Durham's dark cellars to earn his share. And Ona, too,
had given her health and strength to pay for it -- she was
wrecked and ruined because of it; and so was he, who had
been a big, strong man three years ago, and now sat here
shivering, broken, cowed, weeping like a hysterical child.
Ah! they had cast their all into the fight; and they had
lost, they had lost! All that they had paid was gone --
every cent of it. And their house was gone -- they were
back where they had started from, flung out into the cold
to starve and freeze!

Jurgis could see all the truth now -- could see himself,
through the whole long course of events, the victim of
ravenous vultures that had torn into his vitals and de~
voured him; of fiends that had racked and tortured
him, mocking him, meantime, jeering in his face. Ah,
God, the horror of it, the monstrous, hideous, demo~
niacal wickedness of it! He and his family, helpless
women and children, struggling to live, ignorant and
defenseless and forlorn as they were -- and the enemies
that had been lurking for them, crouching upon their trail
and thirsting for their blood! That first lying circular,
that smooth-tongued slippery agent! That trap of the
extra payments, the interest, and all the other charges that
they had not the means to pay, and would never have
attempted to pay! And then all the tricks of the packers,
their masters, the tyrants who ruled them, -- the shut
downs and the scarcity of work, the irregular hours and
the cruel speeding-up, the lowering of wages, the raising of
prices! The mercilessness of nature about them, of heat
and cold, rain and snow; the mercilessness of the city, of
the country in which they lived, of its laws and customs
that they did not understand! All of these things had
worked together for the company that had marked them
for its prey and was waiting for its chance. And now,
with this last hideous injustice, its time had come, and it
had turned them out bag and baggage, and taken their
house and sold it again! And they could do nothing,
they were tied hand and foot -- the law was against them,
the whole machinery of society was at their oppressors'

[[212]]

p211 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p212w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p213

v?