He got into the shelter of a doorway and took stock of himself. He was not hurt, and he was not arrested—more than he had any right to expect. He swore at himself and his luck for a while, and then turned his thoughts to practical matters. He had no money, and no place to sleep; he must begin begging again.
He went out, hunching his shoulders together and shivering at the touch of the icy rain. Coming down the street toward him was a lady, well-dressed, and protected by an umbrella; and he turned and walked beside her. “Please, ma‘am,” he began, “could you lend me the price of a night’s lodging? I’m a poor working-man—”
Then, suddenly, he stopped short. By the light of a street lamp he had caught sight of the lady’s face. He knew her.
It was Alena Jasaityte, who had been the belle of his wedding-feast ! Alena Jasaityte, who had looked so beautiful, and danced with such a queenly air, with Juozas Raczius, the teamster! Jurgis had only seen her once or twice afterward, for Juozas had thrown her over for another girl, and Alena had gone away from Packingtown, no one knew where. And now he met her here!
She was as much surprised as he was. “Jurgis Rudkus!” she gasped. “And what in the world is the matter with you?”
“I—I’ve had hard luck,” he stammered. “I’m out of work, and I’ve no home and no money. And you, Alena—are you married?”
“No,” she answered, “I’m not married, but I’ve got a good place.”
They stood staring at each other for a few moments longer. Finally Alena spoke again. “Jurgis,” she said, “I’d help you if I could, upon my word I would, but it happens that I’ve come out without my purse, and I honestly haven’t a penny with me. I can do something better for you, though—I can tell you how to get help. I can tell you where Marija is.”
Jurgis gave a start. “Marija!” he gasped.
“Yes,” said Alena; “and she’ll help you. She’s got a place, and she’s doing well; she’ll be glad to see you.”
It was not much more than a year since Jurgis had left Packingtown, feeling like one escaped from jail; and it had been from Marija and Elzbieta that he was escaping. But now, at the mere mention of them, his whole being cried out with joy. He wanted to see them; he wanted to go home! They would help him—they would be kind to him. In a flash he had thought over the situation. He had a good excuse for running away—his grief at the death of his son; and also he had a good excuse for not returning—the fact that they had left Packingtown. “All right,” he said, “I’ll go.”
So she gave him a number on Clark Street, adding, “There’s no need to give you my address, because Marija knows it.” And Jurgis set out, without further ado.
He found a large brown-stone house of aristocratic appearance, and rang the basement bell. A young colored girl came to the door, opening it about an inch, and gazing at him suspiciously.
“What do you want?” she demanded.
“Does Marija Berczynskas live here?” he inquired.
“I dunno,” said the girl. “What you want wid her?”
“I want to see her,” said he; “she’s a relative of mine.”
The girl hesitated a moment. Then she opened the door and said, “Come in.” Jurgis came and stood in the hall, and she continued: “I’ll go see. What’s yo’ name?”
“Tell her it’s Jurgis,” he answered, and the girl went upstairs. She came back at the end of a minute or two, and replied, “Dey ain’t no sich person here.”
Jurgis’s heart went down into his boots. “I was told this was where she lived!” he cried.
But the girl only shook her head. “De lady says dey ain’t no sich person here,” she said.
And he stood for a moment, hesitating, helpless with dismay. Then he turned to go to the door. At the same instant, however, there came a knock upon it, and the girl went to open it. Jurgis heard the shuffling of feet, and then heard her give a cry; and the next moment she sprang back, and past him, her eyes shining white with terror, and bounded up the stairway, screaming at the top of her lungs: “Police! Police! We’re pinched!”
Jurgis stood for a second, bewildered. Then, seeing blue-coated forms rushing upon him, he sprang after the negress. Her cries had been the signal for a wild uproar above; the house was full of people, and as he entered the hallway he saw them rushing hither and thither, crying and screaming with alarm. There were men and women, the latter clad for the most part in wrappers, the former in all stages of déshabille.z At one side Jurgis caught a glimpse of a big apartment with plush-covered chairs, and tables covered with trays and glasses. There were playing-cards scattered all over the floor—one of the tables had been upset, and bottles of wine were rolling about, their contents running out upon the carpet. There was a young girl who had fainted, and two men who were supporting her; and there were a dozen others crowding toward the front-door.
Suddenly, however, there came a series of resounding blows upon it, causing the crowd to give back. At the same instant a stout woman, with painted cheeks and diamonds in her ears, came running down the stairs, panting breathlessly: “To the rear! Quick!”
She led the way to a back staircase, Jurgis following; in the kitchen she pressed a spring, and a cupboard gave way and opened, disclosing a dark passageway. “Go in!” she cried to the crowd, which now amounted to twenty or thirty, and they began to pass through. Scarcely had the last one disappeared, however, before there were cries from in front, and then the panic-stricken throng poured out again, exclaiming: “They’re there too! We’re trapped!”
“Upstairs!” cried the woman, and there was another rush of the mob, women and men cursing and screaming and fighting to be first. One flight, two, three—and then there was a ladder to the roof, with a crowd packed at the foot of it, and one man at the top, straining and struggling to lift the trap-door. It was not to be stirred, however, and when the woman shouted up to unhook it, he answered: “It’s already unhooked. There’s somebody sitting on it!”
And a moment later came a voice from downstairs: “You might as well quit, you people. We mean business, this time.”
So the crowd subsided; and a few moments later several policemen came up, staring here and there, and leering at their victims. Of the latter the men were for the most part frightened and sheepish-looking. The women took it as a joke, as if they were used to it—though if they had been pale, one could not have told, for the paint on their cheeks. One black-eyed young girl perched herself upon the top of the balustrade, and began to kick with her slippered foot at the helmets of the policemen, until one of them caught her by the ankle and pulled her down. On the floor below four or five other girls sat upon trunks in the hall, making fun of the procession which filed by them. They were noisy and hilarious, and had evidently been drinking; one of them, who wore a bright red kimono, shouted and screamed in a voice that drowned out all the other sounds in the hall—and Jurgis took a glance at her, and then gave a start, and a cry, “Marija!”
She heard him, and glanced around; then she shrank back and half sprang to her feet in amazement. “Jurgis!” she gasped.
For a second or two they stood staring at each other. “How did you come here?” Marija exclaimed.
“I came to see you,” he answered.
“When?”
“Just now.”
“But how did you know—who told you I was here?”
“Alena Jasaityte. I met her on the street.”
Again there was a silence, while they gazed at each other. The rest of the crowd was watching them, and so Marija got up and came closer to him. “And you?” Jurgis asked. “You live here?”
“Yes,” said Marija, “I live here.”
Then suddenly came a hail from below: “Get your clothes on now, girls, and come along. You’d best begin, or you’ll be sorry—it’s raining outside.”
“Br-r-r!” shivered some one, and the women got up and entered the various doors which lined the hallway.
“Come,” said Marija, and took Jurgis into her room, which w
as a tiny place about eight by six, with a cot and a chair and a dressing-stand and some dresses hanging behind the door. There were clothes scattered about on the floor, and hopeless confusion everywhere,—boxes of rouge and bottles of perfume mixed with hats and soiled dishes on the dresser, and a pair of slippers and a clock and a whiskey bottle on a chair.
Marija had nothing on but a kimono and a pair of stockings; yet she proceeded to dress before Jurgis, and without even taking the trouble to close the door. He had by this time divined what sort of a place he was in; and he had seen a great deal of the world since he had left home, and was not easy to shock—and yet it gave him a painful start that Marija should do this. They had always been decent people at home, and it seemed to him that the memory of old times ought to have ruled her. But then he laughed at himself for a fool. What was he, to be pretending to decency!
“How long have you been living here?” he asked.
“Nearly a year,” she answered.
“Why did you come?”
“I had to live,” she said; “and I couldn’t see the children starve.”
He paused for a moment, watching her. “You were out of work?” he asked, finally.
“I got sick,” she replied, “and after that I had no money. And then Stanislovas died—”
“Stanislovas dead!”
“Yes,” said Marija, “I forgot. You didn’t know about it.”
“How did he die?”
“Rats killed him,” she answered.
Jurgis gave a gasp. “Rats killed him!”
“Yes,” said the other; she was bending over, lacing her shoes as she spoke. “He was working in an oil factory—at least he was hired by the men to get their beer. He used to carry cans on a long pole; and he’d drink a little out of each can, and one day he drank too much, and fell asleep in a corner, and got locked up in the place all night. When they found him the rats had killed him and eaten him nearly all up.”
Jurgis sat, frozen with horror. Marija went on lacing up her shoes. There was a long silence.
Suddenly a big policeman came to the door. “Hurry up, there,” he said.
“As quick as I can,” said Marija, and she stood up and began putting on her corsets with feverish haste.
“Are the rest of the people alive?” asked Jurgis, finally.
“Yes,” she said.
“Where are they?”
“They live not far from here. They’re all right now.”
“They are working?” he inquired.
“Elzbieta is,” said Marija, “when she can. I take care of them most of the time—I’m making plenty of money now.”
Jurgis was silent for a moment. “Do they know you live here—how you live?” he asked.
“Elzbieta knows,” answered Marija. “I couldn’t lie to her. And maybe the children have found out by this time. It’s nothing to be ashamed of—we can’t help it.”
“And Tamoszius?” he asked. “Does he know?”
Marija shrugged her shoulders. “How do I know?” she said. “I haven’t seen him for over a year. He got blood-poisoning and lost one finger, and couldn’t play the violin any more; and then he went away.”
Marija was standing in front of the glass fastening her dress. Jurgis sat staring at her. He could hardly believe that she was the same woman he had known in the old days; she was so quiet—so hard! It struck fear to his heart to watch her.
Then suddenly she gave a glance at him. “You look as if you had been having a rough time of it yourself,” she said.
“I have,” he answered. “I haven’t a cent in my pockets, and nothing to do.”
“Where have you been?”
“All over. I’ve been hoboing it. Then I went back to the yards—just before the strike.” He paused for a moment, hesitating. “I asked for you,” he added. “I found you had gone away, no one knew where. Perhaps you think I did you a dirty trick, running away as I did, Manja—”
“No,” she answered, “I don’t blame you. We never have—any of us. You did your best—the job was too much for us.” She paused a moment, then added: “We were too ignorant—that was the trouble. We didn’t stand any chance. If I’d known what I know now we’d have won out.”
“You’d have come here?” said Jurgis.
“Yes,” she answered; “but that’s not what I meant. I meant you—how differently you would have behaved—about Ona.”
Jurgis was silent; he had never thought of that aspect of it.
“When people are starving,” the other continued, “and they have anything with a price, they ought to sell it, I say. I guess you realize it now when it’s too late. Ona could have taken care of us all, in the beginning.” Marija spoke without emotion, as one who had come to regard things from the business point of view.
“I—yes, I guess so,” Jurgis answered hesitatingly. He did not add that he had paid three hundred dollars, and a foreman’s job, for the satisfaction of knocking down “Phil” Connor a second time.
The policeman came to the door again just then. “Come on, now,” he said. “Lively!”
“All right,” said Marija, reaching for her hat, which was big enough to be a drum-major‘s, and full of ostrich feathers. She went out into the hall and Jurgis followed, the policeman remaining to look under the bed and behind the door.
“What’s going to come of this?” Jurgis asked, as they started down the steps.
“The raid, you mean? Oh, nothing—it happens to us every now and then. The madame’s having some sort of time with the police; I don’t know what it is, but maybe they’ll come to terms before morning. Anyhow, they won’t do anything to you. They always let the men off.”
“Maybe so,” he responded, “but not me—I’m afraid I’m in for it. ”
“How do you mean?”
“I’m wanted by the police,” he said, lowering his voice, though of course their conversation was in Lithuanian. “They’ll send me up for a year or two, I’m afraid.”
“Hell!” said Marija. “That’s too bad. I’ll see if I can’t get you off.”
Downstairs, where the greater part of the prisoners were now massed, she sought out the stout personage with the diamond earrings, and had a few whispered words with her. The latter then approached the police sergeant who was in charge of the raid. “Billy,” she said, pointing to Jurgis, “there’s a fellow who came in to see his sister. He’d just got in the door when you knocked. You aren’t taking hoboes, are you?”
The sergeant laughed as he looked at Jurgis. “Sorry,” he said, “but the orders are every one but the servants.”
So Jurgis slunk in among the rest of the men, who kept dodging behind each other like sheep that have smelt a wolf. There were old men and young men, college boys and graybeards old enough to be their grandfathers; some of them wore evening-dress-there was no one among them save Jurgis who showed any signs of poverty.
When the round-up was completed, the doors were opened and the party marched out. Three patrol-wagons were drawn up at the curb, and the whole neighborhood had turned out to see the sport; there was much chaffing, and a universal craning of necks. The women stared about them with defiant eyes, or laughed and joked, while the men kept their heads bowed, and their hats pulled over their faces. They were crowded into the patrol-wagons as if into street-cars, and then off they went amid a din of cheers. At the station-house Jurgis gave a Polish name and was put into a cell with half a dozen others; and while these sat and talked in whispers, he lay down in a corner and gave himself up to his thoughts.
Jurgis had looked into the deepest reaches of the social pit, and grown used to the sights in them. Yet when he had thought of all humanity as vile and hideous, he had somehow always excepted his own family, that he had loved; and now this sudden horrible discovery—Marija a whore, and Elzbieta and the children living off her shame! Jurgis might argue with himself all he chose, that he had done worse, and was a fool for caring—but still he could not get over the shock of that sudden unveiling,
he could not help being sunk in grief because of it. The depths of him were troubled and shaken, memories were stirred in him that had been sleeping so long he had counted them dead. Memories of the old life—his old hopes and his old yearnings, his old dreams of decency and independence! He saw Ona again, he heard her gentle voice pleading with him. He saw little Antanas, whom he had meant to make a man. He saw his trembling old father, who had blessed them all with his wonderful love. He lived again through that day of horror when he had discovered Ona’s shame—God, how he had suffered, what a madman he had been! How dreadful it had all seemed to him; and now, today, he had sat and listened, and half agreed when Marija told him he had been a fool! Yes—told him that he ought to have sold his wife’s honor and lived by it!—And then there was Stanislovas and his awful fate—that brief story which Marija had narrated so calmly, with such dull indifference! The poor little fellow, with his frost-bitten fingers and his terror of the snow—his wailing voice rang in Jurgis’s ears, as he lay there in the darkness, until the sweat started on his forehead. Now and then he would quiver with a sudden spasm of horror, at the picture of little Stanislovas shut up in the deserted building and fighting for his life with the rats!