Summary: Chapter 25
Jurgis quickly realizes that he cannot get change for
a one-hundred-dollar bill without raising suspicions or being robbed.
He enters a saloon to try anyway. The bartender tells Jurgis that
he must buy a drink first. Jurgis agrees to have a glass of beer
for five cents. The bartender takes the bill and gives him ninety-five
cents in change. Realizing that he has been cheated, Jurgis furiously
attacks the bartender. A policeman rushes in and drags Jurgis to
jail. The judge at his trial finds Jurgis’s version of events laughable.
He sentences Jurgis to ten days in jail plus costs.
Jurgis again encounters Jack Duane in Bridewell
Prison. Jurgis agrees to see Duane when he gets out of jail. Jurgis
listens to the other prisoners and decides that a life of crime
is the best way to survive. He visits Jack at a pawnshop where he
is hiding out, and Jack takes him on his first mugging. They
attack a well-dressed man and steal his jewelry and wallet. Jurgis’s
share is fifty-five dollars. Jurgis reads in the paper that the
victim suffered a concussion and nearly froze to death while he was
unconscious; he will lose three fingers to frostbite. Over time,
Jurgis ceases to worry about what happens to his victims.
Through Duane, Jurgis becomes acquainted with Chicago’s criminal
underground. On one outing, a watchman catches Duane breaking a
safe. A policeman allows him to escape, but it causes such a scandal
that Duane’s criminal associates choose to sacrifice him. Duane
then flees Chicago. Meanwhile, Jurgis begins talking with Harper,
a vote-buyer for the corrupt politicians of Chicago. An election
is coming up, and Harper offers to let Jurgis take part in the schemes.
Harper introduces him to Mike Scully, a wealthy, corrupt democrat.
Scully wants Jurgis to take a job in the stockyards and join a union.
Scully and the Republicans have made a pact, and Scully wants Jurgis
to support a Republican candidate.
Jurgis takes a job as a hog trimmer for which
he receives regular pay in addition to the fruits of political graft.
He works tirelessly for the Republican candidate and, when it comes
time to vote, -ushers group after group of immigrant workers through
the polls. The Republican candidate is elected to office and Jurgis
becomes three hundred dollars richer. He treats himself to a long
drinking binge. Meanwhile, Packingtown is alive with celebration
over the political victory.
Summary: Chapter 26
[T]he blazing midsummer sun beat down
upon that square mile of abominations . . . rivers of hot blood
and carloads of moist flesh . . .
(See Important Quotations Explained)
Jurgis keeps his job as a hog trimmer. In May, the unions
and the packers clash and a huge strike begins. Scully denounces
the packers in the papers, so Jurgis asks for another job while
he strikes with the rest. Scully tells him to be a scab and make
as much as he can out of it. Jurgis argues for a wage of three dollars
a day and receives it. The packers hire all of the thugs in the
city and import scabs from all over the country, including a significant
number of southern blacks.
Jurgis is offered a position as a boss on the killing
beds. The packers are desperate to provide fresh meat in order to
keep public opinion from turning against them. Jurgis receives a
higher wage and the promise that he will have the job after the
strike. Nevertheless, the packers feel pressure from the public
to settle. They reach an agreement with the union, but the packers
break their promise to not discriminate against union leaders. In
response, the workers return to striking. During the storm of debauchery
that follows, Jurgis comes face to face with Phil Connor in Packingtown.
Without thinking, he viciously attacks Connor. Jurgis calls Harper
from his jail cell only to discover that Connor is one of Scully’s
favorites. Harper can do nothing for him except get his
bail lowered so that Jurgis can pay it. He advises Jurgis to skip
town. Jurgis pays his bail, which leaves him with less than four
dollars, and he travels to the other end of Chicago.
