The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1906-06-07
THE JUNGLE. I"
Crude Coarse, Brutal Novel, which Precpitated All this
COmmoion.

the old man should pay him one-thir(
Of his wages each week. 1t is not 81
; very long ago that that sort of thint
!, was done right here in Washington In
Government Departments. 1t has beer
smothered out just now.
Low Down Trick.
Jurgis thought this a low-down trick
and asked one of the workmen the why
and how of it. He asked the little
man who folded hides on the killing
beds. and he listened to what Jurgis
had to say without seeming at all sur
prised. They were common enough. he
said, SUCH cases of petty graft. ut was
simply some boss who proposed to ado
/ a little to his income. After Jurgis had
been awhile there, he would know that
i the plants We're simply honey-combed
with rottenness of that sort. The boss
4 es grated off the men, and they grated
i off each other; and some day the super
i intendent would find out about the boss
i and then he would graft off the boss
i . Here was Durham's, for instance
/ Owned by a man who was trying tC
make as much money out of it as he
| could, and he did not care in the least
i how he did it; underneath him, ranged
| in ranks and grades like an army, were
! managers and superintendent 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 a 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 1T; there was nc
place in it where a man counted for
anything against a dollar. And worse
I
not even any honesty. The reason for
that? Who could say2 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-
1 lively is practiced in almost every large
institution of like character in the
country. While the graft here in Pack
| inghousetewn seems to be nastier be-
cause of the nastier work, graft is graft
| anywhere.
| Old Antanas was very soon stricken
| with the virus of grumble and COM
| plant, exactly as everybody else in and
about the clearinghouse seemed to be.
For they had set him to cleaning
| out the traps, so the story says, land
| 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
watts full OF chemicals, and men with
great forks speared 1t out and dumped
| it 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 shoveis
scraped up the balance and dumped 1t
into the truck. This floor was filthy,
ping the pickle into a hole that con-
nected with sink, where 1T was caught
and used over again forever; and II
that were not enough, there was'a trap
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 with the rest of the meat!'
How He Learned Things.
zone curious thing Jurgis had no.
ticed, the very first day in his profess
sion OF shoyeler of CUTS, was the sharp
trick Of the floor boss whenever there
CHANGED to come a SUNK 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
Ia
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, it 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
| INTO the trap, calves and all. and on the
| floor below they took out these Skunk
calves, and butchered them for meat,
and used even the skins Of them.
Zone 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 dozen or
/ two of men on the floor. That day
| they had FILLED 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 special elevator upon
which they were raised to the ~ ing
| beds. where the gang proceed< to
| handle them With an air OF business
| like nonchalance which said palmer
than any words that 1t was matter Of
I everyday routine. Tt took couple of
/ hours to get them out of the way, and
| in the end Jurgis sS'v them go into the
! chilling rooms Nth .he rest Of the
| meat. being carefully scattered here and
/ there so that they could not be identi-
/ fed
i a.e. Child Labor.
4 Then the time came when the fam
I lily thought that one of the children
1 should go to work and help earn more
| money. The fact that this child was
under legal age to be put to work and
i that he should be in school instead
I seems not to have troubled them very
j much. They simply sent him to the
/ priest, had his age set ahead two years,
got a certificate to that effect, and
/ with a ten-dollar bill presented the
boy and the money to one of the boss
4 es, lied two years as to the kids age
4 and set him to work earning So a
.xaak The aufhpr ropS into Mandolin