The National tribune., 1906-06-07

:. through "boss," who stipulated tha
It the old man should pay him one-thir,
a of his wages each week. 1t is not s.
e very long ago that that sort of thinl
e was done right here in Washington ii
= Government Departments. 1t has beer
f smothered out just now.
Low Down Trick.
Jurgis thought this low-down trick
f and asked one of the workmen the VIII,
and how of it. He asked the "littI,
t man who folded hides on the killing
beds. and he listened to what Jurgi.
[ had to say without seeming at all sur
I prised. They were common enough. hi
, said, such' cases of petty graft. 'It wa:
/ simply some boss who proposed to ado
, a little to his income. After Jurgis had
been awhile there, he would know thai
the plants We're simply honey-combed
with rottenness of that sort. The boss
, es grated off the men, and they grated
! off each other; and some day the super
intendent would find out about the boss
4 and then he would graft off the boss
. Here was Durham's, for instance
i owned by man who was trying to
make as much money out of 1t as he
could, and he did not care in the least
Il how he did it; underneath him, ranged
| in ranks and grades like an army, were
! managers and SuperintendentS and fore
men, each driving the man next below
/ him and trying to squeeze out of him
\ as much work as possible, and all the
| men of the same rank were pitted
/ against each other; the accounts of each
were kept separately. and every man
lived in terror of losing his job, If an
other made better record than he. So
from top to bottom the place was SIM
ply a seething cauldron of jealousies
land hatreds; there was no loyalty or de-
cency anywhere about it; there was no
place in it where a man counted for
anything against dollar. And worse
not even any honesty. The reason for
that? Who could say? 1t must have
been Old Durham in the beginning; it
was heritage which the self-made
merchant had left to his son along with
his millions"
Now there doesn't seem to be any,
thing different in this way of graft
ing from that which we know posi-
lively is practiced in almost every large
institution of like character in the
country. While the graft here in Pack
inghousetown seems to be nastier be-
cause of the nastier work, graft is graft
anywhere.
Old Antanas was very soon stricken
with the virus of grumbIe and COM
plant, exactly as everybody else in and
about the packinghouse seemed to be.
For they had set him to cleaning
out the traps so the story says, "and
the family sat round and listened in
wonder while he told what that meant.
1t seemed that he was working in the
room where the men prepared the beef
for canning, and the beef had lain In
vats full of chemicals. and men with
great forks speared 1t out and dumped
il into trucks to be taken to the cook
ing room. When they had speared out
all they could reach, they emptied the
vat on the floor and then with shovels
scraped up the balance and dumped I'll
into the truck. This floor was filthy, |
yet they set Antanas with his mop slop-
ping the pickle into hole that con-
nected with sink, where 1t was caught
and used over again forever; and III
that were not enough, there was "a trapI
in the pipe where all the scraps of meat
and odds and ends of refuse were |
caught and every few days 1T was the |
old mans task to clean these out. and
shovel their contents into one of the \
trucks witt the rest of the meat"
How He Learned Things.
zone curious thing Jurgis had no.
ticed, the very first day in his profess
trick of the floor boss whenever there
CHANGED to come a skunk calf. Any
man who knows anything about butch
ering knows that the flesh of a COW
that is about to calve or has just calved
Is not fit for food. A good many of
these came every day to the packing-l
house-and, of course, IL they had
chosen, 1t would have been an easy!
matter for the packers to keep them
until they were fit for food. But for
the saving of time and fodder, il was
the law that cows of that sort came
along with the others. and whoever no.
ticed 1t would tell the boss. and the
boss would start up conversation
with the Government Inspector and the
two would stroll away. So in a trice
the carcass of the COW would be cleaned
out, and the entrails would have van
ished; it was Jurgis's task to slide them
mo the trap, calves and ALL and on the
floor below they took out these SUNK
calves, and butchered them for meat,
and used even the skins of them.
"One day man slipped and hurt his
leg: and that afternoon, when the last
Of the cattle had been disposed of, and
the men were lying off. Jurgis was or
dered to remain and do some special
work which this injured man had US
ually done. 1t was late, almost dark,
and the Government Inspectors had all
gone, and there were only a dozen or
two of men on the floor. That day
they had Killed about 1000 cattle, and
the~ cattle had come in freight trains
from far States. and some of them had
got hurt. There were some with bro
ken legs, and some with gored sides;
there we're some that had died, from
what cause no one could say: and they
were all to be disposed of, here in
darkness and silence. Downers. the
men called them; and the packing
house had a special elevator upon
which they were raised to the f;s'ing-l I
beds. where t'le gang proceed<s to!
handle them With an air of business
ike nonchalance which said palmer
thaD any words that 1t was matter of
everyday routine. tt took a couple of
hours to get them out Of the way, and ,
IN the end Jurgis ss,v them go into the
chilling rooms W 'th .he rest of the
meat. being carefully scattered here and
there so that they could not be identi-
fed"
Child Labor.
Then the time came when the fam
ly thought that one of the children
should go to work and help earn more
The fact that this child was
under legal age to be put to work and
hat he should be In school instead ,
seems not to have troubled them very ,
much. They simply sent him to the
priest, had his age set ahead two years, ,
got a certificate to that effect, and ,
with ten-dollar bill presented the ,
Boy and the money to one of the boss ,
rs. lied two years as to the kids ageI
and set him to work earning SO a
week. The author goes into maudlin !
Mysteries oyer the fact that this little
child had to stand upon a certain spot ,
Df the floor year in and wear ont for 1 o .