Chapter 24In the face of all his handicaps, Jurgis was obliged to make theprice of alodging, and of a drink every hour or two, under penaltyof freezing to death. Day after day he roamed about in the arcticcold, his soul filled full of bitterness and despair. He saw theworld of civilization then more plainly than ever he had seen itbefore; a world in which nothing counted but brutal might, an orderdevised by those who possessed it for the subjugation of those whodid not. He was one of the latter; and all outdoors, all life, wasto him one colossal prison, which he paced like a pent-up tiger,trying one bar after another, and finding them all beyond hispower. He had lost in the fierce battle of greed, and so was doomedto be exterminated; and all society was busied to see that he didnot escape
