The sun. (Jacksonville, Fla.) 1905-1908, 1906-08-18
Eleventh Page
/. 4, BY
ID Upton Sinclair

give IL up. he hau Doon hkeWlbo 20
ell the stores and saloons for q mile
about, begging for some little thing to
do; and everywhere they had ordered
him out, sometimes with curses, and
not once even stopping to ask him
question. a.
So, after all, there was a crack In
the fine structure Of Jurgis's faith IA
things as they are. The crack was
wide while Dede Antanas was hunting
a job--and II was yet wider when he
finally got It. For one evening tho
cid man came home In q great state
OF excitement, with the tale that he
had been approached by man In one
of the corridors of the pickle rooms
OF Durham's, and asked what he
would pay to get Job. He had not
known what to make OF this at first;
but the man had gone on with matter.
of-fact frankness to say that he could
get him job, provided that he were
willing to pay one-third OF his wages
for It. Was he boss? Antanas had
asked; to which the man had replied
that that was nobody's business, but
that he could do what he said.
Jurgis had made some friends by
this time, and he sought one OF them
and asked what this meant. The
friend, who was named TamosziuS
Kuszleika, was q sharp little man who
folded hides ON the killing beds, and
he listened to what Jurgis had to say
without seeming at all surprised.
They were common enough, he said,
such cases of petty graft. He was
simply some boss who proposed To
add little to his income. After Jur-
gis had been there awhile he would
know that the plants were simply
honey-combed with rottenness OF that
sort--the bosses grated off the men,
and they grated Off each other; ami
some day the superintendent would
flnd out about the boss, and then ne
would graft of the boss. Warming to
the subject, Tamoszius went on to ex-
plain the situation. Here was Dur
hams, for instance, owned by man
who was trying 20 make as much
money out of It az he could, and did
not care In the least how he did It;
and underneath him, ranged In ranks
and grades like an army, were mana
gers and superintendent and fore.
men, each one driving the man below
him and trying to squeeze out Of him
as much work az possible.
And all the men of the same rank
were pitted against each other; thu
accounts were each kept separately,
and every man lived In mortal terror
of losing his Job, IL another made q
better record than he. SO from top
to bottom the place was simply
seething cauldron of jealousies and
hatreds; there was no loyalty or do.
cenCy anwhere about It; there was no
place In II where q man counted for
anything against q dollar. And worse
than there being no decency, there
was not even any honesty. The rea-
son for that? Who could say? Il
must have been old Durham In tho
beginning; Il was a heritage which
the self.made merchant had left to
his son along with his millions
Jurgis would find out these things
for himself, II he stayed there long
enough: Il was the men who had to
do all the dirty jobs, and 30 there was
no deceiving them; and they caught
the spirit Of the place, and did like all
the rest. Jurgis had come there, and
thought he was going to make himself
useful, and rise and become q skilled
man; but he would soon find out his
error-for nobody rose In Packing
town by doing good work. You could
lay that down for rule III you met a
man who was rising In Paclxingtown.
you met knave. That man who hal
been sent to J1rgis's father by the
boss. he would rise; the man who
told the tale and spied upon his Eel.
lows would rise; but the man who
minded his own business and did tho
work--why, they would speed him
TN" TIL thew md yvOru Mir. ora onA