The sun. (Jacksonville, Fla.) 1905-1908, 1906-07-28
By
Upton Sinclair

WAS SOunu, SOUND made up OF In
thousand little sounds. You sca,os
noticed 1t at first 1t sunk into y"''
consciousness, a vague dsturhsNS
trouble. 1t was like the murmur',
Of the bees in the Spring, the vhE
pering of the forest; 1t suggested ON,
less activity, the rumblings of a woTi
in motion. It was only by an eno~ y
that one could realize that il ""
made by animals, that 1t was the de-
tant lowing of ten thousand CATH
the distant grunting Of ten thousani
swine.
They would have liked to follow
up; but, alas, they had no time "a,
adventures just then. The policeman
on the corner was beginning to watch
them; and SO, as usual, they STARTED
up the street. Scarcely had they zone
block, however, before Jonas WA
heard to give cry, and began point
ing excitedly across the street. Be-
fore they could gather the meaning
of his breathless CALCULATIONS he had
bounded away, and they saw him en-
ter shop, over which was a sign
u. Szedvilas. Delicatessen." When he
came out again 1t was in COMPANY
with a very stout gentleman in shirt
sleeves and an apron, clasping Jonas
by both hands and laughing hilarious
ly. Then Teta Elizbieta recolleCtd
suddenly that Szedvilas had been the
name Of the mythical friend who had
made his fortune in America. To find
that he had been making 1t in the De
licatessen business was an extraOrdt
nary piece Of good fortune at this
juncture; though 1t was well on in the
morning, they had not breakfaSta
and the children were beginning TO
whimper.
Thus was the happy ending Of
woful voyage. The two families liter
ally fell upon each others necks-fOr
1t had been years since Szedvilas had
met a man from mis- part Of Lithuania
Before half tho day they were lifelong
friends. Jokubas understood all the
pitfalls of this new world, and could
explain all of it's mysteries; he could
tell them the things they ought to
have done In the different emergen
cies--and what was still more to the
point, he could tell them what to do
now. He would take them to POM
Aniele, who kept a boarding house the
other side of the yards; old Mrs
Juknience, he explained, had not what
one would call choice accommods
tions, but they might do for the mo
ment. To this Teta Elzbieta hastenea
to respond that nothing could be TOO
cheap to suit them just then; for
they were quite terrified over me
sums they had had to expend. A very
few days Of practical experience ID
this land Of high wages had been
sufficient to make clear to them tns
cruel fact that It was also a land Oh
high prices, and that In 1t the poor
man was almost as poor as in any
other corner of the earth; and So
there vanished in q night all the won
derful dreams of wealth that haa
been haunting Jurgi3. What had maze
the discovery all the more palniu,I
was that they were spending, al
American prices, money which they
had earned at home rates Of wages
and so were really being cheated Dy
the world! The last two days they
had all but starved Themselves
made them quite sick to pay u,
prices that the railroad people asker
them for food.
Wid0t0 JUkniene Home HGd seen
Nothing SO Bod.
Yet, when they saw the home OF tn'
Widow Jukniene they could not Ou
recoil, even so. In all their joulne
they had seen nothing so bad as TINS
Poni Aniele had a four-room nat i
one Of that wilderness of two-stor!
franc tenements that lie back OF tn'
yards" There were four such fiat j
each building, and each Of the lou
was a clearinghouse" for the oc'u