Omaha daily bee., 1909-01-24

my apron under the other, ready to begin.
No ono wanted me. Some Of the fore-
women we're Indifferent ard some were
really sorry hat they had nothing for me
some were sympathetic and had the man
ner Of remembering the distant days when
they also had been looking for a job"
Some were as superior as the secretary
who gathered statistics.
On the third day l began going to the
same places in the afternoon and in the
morning. hoping that some girl had failed
to come back and that I would get her
place. Others tried the same thing.
l met an untidy, stupid Russian peasant
three times in one afternoon coming out
as l went in. The third time we smiled
at each other kindly and l understood why
the unemployed band together. The world
had readjusted itself into those who had
work and those who wanted work. On the
fourth morning as 1 stood waiting for the
forewoman 1 saw the stupid, dirty Russian
working away silently. She had got in
dislike for her.
From Figs to Peaches.
On the afternoon Of the fourth day l was
taken on for a rush order of dried peaches.
Now. packing figs is like handling warm
llaAseeu pOulJlCtS' DuI uIltu pSoSiSS "lO
like cobble stones. If possible, the work
is more mOnotonous.
There are no moulds to wash, nothing to
weigh. You just stand in the same spot
hour after hour flattening dried peaches.
Presumably you do it with your hands only.
did it with every muscle in my body, for
there is no limit to the extension possible
ties of a dried peach. l could make one
! fpfp IAnrv,,at nj artrpaZa 81 into "a npa- still
keeping it perfectly flat.
When the fresh trays Of warm fruit are
brought the forewoman emits sounds like
foot ball signals, 7x9, 9xl1, etc. You fall
upon the fruit, grabbing as much of the
best as you can get your hands over, and
begin to lay It in the boxes seven across
by nine up, etc. The only excitement is
that as soon as you have begun to get used
to one way, the forewOman emits a new
signal and you have to do something else.
II anyone is rude enough to grab at the
same fruit that you want, you push her
away as roughly as is necessary to separate
her from it. In those packing houses where
the fruit Is not brought round but you have
to 20 after ii you have less chance.
AS soon as the clank, clank of the steamer
begins, and the soft, hot fruit comes pour
ing into the bin you seize your box and
beat your way into the packed mass OF
women and girls. If the sharp edge of a
box is driven into your back it's all par
of the getting OF the fruit. Next time i
will be your box and another woman's back
There is no permanent i'll feeling about
ii. At least not when you are both Ameri
cans. 1t Is different when a be. is yielded
by a "dago.' A "dago" is anyone with q
dark complexion who can't speak Englisf
and who makes more money than you do
When a "dAgo' steps on you or prods you
in the jam 1t is always malicious and pre-
meditated.
Fail for the Money.
So it went on day after day. Sometimes
I was let out and sometimes l left on my
own accord. Az the fruit came pouring IL
from the orchards and vineyards there wa
no trouble in getting work and no one was
laid off. 1t is like a sweeping tide of the
sea, swallowing every human thing capable
Of work.
Those who need it and those who dom
are all dragged under together. 1t Is g
chance to make money; no one can stand
against it. There is something terrifying
about 1t. 1t is almost, p%alpable, that haunt
ing, driving Thing forever beating the
worker on. l saw the Thing once, saw II
clearly.
1 was packing raisins In a huge packing
house. Upon each table a long iron funne
from the room above poured a stream OF
boiling hot raisins all day. We worked In
crews of three.
When he had filled forty-eight pound
packages with raisins, weighed each one
closed it and packed all forty-eight in 6
wooden box we got 8 cents to be divided
tha throa Al tha an ma fuhla will
me were a sharp-faced little American wo
man and a heavy Russian mother with hei
l6-year-old daughter. The woman had beer
working seven years and the girl three
They made 50 a day each.
Early in the afternoon 1 could just see
them through the dense steam that rose
from the hot fruit. The faces of the tive
women were deep red and the water rar
in streams from them. But the girl wal
quite white. They worked without speak
ing, almost without moving. l left because
when l woke at night l could see those tive
red faces and the white one, like lost souli
in Inferno, condemned to pack forever. Tht
Thing was behind them.
Why She Quit.
worked another week and then
stopped. ] stopped because l was fright
ened.
| was bottling preserved peaches when j
struck me with the force of a physica
blow. From Z in the morning until $50 a
night l had stood in a room rooted will
netting to keep out the b~ees-only the net
ting was broken and the bees came in any
way-and slid preserved peaches down
stick into a bottle. Suddenly my little sticl
snapped and couldn't go on working.
For ten minutes while the forewomaI
hunted up another stick l sat doing moth
ing, watching the others get ahead of me
The girl next to me never turned her head
The fat, dripping halves continued to slid
down the stick and form clean, yellow hal
moons up the side OF the bottle,
Don't you ever feel like packing then
wrong side up?" l asked, 'just for
CHANGE
NO" she said simply and began on
now bottle. That 'uld be stupid
She had been sliding peaches down tina
stick for two months. That was why
quit. She frightened me. l was afrai
that very soon ! too would think il wa
stupid to slide the peaches in upside down
Generous Child.
Master Walter, aged o. had eaten tn
, soft portions Of toast at breakfast an
piled the crusts on his plate. When
I was a little boy" remarked his father
Y ~ always ate the crusts of my toast"