me sparing of the bread, and would stop
and peer into the ash barrels as he walked along the streets, and now
and then rake out a bit of something, shake it free from dust, and count
himself just so many minutes further from the end.

So for several days he had been going about, ravenous all the time,
and growing weaker and weaker, and then one morning he had a hideous
experience, that almost broke his heart. He was passing down a street
lined with warehouses, and a boss offered him a job, and then, after he
had started to work, turned him off because he was not strong enough.
And he stood by and saw another man put into his place, and then picked
up his coat, and walked off, doing all that he could to keep from
breaking down and crying like a baby. He was lost! He was doomed! There
was no hope for him! But then, with a sudden rush, his fear gave place
to rage. He fell to cursing. He would come back there after dark, and he
would show that scoundrel whether he was good for anything or not!

He was still muttering this when suddenly, at the corner, he came upon
a green-grocery, with a tray full of cabbages in front of it. Jurgis,
after one swift glance about him, stooped and seized the biggest of
them, and darted round the corner with it. There was a hue and cry,
and a score of men and boys started in chase of him; but he came to an
alley, and then to another branching off from it and leading him into
another street, where he fell into a walk, and slipped his cabbage under
his coat and went off unsuspected in the crowd. When he had gotten
a safe distance away he sat down and devoured half the cabbage raw,
stowing the balance away in his pockets till the next day.

Just about this time one of the Chicago newspapers, which made much of
the "common people," opened a "free-soup kitchen" for the benefit of
the unemployed. Some people said that they did this for the sake of the
advertising it gave them, and some others said that their motive was
a fear lest all their readers should be starved off; but whatever the
reason, the soup was thick and hot, and there was a bowl for every man,
all night long. When Jurgis heard of this, from a fellow "hobo," he
vowed that he would have half a dozen bowls before morning; but, as it
proved, he was lucky to get one, for there was a line of men two blocks
long before the stand, and there was just as long a line when the place
was finally closed up.

This depot was within the danger line