could lay that down for a rule -- if you met a man who
was rising in Packingtown, you met a knave. That man
who had been sent to Jurgis's father by the boss, he would
rise; the man who told tales and spied upon his fellows
would rise; but the man who minded his own business
and did his work -- why, they would "speed him up" till
they had worn him out, and then they would throw him
into the gutter.

Jurgis went home with his head buzzing. Yet he could
not bring himself to believe such things -- no, it could not
be so. Tamoszius was simply another of the grumblers.
He was a man who spent all his time fiddling; and he
would go to parties at night and not get home till sunrise,
and so of course he did not feel like work. Then, too,
he was a puny little chap; and so he had been left behind
in the race, and that was why he was sore. And yet so
many strange things kept coming to Jurgis's notice every
day!

He tried to persuade his father to have nothing to do
with the offer. But old Antanas had begged until he was
worn out, and all his courage was gone; he wanted a job,
any sort of a job. So the next day he went and found the
man who had spoken to him, and promised to bring him a
third of all he earned; and that same day he was put to
work in Durham's cellars. It was a "pickle-room," where
there was never a dry spot to stand upon, and so he had
to take nearly the whole of his first week's earnings
to buy him a pair of heavy-soled boots. He was a
"squeedgie" man; his job was to go about all day with a
long-handled mop, swabbing up the floor. Except that
it was damp and dark, it was not an unpleasant job, in
summer.

Now Antanas Rudkus was the meekest man that God
ever put on earth; and so Jurgis found it a striking con~
firmation of what the men all said, that his father had
been at work only two days before he came home as bitter
as any of them, and cursing Durham's with all the power
of his soul. For they had set him to cleaning out the
traps; and the family sat round and listened in wonder

[[71]]

p070 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p071w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p072

v?