Chapter 17
No one in the family comes to visit Jurgis and he thinks about them constantly. He has a new cellmate, an articulate safecracker named Jack Duane. He is a cheerful man who tells Jurgis stories of intrigue and rebellion. It seems to Jurgis that Duane has struck back at the world, walking the underbelly of the city and engaging in crime. Everyone in the prison knows Duane by name.
On the day when Jurgis is to be tried, Elzbieta and Kotrina are sitting in the gallery. Connor testifies that Jurgis attacked him after he'd fired Ona, and denied Jurgis' side of the story. With an alliance between corrupt politicians and the packinghouses, there is no chance for justice. Jurgis is sent back to prison for thirty more days. One day Stanislovas visited him, telling Jurgis that Ona is incredibly ill and that the family is nearly starving. Marija has injured her hand and cannot work and Ona, of course, has been fired. There is nothing Jurgis can do.
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