ineffable. Out of regions of wonder it streamed, the very
river of life; and the soul leaped up at the sight of it,
fled back upon it, swift and resistless, back into far-off
lands, where beauty and terror dwell. Then the great
caldron tilted back again, empty, and Jurgis saw to his
relief that no one was hurt, and turned and followed his
guide out into the sunlight.

They went through the blast-furnaces, through rolling-
mills where bars of steel were tossed about and chopped
like bits of cheese. All around and above giant machine-
arms were flying, giant wheels were turning, giant ham~
mers crashing; travelling cranes creaked and groaned
overhead, reaching down iron hands and seizing iron prey
-- it was like standing in the center of the earth, where
the machinery of time was revolving.

By and by they came to the place where steel rails were
made; and Jurgis heard a toot behind him, and jumped
out of the way of a car with a white-hot ingot upon it,
the size of a man's body. There was a sudden crash and
the car came to a halt, and the ingot toppled out upon a
moving platform, where steel fingers and arms seized hold
of it, punching it and prodding it into place, and hurrying
it into the grip of huge rollers. Then it came out upon
the other side, and there were more crashings and clatter~
ings, and over it was flopped, like a pancake on a gridiron,
and seized again and rushed back at you through another
squeezer. So amid deafening uproar it clattered to and
fro, growing thinner and flatter and longer. The ingot
seemed almost a living thing; it did not want to run this
mad course, but it was in the grip of fate, it was tumbled
on, screeching and clanking and shivering in protest. By
and by it was long and thin, a great red snake escaped
from purgatory; and then, as it slid through the rollers,
you would have sworn that it was alive -- it writhed and
squirmed, and wriggles and shudders passed out through
its tail, all but flinging it off by their violence. There
was no rest for it until it was cold and black -- and then
it needed only to be cut and straightened to be ready for
a railroad.

[[247]]

p246 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p247w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p248

v?