The Stockyard Jungle



The Stockyard Jungle

By Jerome Ruderman

Characters

Jonas, Maria, Jurgis, Ona, Jokubus, Antanas, Elizabeth, Old Marjorie, Stanislov, Boss, Doctor, Midwife

Scene 1

Narrator: Chicago. Summer, 1901. Six adults and six children stand on a street corner. They have just arrived from Lithuania in Eastern Europe.

Ona: So many tall buildings and chimneys! So much smoke!

Maria: Such an awful smell!

Jonas: That’s animals. The slaughter house is nearby.

Narrator: A fat man in an apron steps out of a grocery store.

Jonas: Jokubus! My old friend!

Jokubus: Jonas! You came! Welcome to Packingtown, as everyone calls the stockyard district here in Chicago.

Jonas: This is my family – and my niece, Ona. And here is Ona’s fiancé, Jurgis, and his father, Antanas.

Jurgis: Is it true a man can earn $1.50 a day in the stockyards?

Jokubus: Yes, but its cruel, hard work. It will destroy your health.

Jurgis: But the money’s a fortune! Tomorrow I will get a job there.

Maria: And so will I.

Jokubus: I can’t stop you. You’re here, and you will need a place to stay. I know a boardinghouse nearby.

*Why don’t the newcomers take the warning Jokubus gives them?

Scene 2

Narrator: Evening, a few days later.

Jurgis: What good luck! Jonas, Maria, and I are already working.

Ona: I’m so happy, Jurgis. Soon, we will be able to marry.

Antanas: What is it like in the stockyards?

Jurgis: There are cows and hogs and sheep as far as the eye can see. Every year, ten million animals get killed and cut up there.

Antanas: What is your job?

Jurgis: I am a butcher on the killing beds. I cut open the steers to bleed them.

Maria: And you, Jonas, what kind of work did they give you?

Jonas: I push trucks full of hog bodies into the chilling room. Others make them into sausages and canned meat.

Jurgis: They make soap and lard from the hogs, too. And leather from the skins.

Elizabeth: What will you be doing, Maria?

Maria: I am learning to paint tin cans for the smoked beef. I am happy. You are all working, so my children can go to school.

Stanislov: I will learn English. I will grow up to be a skilled man.

Jurgis: First, we must move out of this boardinghouse.

Ona: This ad says you can buy a house for $1,500. You pay $300 down, and then $12 each month.

*Is the family wise in deciding to buy a house? How might its seller take advantage of them?

Scene 3

Narrator: Months pass. The family saves $300. They use it as the down payment on a $1,500 house in Packingtown. One evening, a visitor comes to the house.

Elizabeth: Good evening, neighbor. How do you like our new house?

Old Marjorie: The only thing new on it is the paint.

Elizabeth: But the agent said it was new.

Old Marjorie: The packing company built this row of houses 15 years ago! This house has been sold four times already.

Elizabeth: You mean we are not the first family here?

Old Marjorie: The other families all lost it when they lost their jobs.

Maria: Well, we’ll pay our $12 every month. The company won’t take the house from us.

Old Marjorie: They told you only $12? Hah! They tricked you. Wait until they come around for the extra $7. They always ask for it—as interest, on the money you owe them.

Elizabeth: Oh, no! What’s to become of us? How will we pay?

Maria: Ona and Stanislov will go to work.

Antanas: Stanislov is only 13!

Stanislov: I want to go to school!

Maria: We must all work.

Jurgis: At Durham’s, they hire boys to fill the lard cans at 5 cents an hour.

Antanas: I will find work too.

*How does the packing company get its wages back? What was this called?

Scene 4

Narrator: In the fall, Jurgis and Ona are married. In the winter, old Antanas dies.

Jonas: Poor old Antanas. The place where he worked was a dark, unheated cellar.

Jurgis: His feet were soaked in chemicals all day. They ate right through his new boots. Sores broke out on his feet.

Jonas: The men say those sores never heal.

Jurgis: But he wouldn’t quit. They had to carry him home.

Maria: What a job! He had to shovel up all the scraps and garbage on the floor. Then, he mixed it all with the better meat!

Jonas: The government inspectors see it—and do nothing!

Jurgis: When meat spoils, workers inject it with kerosene to kill the smell. White and moldy meat they color with chemicals. Then, they sell it in the city as No. 1 grade.

Jonas: That’s nothing! A shipment of spoiled sausages came back last month. They put them on the floor in the cellar. The rats ran all over them. The company gave the sausages a dose of chemicals. Then, they dumped them into the hoppers with the fresh meat. Even the dead rats went in with it.

Maria: The sausages are half potato flour anyway, they taste like sawdust.

Jonas: Last summer, in a tank room, a man fell into an open vat. He wasn’t noticed for a day. Only his bones were left. The rest of him went out to the world as Durham’s Pure Leaf Lard!

Maria: It’s a jungle—a stockyard jungle!

*What reforms were needed in the meat-packing industry?

Scene 5

Narrator: In the winter, Maria loses her job. Jurgis has less work. His earnings fall from $10 a week to $5 a week. Ona is pregnant. Jonas disappears. The family is near starvation. One morning, Jurgis is at work.

Boss: Hey Jurgis, are you all right? You’re limping.

Jurgis: I’ll be okay.

Narrator: By noon, Jurgis’ ankle is swollen nearly double its size.

Boss: I’m sending for the company doctor.

Jurgis: No, please don’t! He’ll send me home, and I can’t afford to lose a day’s pay.

Narrator: The doctor arrives. He looks at Jurgis’ ankle.

Doctor: Go home, you’ll be laid up at least a week.

Jurgis: But what about my job?!

Boss: Well, I guess you should have been more careful.

*Why is Jurgis afraid to call the doctor? Why can the company get away with treating its employees in this manner?

Scene 6

Narrator: Jurgis works at odd jobs in the stockyards. The company takes back the house. The family backs into the boardinghouse again. One evening, Jurgis is at home with Ona. Suddenly, she screams in pain.

Jurgis: What is it, what’s the matter?!

Ona: It’s the child!

Jurgis: But it isn’t time!

Ona: Send for the doctor!

Elizabeth: We have no money for a doctor!

Ona: Then a midwife, maybe we can pay her next month.

Narrator: A midwife is with Ona all night. Finally, she enters the room where Jurgis is sitting.

Midwife: Sorry, I can do nothing more. There is no use trying.

Jurgis: My God!

Midwife: Sorry, but it ain’t my fault. You should have had a doctor.

Jurgis: How is she?!

Midwife: The baby is dead. And you better send for a priest for your wife, too.

*How might people call Ona a victim of poverty?

Scene 7

Narrator: Jurgis leaves town. He spends the summer as a tramp. In the winter, he returns to Chicago and gets a job as a hotel porter. A year later, he visits the boardinghouse. Elizabeth and Maria are nearly dead from cold and hunger.

Jurgis: You’re still here! Can you ever forgive me for leaving?

Elizabeth: We understand. When Ona and the child died, you couldn’t take it anymore.

Jurgis: I have a good job now. I’ll take you away from here. It’s not too late to send Stanislov and the other children to school.

Maria: Well, Stanislov is dead.

Jurgis: Dead?! How?!

Maria: One day, at work, he was so tired he fell asleep in a corner. He got locked in all night. When they found him, he was dead. Rats had eaten him nearly all up.

Jurgis: Oh, no!

Elizabeth: The younger children deserve a better fate.

Maria: Jurgis, take us out of this jungle!

Jurgis: I will, by God I will! The children will live to see working people in all factories win their rights. They’ve got to!

*What rights did workers and labor unions fight for during the Progressive Era?

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