelash, and then rushed home to tell the news tothe family. He found Ona in a faint and the babies screaming, and thewhole house in an uproar--for it had been believed by all that he hadgone to murder the agent. It was hours before the excitement could becalmed; and all through that cruel night Jurgis would wake up now andthen and hear Ona and her stepmother in the next room, sobbing softlyto themselves.