a dance-hall with Jurgis and Halloran until one or two in
the morning, exchanging experiences. He had a long
story to tell of his quarrel with the superintendent of his
department, and how he was now a plain working-man,
and a good union man as well. It was not until some
months afterward that Jurgis understood that the quarrel
with the superintendent had been prearranged, and that
Harper was in reality drawing a salary of twenty dollars
a week from the packers for an inside report of his union's
secret proceedings. The yards were seething with agita~
tion just then, said the man, speaking as a unionist. The
people of Packingtown had borne about all that they would
bear, and it looked as if a strike might begin any week.

After this talk the man made inquiries concerning Jurgis,
and a couple of days later he came to him with an interest~
ing proposition. He was not absolutely certain, he said,
but he thought that he could get him a regular salary if
he would come to Packingtown and do as he was told, and
keep his mouth shut. Harper -- "Bush" Harper, he was
called -- was a right-hand man of Mike Scully, the Demo~
cratic boss of the stockyards; and in the coming election
there was a peculiar situation. There had come to Scully
a proposition to nominate a certain rich brewer who lived
upon a swell boulevard that skirted the district, and who
coveted the big badge and the "honorable" of an alder~
man. The brewer was a Jew, and had no brains, but he
was harmless, and would put up a rare campaign fund.
Scully had accepted the offer, and then gone to the Re~
publicans with a proposition. He was not sure that he
could manage the "sheeny," and he did not mean to take
any chances with his district; let the Republicans nomi~
nate a certain obscure but amiable friend of Scully's, who
was now setting ten-pins in the cellar of an Ashland Ave~
nue saloon, and he, Scully, would elect him with the
"sheeny's" money, and the Republicans might have the
glory, which was more than they would get otherwise.
In return for this the Republicans would agree to put up
no candidate the following year, when Scully himself
came up for reelection as the other alderman from the

[[309]]

p308 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p309w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p310

v?