hardly control his hands. Still, with the memory of his
four months' siege behind him, he fought on, in a frenzy
of determination; and half an hour later he began to
vomit -- he vomited until it seemed as if his inwards must
be torn into shreds. A man could get used to the ferti~
lizer-mill, the boss had said, if he would only make up his
mind to it; but Jurgis now began to see that it was a
question of making up his stomach.

At the end of that day of horror, he could scarcely
stand. He had to catch himself now and then, and lean
against a building and get his bearings. Most of the
men, when they came out, made straight for a saloon --
they seemed to place fertilizer and rattlesnake poison in
one class. But Jurgis was too ill to think of drinking --
he could only make his way to the street and stagger on to
a car. He had a sense of humor, and later on, when he
became an old hand, he used to think it fun to board a
street-car and see what happened. Now, however, he was
too ill to notice it -- how the people in the car began to
gasp and sputter, to put their handkerchiefs to their noses,
and transfix him with furious glances. Jurgis only knew
that a man in front of him immediately got up and gave
him a seat; and that half a minute later the two people on
each side of him got up; and that in a full minute the
crowded car was nearly empty -- those passengers who
could not get room on the platform having gotten out
to walk.

Of course Jurgis had made his home a miniature ferti~
lizer-mill a minute after entering. The stuff was half an
inch deep in his skin -- his whole system was full of it,
and it would have taken a week not merely of scrubbing,
but of vigorous exercise, to get it out of him. As it was,
he could be compared with nothing known to men, save
that newest discovery of the savants, a substance which
emits energy for an unlimited time, without being itself
in the least diminished in power. He smelt so that he
made all the food at the table taste, and set the whole
family to vomiting; for himself it was three days before
he could keep anything upon his stomach -- he might

[[155]]

p154 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p155w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p156

v?