Sister Carrie 3 страница

⇐ ПредыдущаяСтр 4 из 85Следующая ⇒

conversation and notes of laughter floated to her. The air was light.

People were already pouring out of the buildings, their labor ended for

the day. She noticed that they were pleased, and thoughts of her

sister's home and the meal that would be awaiting her quickened her

steps. She hurried on, tired perhaps, but no longer weary of foot. What

would not Minnie say! Ah, the long winter in Chicago-the lights, the

crowd, the amusement! This was a great, pleasing metropolis after all.

Her new firm was a goodly institution Its windows were of huge plate

glass. She could probably do well there. Thoughts of Drouet returned-of

the things he had told her. She now felt that life was better that it

was livelier, sprightlier. She boarded a car in the best of spirits,

feeling her blood still flowering pleasantly. She would live in

Chicago, her mind kept saying to itself. She would have a better time

than she had ever had before she would be happy.

Chapter IV

THE SPENDINGS OF FANCY: FACTS ANSWER WITH SNEERS

For the next two days Carrie indulged in the most high flown

speculations.

Her fancy plunged recklessly into privileges and amusements which

would have been much more becoming had she been cradled a child of

fortune. With ready will and quick mental selection she scattered her

meager four-fifty per week with a swift and graceful hand. Indeed, as

she sat in her rocking-chair these several evenings before going to bed

and looked out upon the pleasantly lighted street, this money cleared

for its prospective possessor the way to every joy and every bauble

which the heart of woman may desire. " I will have a fine time, " she

though.

Her sister Minnie knew nothing of these rather wild cerebrations,

though they exhausted the markets of delight. She was too busy

scrubbing the kitchen woodwork and calculating the purchasing power of

eighty cents for Sunday's dinner. When Carrie had returned home,

flushed with her first success and ready, for all her weariness, to

discuss the now interesting events which led up to her achievement, the

former had merely smiled approvingly and inquired whether she would

have to spend any of it for car fare. This consideration had not

entered in before, and it did not now for long affect the glow of

Carrie's enthusiasm. Disposed as she then was to calculate upon that

vague basis which allows the subtraction of one sum from another

without any perceptible diminution, she was happy.

When Hanson came home at seven o'clock, he was inclined to be a little

crusty-his usual demeanor before supper. This never showed so much in

anything he said as in a certain solemnity of countenance and the

silent manner in which he slopped about. He had a pair of yellow carpet

slippers which he enjoyed wearing, and these he would immediately

substitute for his soiled pair of shoes. This, and washing his face

with the aid of common washing soap until it glowed a shiny red,

constituted his only preparation for his evening meal. He would then

get his evening paper and read in silence.

For a young man, this was rather a morbid turn of character, and so

affected Carrie. Indeed, it affected the entire atmosphere of the flat,

as such things are inclined to do, and gave to his wife's mind its

subdued and tactful turn, anxious to avoid taciturn replies. Under the

influence of Carrie's announcement he brightened up some what.

" You didn't lose any time, did you? " he remarked, smiling a little.

" No, " returned Carrie with a touch of pride.

He asked her one or two more questions and then turned to play with the

baby, leaving the subject until it was brought up again by Minnie at

the table.

Carrie, however, was not to be reduced to the common level of

observation which prevailed in the flat.

" It seems to be such a large company, " she said, at one place. " Great

big plate-glass windows and lots of clerks. The man I saw said they

hired ever so many people. "

" It's not very hard to get work now, " put in Hanson, " if you look

right. "

Minnie under the warning influence of Carrie's good spirits and her

husband's somewhat conversational mood, began to tell Carrie of some of

the well-known things to see-things the enjoyment of which cost

nothing.

" You'd like to see Michigan Avenue. There are such fine houses. It is

such a fine street. "

" Where is ' H. R. Jacob's'? " interrupted Carrie, mentioning one of the

theatres devoted to melodrama which went by that name at the time.

" Oh, it's not very far from here, " answered Minnie. " It's in Halstead

Street, right up here. "

" How I'd like to go there. I crossed Halstead Street to-day, didn't

I? "

At this there was a slight halt in the natural reply. Thoughts are a

strangely permeating factor. At her suggestion of going to the theatre,

the unspoken shade of disapproval to the doing of those things which

involved the expenditure of money-shades of feeling which arose in the

mind of Hanson and then on Minnie-slightly affected the atmosphere of

the table. Minnie answered " yes, " but Carrie could feel that going to

the theatre was poorly advocated here. The subject was put off for a

little while until Hanson, through with his meal, took his paper and

went into the front room.

When they were alone, the two sisters began a somewhat freer

conversation, Carrie interrupting it to hum a little, as they worked at

the dishes.

" I should like to walk up and see Halstead Street, if it isn't too

far, " said Carrie, after a time. " Why don't we go to the theatre to-

night? "

" Oh, I don't think Sven would want to go to-night, " returned Minnie. "

He has to get up so early. "

" He wouldn't mind-he'd enjoy it, " said Carrie.

" No, he doesn't go very often, " returned Minnie.

" Well, I'd like to go, " rejoined Carrie. " Let's you and me go. "

Minnie pondered a while, not upon whether she could or would go for

that point was already negatively settled with her-but upon some means

of diverting the thoughts of her sister to some other topic.

" We'll go some other time, " she said at last, finding no ready means

of escape.

Carrie sensed the root of the opposition at once.

" I have some money, " she said. " You go with me. '

Minnie shook her head.

" He could go along, " said Carrie.

" No, returned Minnie softly, and rattling the dishes to drown the

conversation. " He wouldn't. "

It had been several years since Minnie had seen Carrie, and in that

time the latter's character had developed a few shades. Naturally timid

in all things that related to her own advancement, and especially so

when without power or resource, her craving for pleasure was so strong

that it was the one stay of her nature. She would speak for that when

silent on all else.

" Ask him, " she pleaded softly.

Minnie was thinking of the resource which Carrie's board would add. It

would pay the rent and would make the subject of expenditure a little

less difficult to talk about with her husband. But if Carrie was going

to think of running around in the beginning there would be a hitch

somewhere. Unless Carrie submitted to a solemn round of industry and

saw the need of hard work without longing for play, how was her coming

to the city to profit them? These thoughts were not those of a cold,

hard nature at all. They were the serious reflections of a mind which

invariably adjusted itself, without much complaining, to such

surroundings as its industry could make for it.

At last she yield enough to ask Hanson. It was a half-hearted procedure

without a shade of desire on her part.

" Carrie wants us to go to the theatre, " she said, looking in upon her

husband. Hanson looked up from his paper, and they exchanged a mild

look, which said as plainly as anything: " This isn't what we

expected. "

" I don't care to go, " he returned. " What does she want to see? "

" H. R Jacob's, " said Minnie.

He looked down at his paper and shook his head negatively.

When Carrie saw how they looked upon her proposition, she gained a

still clearer feeling of their way of life. It weighted on her, but

took no definite form of opposition.

" I think I'll go down and stand at the foot of the stairs, " she said,

after a time.

Minnie made no objection to this, and Carrie put on her hat and went

below.

" Where has Carrie gone? " asked Hanson, coming back into the dinning-

room when he heard the door close.

" She said she was going down to the foot of the stairs, " answered

Minnie. " I guess she just wants to look out a while. "

" She oughtn't to be thinking about spending her money on theatres

already, do you think? " he said.

" She just feels a little curious, I guess, " ventured Minnie. "

Everything is so new. "

" I don't know, " said Hanson, and went over to the baby, his forehead

slightly wrinkled.

He was thinking of a full career of vanity and wastefulness which a

young girl might indulge in, and wondering how Carrie could contemplate

such a course when she had so little, as yet, with which to do.

On Saturday Carrie went out by herself-first toward the river, which

interested her, and then back along Jackson Street, which was then

lined by the pretty houses and fine lawns which subsequently caused it

to be made into a boulevard. She was struck with the evidences of

wealth, although there was, perhaps, not a person on the street worth

more than a hundred thousand dollars. She was glad to be out of the

flat, because already she felt that it was a narrow, humdrum place, and

that interest and joy lay elsewhere. Her thoughts now were of a more

liberal character, and she punctuated them with speculations as to the

whereabouts of Drouet. She was not sure but that he might call anyhow

Monday night, and, while she felt a little disturbed at the

possibility, there was, nevertheless, just the shade of a wish that he

would.

On Monday she arose early and prepared to go to work. She dressed

herself in a worn shirt-waist of dotted blue percale, a skirt of light-

brown serge rather faded, and a small straw hat which she had worn all

summer at Columbia City. Her shoes were old, and her necktie was in

that crumpled, flattened state which time and much wearing impart. She

made a very average looking shop-girl with the exception of her

features. These were slightly more even than common, and gave her a

sweet, reserved, and pleasing appearance.

It is no easy thing to get up early in the morning when one is used to

sleeping until seven and eight, as Carrie had been at home. She gained

some inkling of the character of Hanson's life when, half asleep, she

looked out into the dinning-room at six o'clock and saw him silently

finishing his breakfast. By the time she was dressed he was gone, and

she, Minnie, and the baby ate together, the latter being just old

enough sit in a high chair and disturb the dishes with a spoon. Her

spirits were greatly subdued now when the fact of entering upon strange

and untried duties confronted her. Only the ashes of all her fine

fancies were remaining-ashes still concealing, never the less, a few

red embers of hope. So subdued was she by her weakening nervous, that

she ate quite in silence. going over imaginary conceptions of the

character of the shoe company, the nature of the work, her employer's

attitude. She was vaguely feeling that she would come in contract with

the great owners, that her work come in contract with the great owners,

that her work would be where grave, stylishly dressed men occasionally

look on.

" Well, good luck, " said Minnie, when she was ready to go. They had

agreed it was best to walk, that morning at least, to see if she could

do it every day-sixty cents a week for car fare being quite an item

under the circumstances.

" I'll tell you how it goes to-night, " said Carrie.

Once in the sunlit street, with labourers tramping by in either

direction, the horse-cars passing crowded to the rails with the small

clerks and floor help in the great wholesales houses, and men and

women generally coming out of doors and passing about the

neighourhood, Carrie felt slightly reassured. In the sunshine of the

morning, beneath the wide, blue heavens, with a fresh wind astir, what

fears, except the most desperate, can find a harbourage? In the night,

or the gloomy chambers of the day, fears and misgivings wax strong, but

out in the sunlight there is, for a time, cessation even of the terror

of death.

Carrie went straight forward until she crossed the river, and then

turned into Fifth Avenue. The thoroughfare, in this part, was like a

walled canon of brown stone and clean. Trucks were rumbling in

increasing numbers; men and woman, girls and boys were moving onward

in all directions. She met girls of her own age, who looked at her as

if with contempt for her diffidence. She wondered at the magnitude of

this life and at the importance of knowing much in order to do anything

in it at all. Dread at her own inefficiency crept upon her. She would

not know how, she would not be quick enough. Had not all the other

places refused her because she did not know something or other? She

would be scolded, abused, ignominiously discharged.

It was with weak knees and a slight catch in her breathing that she

came up to the great shoe company at Adams and Fifth Avenue and entered

the elevator. When she steeped out on the fourth floor there was no

one at hand, only great aisles of boxes piled to the ceiling. She

stood, very much frightened, awaiting some one.

Presently Mr. Brown came up. He did not seem to recognise her.

" What is it you want? " he inquired.

Carrie's heart sank.

" You said I should come this morning to see about work-"

" Carrie Meeber. "

" Yes, " said he. " You come with me. "

He led the way through dark, box-lined aisles which had the smell of

new shoes, until they came to an iron door which opened into the

factory proper. There was a large, low-ceiled room, with clacking,

rattling machines at which men in white shirt sleeves and blue gingham

aprons were working. She followed him diffidently through the

clattering automatons, keeping her eyes straight before her, and

flushing slightly. They crossed to a far corner and took an elevator to

the sixth floor. Out of the array of machines and benches, Mr. Brown

signaled a foreman.

" This is the girls, " he said, and turning to Carrie, " You go with

him. " He then returned, and Carrie followed her new superior to a

little desk in a corner, which he used as a kind of official center.

" You've never worked at anything like this before, have you? " he

questioned, rather sternly.

" No, sir, " she answered.

He seemed rather annoyed at having to bother with such help, but put

down her name and then led her across to where a line of girls occupied

stools in front of clacking machines. On the shoulder of one of the

girls who was punching eye-holes in one piece of the upper, by the aid

of the machine, he put his hand.

" You, " he said, " show this girl how to do what you're doing. When you

get through, come to me. "

The girl so addressed rose promptly and gave Carrie her place.

" It isn't hard to do, " she said, bending over. " You just take this

so, fasten it with this clamp, and start the machine. "

She suited action to work, fastened the piece of leather, which was

eventually to form the right half of the upper of a man's shoe, by

little adjustable clamps, and pushed a small steel rod at the side of

the machine. The latter jumped to the task of punching, with sharp,

snapping clicks, cutting circular bits of leather out of the side of

the upper, leaving the holes which were to hold the laces. After

observing a few times, the girl let her work at it alone. Seeing that

it was fairly well done, she went away.

The pieces of leather came from the girl at the machine to her right,

and were passed on to the girl at her left. Carrie saw at once that an

average speed was necessary or the work would pile up on her and all

those below would be delayed. She had no time to look about, and bent

anxiously to her task. The girls at her left and right realized her

predicament and feelings, and, in a way, tried to aid her, as much as

they dared, by working slower.

At this task she labored incessantly for some time, finding relief from

her own nervous fears and imaginings in the humdrum, mechanical

movement of the machine. She felt, as the minutes passed, that the room

was not very light. It had a thick odor of fresh leather, but that did

not worry her. She felt the eyes of the other help upon her, and

troubled lest she was not working fast enough.

Once, when she was fumbling at the little clamp, having made a slight

error in setting in the leather, a great hand appeared before her eyes

and fastened the clamp for her. It was the foreman. Her heart thumped

so that she could scarcely see to go on.

" Start your machine, " he said, " start your machine. Don't keep

the line waiting. "

This recovered her sufficiently and she went excitedly on, hardly

breathing until the shadow moved away from behind her. Then she heaved

a great breath.

As the morning wore on the room became hotter. She felt the need of a

breath of fresh air and a drink of water but did not venture to stir.

The stool she sat on was without a back or foot-rest, and she began to

feel uncomfortable. She found, after a time, that her back was

beginning to ache. She twisted and turned from one position to another

slightly different, but it did not ease her for long. She was beginning

to weary.

" Stand up, why don't you? " said the girl at her right without any form

of introduction. " They won't care. "

Carrie looked at her gratefully. " I guess I will, " she said.

She stood up from her stool and worked that way for a while, but it was

a more difficult position. Her neck and shoulder ached in bending

over.

The spirit of the place impressed itself on her in a rough way. She did

not venture to look around, but above the clack of the machine she

could hear an occasional remark. She could also note a thing or two out

of the side of her eye.

" Did you see Harry last night? " said the girl at her left, addressing

her neighbor

" No. "

" You ought to have seen the tie he had on. Gee, but he was a mark. "

" S-s-t, " said the other girl, bending over her work.

The first, silenced, instantly assumed a solemn face. The foreman

passed slowly along, eyeing each worker distinctly. The moment he was

gone, the conversation was resumed again.

" Say, " began the girl at her left, " what do you think he said? "

" I don't know. "

" He said he saw us with Eddie Harris at Martin's last night. "

" No! " They both giggled.

A youth with tan-colored hair, that needed clipping very badly, came

shuffling along between the machines, bearing a basket of leather

findings under his left arm, and pressed against his stomach. When near

Carrie, he stretched out his right hand and gripped one girl under the

arm.

" Aw, let me go, " she exclaimed angrily. " Duffer. "

He only grinned broadly in return.

" Rubber! " he called back as she looked after him.

There was nothing of the gallant in him.

Carrie at last could scarcely sit still. Her legs began to tire and she

wanted to get up and stretch. Would noon never come? It seemed as if

she had worked an entire day. She was not hungry at all, but weak, and

her eyes were tired, straining at the one point where the eye-punch

came down. The girl at the right noticed her squirmings and felt sorry

for her. She was concentrating herself too thoroughly-what she did

really required less mental and physical strain. There was nothing to

be done, however. The halves of the uppers came piling steadily down.

Her hands began to ache at the wrists and then in the fingers and

towards the last she seemed one mass of dull, complaining muscles,

fixed in an eternal position and performing a single mechanical

movement which become more and more distasteful, until at last it was

absolutely nauseating. When she was wondering whether the strain would

ever cease, a dull-sounding bell clanged somewhere down an elevator

shaft, and the end came. In a instant there was a buzz of action and

conversation. All the girls instantly left their stools and hurried

away in an adjoining room, men passed through, coming from some

department which opened on the right. The whirling wheels began to

sing in a steadily modifying key, until at last they died away in a low

buzz. There was an audible stillness, in which the common voice sounded

strange.

Carrie got up and sought her lunch box. She was stiff, a little dizzy,

and very thirsty. On the way to the small space portioned off by wood,

where all the wraps and lunches were kept, she encountered the

foreman, who started at her hard.

" Well, " he said, " did you get along all right? "

" I think so, " she replied, very respectfully.

" Um, " he replied, for want of something better, and walked on.

Under better material conditions, this kind of work would not have been

so bad, but the new socialism which involves pleasant working

conditions for employees had not then taken hold upon manufacturing

companies.

The place smelled of the of the oil of the machines and the new

leather-a combination which, added to the stale odors of the building,

was not pleasant even on cold weather. The floor, though regularly

swept every evening, presented a littered surface. Not the slightest

provision had been made for the comfort of the employees, the idea

being that something was gained by giving them as little and making the

work as hard and unremunerative as possible. What we know of foot-

rests, swivel-back chairs, dinning-rooms for the girls, clean aprons

and curling irons supplied free, and decent cloak room, were unthought

of. The washrooms were disagreeable, crude, if not foul places, and the

whole atmosphere was sordid.

Carrie looked about her, after she had drunk a tinful of water from a

bucket in one corner, for a place to sit and eat. The other girls had

ranged themselves about the windows or the work-benches of those of

the men who had gone out. She saw no place which did not hold a couple

or a group of girls, and being too timid to think of intruding herself,

she sought out her machine and, seated upon her stool, opened her lunch

on her lap. There she sat listening to the chatter and comment about

her. It was for the most part, silly and graced by the current slang,

Several of the men in the room exchanged compliments with the girls at

long range.

" Say, Kitty, " called to a girl who was doing a waltz step in a few

feet of space near one of the windows, " are you going to the ball with

me? "

" Look out, Kitty, " called another, " you'll jar your back hair. "

" Go on, Rubber, " was her only comment.

As Carrie listened to this and much more of similar familiar badinage

among the men and girls, she instinctively withdrew into herself. She

was not used to this type, and felt that there was something hard and

low about it all. She feared that the young boys about would address

such remarks to her-boys who, beside Drouet, seemed uncouth and

ridiculous. She made the average feminine distinction between clothes,

putting worth, goodness, and distinction in a dress suit, and leaving

all the unlovely qualities and those beneath notice in overalls and

jumper.

She was glad when the short half hour was over and the wheels began to

whirr again. Though wearied, she would be inconspicuous. This illusion

ended when another young man passed along the aisle and poked her

indifferently in the ribs with his thumb. She turned about,

indignation leaping to her eyes, but he had gone on and only once

turned to grin. She found it difficult to conquer an inclination to

cry.

The girl next her noticed her state of mind. " Don't you mind, " she

said. " He's too fresh. "

Carrie said nothing, but bent over her work. She felt as though she

could hardly endure such a life. Her idea of work had been so entirely

different. All during the long afternoon she thought of the city

outside and its imposing show, crowds, and fine buildings. Columbia

City and the better side of her home life came back. By three o'clock

she was sure it must be six, and by four it seemed as if they had

forgotten to note the hour and were letting all work overtime. The

foreman became a true ogre, prowling constantly about, keeping her tied

down to her miserable task. What she heard of the conversation about

her only made her feel sure that she did not want to make friends with

any of these. When six o'clock came she hurried eagerly away, her arms

⇐ Предыдущая 1 2 345 6 7 8 9 10 Следующая ⇒