The sun., 1909-01-24

ladies l Have Known Mine had very
small waist, a pompadour and an impos-
ing manner OF having risen from the
ranks ! asked for work in a tone that
tried to make subtly independent and be-
difficult to achieve.
She looked me over ieisurely. Had
ever worked in fruit before? No. She
couldn't use me. she wanted experienced
packers. Then desire for that part icular
job awoke and blazed within me and
began 10 talk. talked until saw her
expression soften.
don't remember what | said before
confessed to having q husband who had
left me. but remember hearing myself
say that had a little boy. | called him
Willie and said that he was 2years old.
Get knife and mould over there and
| III see IL can use you" she said
| got knife and a mould and went and
stood at the vacant place she had indi-
Gated and wondered IL / had always had
such possibilities latent or/~hether they
were born OF the occasion.
1t was a dried fig packing house, and
can see IL yet, every face. almost every
fig. The big barnlike room with sliding
doors opening on a platform piled high
with boxes OF fruit, the trains drawn up
on the siding waiting 10 be loaded; and
beyond. scattered cottages, the smoke
stacks Of other packing houses and then
the country-miles upon miles Of green,
shimmering in the hot sun. The long
tables lined with women and girls
heavy faced Russians. fat Neapolitans
with dirty waists, dark eyed Armenians,
clean. self-assertive Americans. Every
woman bent over a pile OF yellow figs,
the clank OF machinery. the soft thud OF
the figs as they fell from the separator,
the click OF the scales as the women
weighed and the high, singing call. More
fruit. fru-itl'
Suddenly the forewoman was behind
me.
watch me- she said.
il ono slit with q knife, pushed up with
her first fingers and down with her thumbs
and made a butterfly out OF H. Again
and again she did II. then stopped wearily
aside and told me 10 try.
1ourished the knife gave the slit
and was left with piece OF skin sticking
terop ten my Of ' that x % vanshed % sh. ins never se
know. II was and II was not.
A dozen times more she showed me,
and then to my infinite relief left me TO
practise. tried TO catch the trick from
the girl opposite, but her hands few 90
quickly I could make nothing Of II.
Besides, her fingers were all wrapped in
rags TO keep the lye that is put on during
the drying from eating away the nails.
Before my month was up l could pick
out the different workers by their wounds:
Crumbling nails. figs; big, callous Jumps
at the ends OF the thumbs, prune packers;
calous strips across the palm. peelers in
the canneries skin thick and white like
leprosy, tomato Gamers: finger ends fat
and black raisin packers. It's almost
a Bertillon system.
Then. Just when thought that never
could fatten out fig / did it. After
that there was, nothing to learn, just TO
work up speed.
BY II I could do It, not quickly but with |
out spelling any: | could paoR my mould
so that each OF the five divisions weighed
the exact eight ounces prescribed by law,
and when they didn't could ram few |
figs into the centre without taking the |
whole to pieces. After that 1t was just
slit, push, pack on and on.
Il was no good trying to talk TO the girls
around. They only looked at me sus-
picously. They we're there TO pack hgs |
80 presumably was |. Every moment |
wasted In anything else meant so much
less money earned.
Gradually the awful necessity Of haste
frightened me. With eyes fixed on their
work they turned neither to the right nor
to the left. The tension was almost
palpable. / too began to hurry. every