The Jungle

Before and after, Yurgus could take up a two-hundred-and-fifty-pound quarter of beef and carry it into a car without a stagger or even a thought, and now he stood in a far corner, frightened as a hunted animal, and obliged to moisten his lips with his tongue each time before he could answer the congratulations of his friends. Gradually there was effected a separation between the spectators and the guests, a separation at least sufficiently complete for working purposes. There was no time during the festivities which ensued when there were not groups of onlookers in the doorways and the corners, and if any one of these onlookers came sufficiently close or looked sufficiently hungry, a chair was offered him, and he was invited to the feast. It was one of the laws of the Vesalia that no one goes hungry, and, while a rule made in the forests of Lithuania is hard to apply in the Stockyards District of Chicago, with its quarter of a million inhabitants, still they did their best, and the children who ran in from the street, and even the dogs, went out again happier. A charming informality was one of the characteristics of this celebration. The men wore their hats, or, if they wished, they took them off, and their coats with them. They ate when and where they pleased, and moved as often as they pleased. There were to be speeches and singing, but no one had to listen who did not care to. If he wished, meantime, to speak or sing himself, he was perfectly free. The resulting medley of sound distracted no one, save, possibly alone, the babies, of which there were present a number equal to the total possessed by all the guests invited. There was no other place for the babies to be, and so part of the preparations for the evening consisted of a collection of cribs and carriages in one corner. In these the babies slept, three or four together, or wakened together, as the case might be. Those who were still older and could reach the tables marched about munching contendedly at meat bones and bologna sausages. The room is about thirty feet square, with whitewashed walls bare save for a calendar, a picture of a racehorse, and a family tree in a gilded frame. To the right there is a door from the saloon, with a few loafers in the doorway, and in the corner beyond it a bar, with a presiding genius clad in soiled white, with waxed black mustaches and a carefully oiled curl plastered against one side of his forehead. In the opposite corner are two tables, filling a third of the room and laden with dishes and cold viands, which a few of the hungrier guests are already munching. At the head, where sits the bride, is a snow-white cake, with an eiffel tower of constructed decoration, with sugar roses and two angels upon it, and a generous sprinkling of pink and green and yellow candies. Beyond opens a door into the kitchen, where there is a glimpse to be had of a range with much steam ascending from it, and many women, old and young, rushing hither and thither. In the corner to the left are the three musicians, upon a little platform, toiling heroically to make some impression upon the hubbub, also the babies, similarly occupied, and an open window whence the populace imbibes the sights and sounds and odors. Suddenly some of the steam begins to advance, and, peering through it, you discern Aunt Elizabeth, Ona's stepmother, Teta Elspieta, as they call her, bearing aloft a great platter of stewed duck. Behind her is Katrina, making her way cautiously, staggering beneath a similar burden, and half a minute later there appears old Grandmother Mayoshkina, with a big yellow bowl of smoking potatoes nearly as big as herself. So bit by bit the feast takes form. There is a ham and a dish of sauerkraut, boiled rice, macaroni, bologna sausages, great piles of penny buns, bowls of milk, and foaming pitchers of beer. There is also, not six feet from your back, the bar, where you may order all you please and do not have to pay for it. "'Eyksh! Great shaw!' screams Maria Berchinskas, and falls to work herself, for there is more upon the stove inside that will be spoiled if it be not eaten. So with laughter and shouts and endless badnage and merriment, the guests take their places. The young men, who for the most part have been huddled near the door, summon their resolution and advance, and the shrinking Yerges is poked and scolded by the old folks until he consents to seat himself at the right hand of the bride. The two bridesmaids, whose insignia of office are paper wreaths, come next, and after them the rest of the guests, old and young, boys and girls. The spirit of the occasion takes hold of the stately bartender, who condescends to a plate of stewed duck. Even the fat policeman, whose duty it will be later in the evening to break up the fights, draws up a chair to the foot of the table, and the children shout and the babies yell, and everyone laughs and sings and chatters, while above all the deafening clamor, Cousin Maria shouts orders to the musicians.