and a "wool-pullery" for the sheep skins; they made pep~
sin from the stomachs of the pigs, and albumen from the
blood, and violin strings from the ill-smelling entrails.
When there was nothing else to be done with a thing, they
first put it into a tank and got out of it all the tallow and
grease, and then they made it into fertilizer. All these
industries were gathered into buildings near by, connected
by galleries and railroads with the main establishment;
and it was estimated that they had handled nearly a
quarter of a billion of animals since the founding of the
plant by the elder Durham a generation and more ago.
If you counted with it the other big plants -- and they
were now really all one -- it was, so Jokubas informed
them, the greatest aggregation of labor and capital ever
gathered in one place. It employed thirty thousand men;
it supported directly two hundred and fifty thousand people
in its neighborhood, and indirectly it supported half a mil~
lion. It sent its products to every country in the civilized
world, and it furnished the food for no less than thirty
million people!

To all of these things our friends would listen open
mouthed -- it seemed to them impossible of belief that
anything so stupendous could have been devised by
mortal man. That was why to Jurgis it seemed almost
profanity to speak about the place as did Jokubas, skepti~
cally; it was a thing as tremendous as the universe -- the
laws and ways of its working no more than the universe
to be questioned or understood. All that a mere man
could do, it seemed to Jurgis, was to take a thing like
this as he found it, and do as he was told; to be given a
place in it and a share in its wonderful activities was a
blessing to be grateful for, as one was grateful for the
sunshine and the rain. Jurgis was even glad that he had
not seen the place before meeting with his triumph, for
he felt that the size of it would have overwhelmed him.
But now he had been admitted -- he was a part of it all!
He had the feeling that this whole huge establishment
had taken him under its protection, and had become
responsible for his welfare. So guileless was he, and

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v?