naked women. It was for such pleasures as these that he
spent his money; and such was his life during the six
weeks and a half that he toiled for the merchants of
Chicago, to enable them to break the grip of their
teamsters' union.

In a work thus carried out, not much thought was given
to the welfare of the laborers. On an average, the tunnel~
ling cost a life a day and several manglings; it was seldom,
however, that more than a dozen or two men heard of any
one accident. The work was all done by the new boring-
machinery, with as little blasting as possible; but there
would be falling rocks and crushed supports, and pre~
mature explosions -- and in addition all the dangers of
railroading. So it was that one night, as Jurgis was on
his way out with his gang, an engine and a loaded car
dashed round one of the innumerable right-angle branches
and struck him upon the shoulder, hurling him against
the concrete wall and knocking him senseless.

When he opened his eyes again it was to the clanging
of the bell of an ambulance. He was lying in it, covered
by a blanket, and it was threading its way slowly through
the holiday-shopping crowds. They took him to the county
hospital, where a young surgeon set his arm; then he was
washed and laid upon a bed in a ward with a score or two
more of maimed and mangled men.

Jurgis spent his Christmas in this hospital, and it was
the pleasantest Christmas he had had in America. Every
year there were scandals and investigations in this institu~
tion, the newspapers charging that doctors were allowed
to try fantastic experiments upon the patients; but Jurgis
knew nothing of this -- his only complaint was that they
used to feed him upon tinned meat, which no man who
had ever worked in Packingtown would feed to his dog.
Jurgis had often wondered just who ate the canned corned
beef and "roast beef" of the stockyards; now he began
to understand -- that it was what you might call "graft
meat," put up to be sold to public officials and contractors,
and eaten by soldiers and sailors, prisoners and inmates of
institutions, "shanty-men" and gangs of railroad laborers.

[[269]]

p268 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p269w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p270

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