it was doubtful if she even knew that, for both the forelady
and the superintendent were new people, having only been
there two or three years themselves. Jadvyga did not
know what had become of the poor creature; she would
have gone to see her, but had been sick herself. She had
pains in her back all the time, Jadvyga explained, and
feared that she had womb trouble. It was not fit work for
a woman, handling fourteen-pound cans all day.

It was a striking circumstance that Jonas, too, had
gotten his job by the misfortune of some other person.
Jonas pushed a truck loaded with hams from the smoke-
rooms on to an elevator, and thence to the packing-rooms.
The trucks were all of iron, and heavy, and they put
about threescore hams on each of them, a load of more
than a quarter of a ton. On the uneven floor it was a
task for a man to start one of these trucks, unless he was
a giant; and when it was once started he naturally tried
his best to keep it going. There was always the boss
prowling about, and if there was a second's delay he
would fall to cursing; Lithuanians and Slovaks and such,
who could not understand what was said to them, the
bosses were wont to kick about the place like so many
dogs. Therefore these trucks went for the most part on
the run; and the predecessor of Jonas had been jammed
against the wall by one and crushed in a horrible and
nameless manner.

All of these were sinister incidents; but they were
trifles compared to what Jurgis saw with his own eyes
before long. One curious thing he had noticed, the very
first day, in his profession of shoveler of guts; which was
the sharp trick of the floor-bosses whenever there chanced
to come a "slunk" calf. Any man who knows anything
about butchering 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-houses --
and, of course, if they had chosen, it would have been
an easy matter for the packers to keep them till 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,

[[73]]

p072 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p073w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p074

v?