about him; and then he gave him a note to Mr. Harmon, one of
the head managers of Durham's--

"The bearer, Jurgis Rudkus, is a particular friend of mine, and I would
like you to find him a good place, for important reasons. He was once
indiscreet, but you will perhaps be so good as to overlook that."

Mr. Harmon looked up inquiringly when he read this. "What does he mean
by 'indiscreet'?" he asked.

"I was blacklisted, sir," said Jurgis.

At which the other frowned. "Blacklisted?" he said. "How do you mean?"
And Jurgis turned red with embarrassment.

He had forgotten that a blacklist did not exist. "I--that is--I had
difficulty in getting a place," he stammered.

"What was the matter?"

"I got into a quarrel with a foreman--not my own boss, sir--and struck
him."

"I see," said the other, and meditated for a few moments. "What do you
wish to do?" he asked.

"Anything, sir," said Jurgis--"only I had a broken arm this winter, and
so I have to be careful."

"How would it suit you to be a night watchman?"

"That wouldn't do, sir. I have to be among the men at night."

"I see--politics. Well, would it suit you to trim hogs?"

"Yes, sir," said Jurgis.

And Mr. Harmon called a timekeeper and said, "Take this man to Pat
Murphy and tell him to find room for him somehow."

And so Jurgis marched into the hog-killing room, a place where, in the
days gone by, he had come begging for a job. Now he walked jauntily, and
smiled to himself, seeing the frown that came to the boss's face as
the timekeeper said, "Mr. Harmon says to put this man on." It would
overcrowd his department and spoil the record he was trying to make--but
he said not a word except "All right."

And so Jurgis became a workingman once more; and straightway he sought
out his old friends, and joined the union, and began to "root" for
"Scotty" Doyle. Doyle had done him a good turn once, he explained,
and was really a bully chap; Doyle was a workingman himself, and would
represent the workingmen--why did they want to vote for a millionaire
"sheeny," and what the hell had Mike Scully ever done for them that they
should back his candidates all the time? And meantime Scully had given
Jurgis a note to the Republican leader of the ward, and he had gone
there and met the crowd he was to work with. Already they had hired
a big hall, with some of the brewer's money, and every night Jurgis
brought in a dozen new members of the "Doyle Republican Association."
P