Russia, there were rich men who owned everything, and
if one could not find any work, was not the hunger he
began to feel the same sort of hunger?

When Jurgis had been working about three weeks at
Brown's, there had come to him one noon-time a man who
was employed as a night-watchman, and who asked him if
he would not like to take out naturalization papers and be~
come a citizen. Jurgis did not know what that meant,
but the man explained the advantages. In the first place,
it would not cost him anything, and it would get him half
a day off, with his pay just the same; and then when elec~
tion time came he would be able to vote -- and there was
something in that. Jurgis was naturally glad to accept,
and so the night-watchman said a few words to the boss,
and he was excused for the rest of the day. When, later
on, he wanted a holiday to get married he could not get
it; and as for a holiday with pay just the same -- what
power had wrought that miracle heaven only knew! How~
ever, he went with the man, who picked up several other
newly landed immigrants, Poles, Lithuanians, and Slovaks,
and took them all outside, where stood a great four-horse
tally-ho coach, with fifteen or twenty men already in it.
It was a fine chance to see the sights of the city, and the
party had a merry time, with plenty of beer handed up
from inside. So they drove down-town and stopped before
an imposing granite building, in which they interviewed
an official, who had the papers all ready, with only the
names to be filled in. So each man in turn took an oath
of which he did not understand a word, and then was pre~
sented with a handsome ornamented document with a big
red seal and the shield of the United States upon it, and
was told that he had become a citizen of the Republic and
the equal of the President himself.

A month or two later Jurgis had another interview with
this same man, who told him where to go to "register."
And then finally, when election day came, the packing-
houses posted a notice that men who desired to vote might
remain away until nine that morning, and the same night-
watchman took Jurgis and the rest of his flock into the

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p108 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p109w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p110

v?