"2ndsm10" - читать интересную книгу автора (Sinclair Upton)

JIM. Yes . . . I was married. My wife is dead.

MRS. AUSTIN. Any children?

JIM. Two. Both dead.

MRS. AUSTIN. Oh!

JIM. It ain't a pretty story, ma'am. It's a poor man's story.

MRS. AUSTIN. Tell it to me.

JIM. All right. It'll spoil your sleep for the rest of the night, I
guess, but you can have it. [A pause.] A year ago I was what they call
an honest working man. I had a home and a happy family; and I didn't
drink any too much, and I did well . . . even if the work was hard. I
was in the steel works here in town.

MRS. AUSTIN. [Startled.] The Empire Steel Company?

JIM. Yes. Why?

MRS. AUSTIN. Nothing . . . only I happen to know some people there. Go
on.

JIM. It's no child's work there, ma'am. There's an awful lot of
accidents . . . more than the world has any idea of. I've seen a man
sent to hell in the snapping of a finger. And they don't treat them
fair . . . they hush things up. There are things you wouldn't believe
if I told them to you.

MRS. AUSTIN. Tell them.

JIM. I've seen a man there get caught in one of the cranes. They
stopped the machinery, but they couldn't get him out. They'd have had
to take the crane apart, and that would have cost several days, and it
was rush time, and the man was only a poor Hunkie, and there was no
one to know or care. So they started up the crane, and cut his leg
off.

MRS. AUSTIN. Oh, horrible!

JIM. It's the sort of thing you couldn't believe unless you saw it.
But I saw it. I didn't care, though. I was a fool. And then my time
came.

MRS. AUSTIN. How do you mean?

JIM. A blast furnace blew out, and a piece of slag hit me here, where
you see that patch. If it wasn't for the patch you'd see something