size of the feet of an elephant. Now and then, when the
bosses were not looking, you would see them plunging
their feet and ankles into the steaming hot carcass of the
steer, or darting across the room to the hot-water jets.
The cruelest thing of all was that nearly all of them -- all
of those who used knives -- were unable to wear gloves,
and their arms would be white with frost and their hands
would grow numb, and then of course there would be
accidents. Also the air would be full of steam, from the
hot water and the hot blood, so that you could not see
five feet before you; and then, with men rushing about
at the speed they kept up on the killing-beds, and all with
butcher-knives, like razors, in their hands -- well, it was
to be counted as a wonder that there were not more men
slaughtered than cattle.

And yet all this inconvenience they might have put up
with, if only it had not been for one thing -- if only there
had been some place where they might eat. Jurgis had
either to eat his dinner amid the stench in which he had
worked, or else to rush, as did all his companions, to
any one of the hundreds of liquor stores which stretched
out their arms to him. To the west of the yards ran Ash~
land Avenue, and here was an unbroken line of saloons --
"Whisky Row," they called it; to the north was Forty-
seventh Street, where there were half a dozen to the block,
and at the angle of the two was "Whisky Point," a space
of fifteen or twenty acres, and containing one glue-factory
and about two hundred saloons.

One might walk among these and take his choice:
"Hot pea-soup and boiled cabbage today." "Sauer~
kraut and hot frankfurters. Walk in." "Bean-soup and
stewed lamb. Welcome." All of these things were
printed in many languages, as were also the names of the
resorts, which were infinite in their variety and appeal.
There was the "Home Circle" and the "Cosey Corner";
there were "Firesides" and "Hearthstones" and "Pleas~
ure Palaces" and "Wonderlands" and "Dream Castles" and
"Love's Delights." Whatever else they were called,
they were sure to be called "Union Headquarters," and to

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