But no, their bells were not ringing for him -- their
Christmas was not meant for him, they were simply not
counting him at all. He was of no consequence -- he was
flung aside, like a bit of trash, the carcass of some animal.
It was horrible, horrible! His wife might be dying, his
baby might be starving, his whole family might be perish~
ing in the cold -- and all the while they were ringing their
Christmas chimes! And the bitter mockery of it -- all
this was punishment for him! They put him in a place
where the snow could not beat in, where the cold could
not eat through his bones; they brought him food and
drink -- why, in the name of heaven, if they must punish
him, did they not put his family in jail and leave him out~
side -- why could they find no better way to punish him
than to leave three weak women and six helpless children
to starve and freeze?

That was their law, that was their justice! Jurgis
stood upright, trembling with passion, his hands clenched
and his arms upraised, his whole soul ablaze with hatred
and defiance. Ten thousand curses upon them and their
law! Their justice -- it was a lie, it was a lie, a hideous,
brutal lie, a thing too black and hateful for any world
but a world of nightmares. It was a sham and a loath~
some mockery. There was no justice, there was no right,
anywhere in it -- it was only force, it was tyranny, the
will and the power, reckless and unrestrained! They had
ground him beneath their heel, they had devoured all his
substance; they had murdered his old father, they had
broken and wrecked his wife, they had crushed and cowed
his whole family; and now they were through with him,
they had no further use for him -- and because he had
interfered with them, had gotten in their way, this was
what they had done to him! They had put him behind
bars, as if he had been a wild beast, a thing without sense
or reason, without rights, without affections, without
feelings. Nay, they would not even have treated a beast
as they had treated him! Would any man in his senses
have trapped a wild thing in its lair, and left its young
behind to die?

[[191]]

p190 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p191w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p192

v?