procurers, brawlers, beggars, tramps and drunkards, they
were black and white, old and young, Americans and
natives of every nation under the sun. There were
hardened criminals and innocent men too poor to give
bail; old men, and boys literally not yet in their teens.
They were the drainage of the great festering ulcer of
society; they were hideous to look upon, sickening to
talk to. All life had turned to rottenness and stench in
them -- love was a beastliness, joy was a snare, and God
was an imprecation. They strolled here and there about
the courtyard, and Jurgis listened to them. He was
ignorant and they were wise; they had been everywhere
and tried everything. They could tell the whole hateful
story of it, set forth the inner soul of a city in which
justice and honor, women's bodies and men's souls, were
for sale in the market-place, and human beings writhed
and fought and fell upon each other like wolves in a pit;
in which lusts were raging fires, and men were fuel, and
humanity was festering and stewing and wallowing in its
own corruption. Into this wild-beast tangle these men
had been born without their consent, they had taken part
in it because they could not help it; that they were in
jail was no disgrace to them, for the game had never
been fair, the dice were loaded. They were swindlers
and thieves of pennies and dimes, and they had been
trapped and put out of the way by the swindlers and
thieves of millions of dollars.

To most of this Jurgis tried not to listen. They
frightened him with their savage mockery; and all the
while his heart was far away, where his loved ones were
calling. Now and then in the midst of it his thoughts
would take flight; and then the tears would come into his
eyes -- and he would be called back by the jeering laugh~
ter of his companions.

He spent a week in this company, and during all that
time he had no word from his home. He paid one of his
fifteen cents for a postal card, and his companion wrote a
note to the family, telling them where he was and when he

[[197]]

p196 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p197w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p198

v?