If THE OMAHA SUNDAY HEK: JAXUAUV 24. 1000. FRUIT PACKER FOR A MONTH Woman Learni How it Feels to Work for a Living. ronnjG jjxvm high pressure Sst (he Labor that Wear t'pon Oar. bat the Moaotoar and the Strata of Con tlaaal Haatc. BAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 15.-Thr-re was nothing scientific about It. I dida't want to know how many women ar tnanKlci In machinery yearly nor whether modi'l fartoriea supply hot tea at noon. I Just wanted to know personally how It would feel to get a job. Toiltiona I knew all about. You apply for three, and are. accepted. Tou ask for a job and iret taken on. I wanted to know the. feel of It; to uk, to be refused, to be taken, to be looked over. To do somo thlnf not because I had any special In clination or training, but because I hap pened to be on hand at 7 a. m. and some one else did not happen to be there. To work on day after day with no more ultimata ambition than to make as much as poeslbla at that particular thing-. Recauae I wanted to begin at the very bottom, to feel very much alone and un protected, I went to a society that keeps a secretary to help girls to fmd work, and asked assistance. She was a very well dressed secretary and she looked me over critically. For five minutes aha Just sired me up and then said "Shirts." I bad expected this. Organisations al ways advise sewing. But I said I would rather do anything else, for I wanted to nee what else she would suggest. She frowned slightly and then followed w1:h canvassing, housework, nurse glr' and wait ing on table in a country hotel. I shook my head at all. The frown deepened. Then suddenly it cleared and she said "Fruit, " with the air of having brought forth a very precious gem Indeed. Couldn't Refase Fruit. I didn't bave the courage to refuse fruit, besides It seemed to be a very wonderful thing. You simply went off somewhere "Into the beautiful country" and enjoyjd yourself. It couldn't really be railed m'ork, and If you were any good at all you made $2 a day. Hundreds of women yearly fol lowed the ripening fruit through California. I forget Just how many the secretary had personally driven Into fruit, but It was all down In a little red book. She call It "gathering statistics on one of the greatest Industrial opportunities for the working women of our state." 80 I let her enter me In the little red book and give me a printed slip, good for a ticket at the rail road office, and I signed two papers prom ising to refund the cost. Then I packed a grip and went away 200 miles "into the beautiful country," to town where the Chamber of Commerce gives away receipt books on how to get an entire dinner with rainlns and prunes. I found a room In a rambling old house down close to the fruit houses, where engines switched back and forth all night long and the front door was never closed. All night heavy steps sounded on the stairs and then the landlady's bell would jangle wildly and a few minutes after her (MOT Sri FOR WOMEN In our 3a page pamphlet wrapped about Cuticura Ointment is to be found most valuable sugges tions for women, especially mothers, for the preservation and purification of the skin, scalp, hair and hands; for clearing the skin and scalp of torturing, disfiguring humours, rashes and inflamma tions; for sanative, antiseptic cleansing of ulcerated, inflamed mucous surfaces and destruction of microscopic life, and for bring ing about, by suggestion and medication, a normal condition of health, strength and beauty. Bold throvekoat the world. Depots' Lenena. IT, CaarMrbpua Sq : Parw. . km at la ru. Aitra l, R. Towaa Co. Brdsajr. India. B. K. TauL CaWls; Japaa, fcaraja. Ltd., Toalo: So. Africa, Laoaun, Ltd., Cat. Town. t' 9 A., f.tla, (ru A Cham. Corp., Pol Prop . Bnaton. aarraat rtaa, rtapajat rltrr4 u tboea. Party to Invest $1,000 to $5,003 in a legitimate Wholesale and Retail business. The in vestor will handle the finances. A thorough Inves tigation solicited. Do not answer unless you have the capital. References required. Address V-219 Bee. air 11 VflDV PITV of n'h rr,de- '' lit, II I UBH VI 1 fers iuvestment as safe as Govern- REAL ESTATE bonds. Yield. attractive returns and steadily Increases In value. The 1(01 Panto had no effect whatever on the kind of property we offer. Investments from 150,000 to t. 000.000. Full information furnished on request. ,. . kirxuJSB wiRft oo. KuUisb4 F esas) M V. V. t ' tired, colorless voice would explain, "There's nothing Wt tonight." The next nmrnlnir I got up at an un golty hour and became a woman who tolls. Snmei day I shall write a pnper on "Fore ladls I Have Known." Mine had a very small waist, a J ni'n'!"tir an 1 nn In p fl ing manner if having risen from the j ranks. I asked for work In a tone that I tried to moke suMly ln1'-pennt nnil l-o-flttlngly respectful. The conjunction Is difficult. Wars of the Fnretndr. ' She looked mo ovtr Iflsurrly. Had 1 ever worked In fruit )eforc? No. Rhe couldn't use me, she wanted experienced packers. And then a desire for that particular Job awoke and blazed wltliln me and 1 b'-gati to .aJk. And I talked until I saw her ex pression soften. I don't rememher' what I Mid before T confessed to having a husband win had left me, but I remnnilfer hearing myself say that I had a little boy. I called him Willie and said that he was 2 years old. "Get a knife and a mould over there and I'll see If I can use you." she said. I got a knife and a mould and went and stood at the vacant place she had Indi cated and wondered If I always hud such possibilities latent or whether they were born of the occasion. It was a dried fl pinking house, and I can see It yet, every face, almost every fig. The big harnllke room with eliding doors opening on a platform piled high who Doxes or rruit, the trams drawn up on the siding waiting to be loaded. And beyond, scattered cottages, the smoke stacks of other packing houses and then the country miles upon miles of green, shimmering in the hot sun. The long tables lined with women and girls heavy faced Russians, fat Neapolitans with dirty waists, dark eyed Armenians, clean, self-assertive Americans. Every woman bent over a pile of yellow figs, the heavy smell or tons of warm fruit, the rlnnk of machinery, the soft thud of the figs as they fell from the separator, the click of the scales as the women weighed and the high, singing call, "More fru-lt fru-lt!" I.esrnlng the Work, Suddenly the forewomen was behind me. "Watch me." she said. Leaning over she seized a hot fig, give It one slit with a knife, pushed up with her first fingers and down with her thumbs and make a butterfly out of it. Again and again she did It, then stepped wearily aside and told me to try. I flourished the knife, give the silt and was left with a piece of skin sticking on my thumb. Where, where or how the In terior oi mat rig vnnished I shall never know. It was and It was not. A dozen times more she showed me, and then to my Inflnito relief left me to prac tise. I tried to catch the trick from the girl opposite, but her hands flew so quickly I could make nothing of It. Besides, her fingers were all wrapped In rags to keep the lye that Is put on during tho dryl"K from eating away the nails. Before my month was up I could plrk out the differ ent workers by their wounds: Crumbling nails, figs; big, callous lumps at the ends of the thumbs, prune packers; callous trips across the palm, peelers In the can nerles; skin thick and white like leprosy, tomato canners; finger ends flat and black, raisin packers. It's almost a Bertlllon sys-tern. men jusi wnen i inougnt mat I never could flatten out a fig I did It. After that there wa) nothing to learn, Just to work up a speed. By 11 I could do It, not quickly but with- out spoiling any. I could pack my mould so that each of tho five divisions weighed the exact eight ounces prescribed by law. std when they didn't could ram a few figs Into the center without taking the whole to pieces. After that It was JUBt slit, push, pack and on without ceasing. It was no good trying to talk to the girls around. They only looked at me suspici ously. They were there to pack figs, so presumably was I. Kvery moment wasted In anything else meant so much money less. Gradually the awful necessity of haste frightened me. With eyes fixed on their work they turned neither to the right nor to the left The tension was almost pal pable. I too began to hurry, every muscle ngia with effort. An unseen taskmaster was driving me forward. I forgot the sharp ache In my ankles and the knife pain between my shoulders. 1 thought of nothing else but finishing another brick. At 14 the whistle blew. As one the day workers quit, but the packers went on until the angry voice of the boss railed No more." Even then an old Sicilian. wrinkled and yellow like a bit of leather. irica to elude him, btu he went over and Jerked her from the table by her arm. Screaming on the saints to bear witness that she had come five minute late that morning and needed the money, shaking ner scrawny fist in his face, she tried to struggle back to her place. The man dragged himself free, but between them her last tray of figs fell to the floor. Jab bering wildly the old woman went down on her knees, while the man turned away laughing. She picked them up ulone, mum bling to herself, the big, gold hoops In her ears leat'lng a mad dance. When she had finished she tied a green shawl over hr head and went away. After mnch we began again. It was not hard work as such work goes. I know that now. But the awful monotony of those endless figs. By 2 I could scarcely sUnJ, hut the others worked on without stopping. They call It a gxl day, one like thut, when the fruit pours In an everlasting stream ftom the sepirator and nothing Btoj tho flattening of the figs. By 3 It was stifling. Outside the heat palpitated as If the very earth were strug gling to finish her task, to force the grow ing things to maturity before nightfall. By 6 30 I had made cents. They told me I had done well for a green hand and when I had been t It several seasons I would be sure to make my U a day. They alsu told me that I would s.m get used to the awful pain In my shoulders, or I wouldn't feel it. I don't remember which. It amounted to the same thing. Passing of the rain. They were quite right. By the fifth day the sharpness of the pain was gone. At night I Ml only deadly, stupidly tired. By the end of the woek I was' making 90 cents on good days, but the lif and color were all gone out of It. It was not un'il long tfler I hud left it that I could see again as I had seen un the first day. By the middle of the second wctk the others existed only as they made more or less than I. The white-haired old English woman who packed so slowly, so accurately at the far end of the table and who stopped every few moments to wipe her glasses and give a little sigh, and the wrinkled, Sicilian witch who bad fought with the buss and owned a row of flats and had a bank account, and Little dia monds, the pretty Armenian next to me, whose money went Into payments on the family orchard, so that she couldn't marry the pale, quiet young fellow who stood all day at the throttle of the separator and gased at her with dark, sad eastern eyes they had all gone down together. By tho end of the second w.ek I had bo come a machine a machine for the flat tening of figs. I bad not tried to do it. J had Just stood steadily packing and pack ing and packing. Oat ef a Job. Then I lost my place. Something hap pened soBiswhare to Um tig supply u4 ban th packers were let out. No one explained the reason and none of us BkL For two day I went from one place to another, my paper of lunch under one arm, my apron under the otlier, ready to begin. No one wanted me. Home of the fore men w.-re Indifferent aid some were rilly sorry tlwt tliey had nothing for me; some were sympathetic and ld the man ner of rememberlrg the distant dnys when they a I'M) had "been looking for a Job." Somo were as superior as the secretary Who gathered statistics. On the third day I brew going to the same places In the afternoon and In the morning, hoping that some girl had failed to come back and that I would get her place. Others tried the same thing. I met an untidy, stupid Russian peasant three times In one afternoon coming out as I went In. The third time we smiled at each other kindly and I understood why the unemployed band together. The world had readjusted Itself Into those who had work and those who wanted work. Chi the fourth morning as I stood waiting for the forewoman I saw the stupid, dirty Russian working away silently. She had got In ahead of me. I had a distinct feeling of dislike for her. From Fins to I'enches. On the afternoon of the fourth day I was taken on for a rush order of dried peaches. Now, packing figs Is like handling warm flaxseed poultices, but dried peaches are like cobble stones. If possible, the work Is more monotonous. There are no moulds to wash, nothing to weigh. You Just stand In the same spot hour after hour flattening dried peaches. Presumably you do It with your handa only I did It with every muscle In my body, for there is no limit to the extension possiblll ties of a dried peach. I could make one Into doormat or squeeze It into a pea, still keeping it perfectly flat. Whvn the fresh trays of warm fruit are brought the forewoman emits sounds like foot ball signals, 7x9, 9x11, etc. You fall uixm the fruit, grabbing us much of the best as you can get your hands over, ajid begin to lay It In the boxes seven across by nine up, etc. The only excitement Is that aa soon as you have besun to get used to ono way. the forewoman emits a new signal and you have to do something else. If anyone Is rude enough to grab at the siinia fruit that you want, you push her away as roughly as Is neceseary to separate her from it. In those packing houses where the fruit U not brought round but you have j to go after It you have less chunce. As soon as tho clonk, clank of the steamer begins, and the soft, hot fruit comes pour ing Into the bin you seize your box and beat your way Into the packed mass of women and girls. If the sharp edge of a box is driven Into your back it's all part of the getting of the fruit. Next time It will be your box and another woman's back. There Is no permanent ill feeling about It At least not when you are both Ameri cans. It la difierent when a box is yielded by a "dago." A "dago" la anyone with a dark complexion Who can't speak English and who makes more money than you do. When a "dago" steps on you or prods you in the Jam It Is always malicious and pre meditated. Fail far the Money. So it went on day afur day. Sometimes I was let out and sometimes I left on my own accord. As the fruit came pouring In from the orchards and vineyard there was no trouble in getting work and no one was laid off. It Is like a sweeping tide of the sea, swallowing uvory humiui thing capablo of work. Those who need it and those who don't are all dragged under together. It la a chance to make money; no one can stand against it. .There is something terrifying about It It Is almost, palpable, that haunt ing, driving Thing forever beating the worker on. I saw the Thing once, saw it clearly. I was packing raisins In a huge packing houae. Upon each table a long iron funnel from the room above poured a stream of boiling hot raisins all day. We worked In crews of three. When he had filled forty-eight pound packages with raisins, weighed each one, closed it and packed all forty-eight in a wooden box wo got 5 cents to be divided among the three. At the same table with me were a sharp-faced little American wo man and a heavy Russian mother with her 16-year-old daughter. The woman had been working seven years and the girl three. They made 13 a day each. Early In the afternoon I could Just see them through the dense steam that rose from tho hot fruit The faces of the two women were deep red and the water ran In streams from them. But the girl was quite white. They worked without speak ing, almost without moving. I left because when I woke at night I could see those two rt-d faces and the white one, like lost souls In Inferno, condemned to pack forever. The Thing was behind them. Why she Quit. I worked another woek and then I stopped. I stopped because I was frightened. I was bottling preserved peaches when it struck me with the force of a physical blow. From 7 in the morning until 6:20 at night I hud stood in a room roofed with netting to keep out the beea only the net ting was broken and the beea came in any wayand slid preserved peaches down a stU k Into a bottle. Suddenly my little stick snapped and couldn't go on working. For ten minutes while the forewoman hunted up another slick I sat doing noth ing, watching the others get ahead of me. The girl next to me never turned her head. The fat, dripping halves continued to slide down the stick and form clean, yellow half moons up the side of the bottle. "Don't you ever feel like packlnii them wrong sldo up?" I uked, "Just for a chunge?" "No," she said simply and began on a now bottle. "That 'ul.l bo stupid." She had been sliding jwaches down that stick for two months. That was why I quit- She frightened me. I ai alruid that very soon I too would think it was stupid to slide the peaches In upside down. STORIES OF QUAKE VICTIMS Surrivori Tell Frightful Stories of Experience in Trgic Events. GHOULS WAGE OPEN WARFARE Thonah 1'rrlnd of thorite Is II in nit U Moat Soffrrrm, ome of Them Tell Brmsrkskle Stories eit Catastrophe. lieuerous Child. Master Walter, aged 6. had eaten the soft portions of toast at breakfast and piled the crust on his plate. "When 1 was a little boy," remarked his fther "1 always ate tne crusts of my toait." "Ild you like them?" asked tiie little fellow, cheerfully. "Yes," replied the parent. "You may have these,'' replied Waster Walter, pushing his plate across the table. Delineator. NAPLES. Jan. S.-iSpeclaU-It Is doubt ful If the full hcrrible story of tho. earth quake will ever be told. The survivors have only a confused Idea or whnt toox place. They were awakened by the falling of their houses and how they escatiod they cannot guess. The awful minutes, In most cases nhpti th..v were struggling for life, are a nightmare or a blank, which perhaps even time will not clear. However, some few have been able to put their sensations and experiences into words. I have heard of a man who in habited tho fourth floor of an apartment house airt who was awakened by what he took to be an explosion. When he gained hie sense he found himself In an alarming position. The floor, probably through some defect in building, had given way cleanly as though cut by a knife, right under his large double bed, which thus had two legs hanging In the void, the other two being on the portion of the floor left The bed waa dangerously Inclined and from It hod rolled hi wife Into the gul he savlnjr htm self from a like fate by throwing himself violently on to the floor on the other side. He was rescue! by the firemen after stop ping In his dangerous position for forty elKht houis witliout food and listening to the moans and cries of his little daughter, who had shared her mother's fate, ho was afterward taken out of the debris with scarcely a whole bone in her body, dead. Babe Killed by t.houl. A poor woman who was found In the streets of Messina attracted attention through her strange behavior. At first It waa thought that her terrible experience had turned her brain, but it was afterward discovered that she waa perfectly sane. It seems that she had loot six children, five of whom slept In a room together, while she and a baby occupied a small room near by. They were all burled arming the debris of the house, the bigger children probably killed in the fall, as she heard no sound The baby fell with her under a beam, but on her cheat and would have been alive now had not one of the ghouls who added freh terrors to the city, angry at not find ing anything to steal and irritated by tho crying of the child, which attracted atten Hon to the spot, brutally kicked It, killing It Immediately. The mother was afterward released and finding a friend on the street poured out her terrible trouble. Tho friend had evidently been the "poody" of her dls trlct ami told the poor, credulous -creature that If she said two beads of her rosary at every street corner, never repeating a street and crossed herself five tlmea, her children, if not yet dead, would revive. So the poor thing had pursued her pitiable perambulations for twenty-four hours, with out food, never stopping for fear of thus indirectly killing her poor children, long since dead. 8he absolutely refused to even sit down until assured by the archbishop of Messina, before whom she was taken, that her sacrifice wae in vain, Reaglo Hone Than Messina. Conditions in Regglo are worse than at Messina. It would take the vivid pen of Danto to give an adequate idea of the conditions in the sister cities. At Regglo two-thirds of the population lie under the debris of fallen buildings, the other third are in the streets, without roof, without food, without water, without clothes, Those fatal thirty seconds caat down all the conventional barriers set up by society and reduced rich and poor alike to prlml tlve men who must have shelter from cold and clothing and food for his body, and when he Is deprived of them a sufficient time he will fight for them. To this must be addod total darkness at night, only broken by the fiendish thieves who, having looted a shop had become possessed of bit of candle and with It made the round of the lugubrious rubbish, to see what they could steal from the bodies of the dead. These Jackals, composed of the scum of the town, are bo bold that their researches are In many cases conducted in broad day light and they resist with firearms and knives any ono who tries to Interfere with them. In one case a man, after putting his wife In safety, returned to try and secure some of his valuables. Arrived at what was once his house he was forcibly prevented from entering by a couple of men who, when he Insisted, shot him dead The few police and soldiers that there are. are totally Inadequate to keep this danger ous and unscrupulous element within bounds so they have orders to shoot on sight, the result being regular pitched bat ties in full sight of the principal streets In which law and order do not always get the best of it. Thus several soldiers have lost their lives and several more will un duubtedly do so before long. Killed for Rrirnlog Girl. One particularly touching case of this kind has Just occurred at Messina. soldier who had, through his exceptional strength, succeeded in lifting a beam which had pinned him down, from over his legs worked for almost two days In rescuing cithers with scarcely any rest. Late night he was returning to a shed which he had found to sleep In when he heard the sobbing cry of a little girl. Ho stopped and a group of three men, with whom i girl of 8 years was struggling violently came into view. He stopped them, where upon the child fled with what wus after wards proved to be a considerable sum o money which she had gathered together In her father's house. The thieves, furious at the escape of their victim, set upon the soldier and killed him by kicking him to death. These are but a few of the daily trag edlee of this modern Inferno, the victim o water, fire and earthquake, and rendered a hell by man; one moment the most beautiful spot on earth, the next a sink of terror and iniquity. A Burning chime is not to have Bucklen's Arnica Salvo to cure burna, sores, piles, cuts, wounds and ulcers. 25c. For sale by Beaton Drug Co, A TIME TKILD Rrntnv that XKVEK tAlLftj. Sprinkle's CrARIXTEIDTU I I RC OK MONEY IIEIINDEU. Peerless Group Remedy ' Will mother has art eipensoerS the harrowing fear of croup sort rotor hn been be timet wbvo s burrj-up call un tor lh pb?tien to rllrn a Inn unerr from eroap Bui all ltii co he ot. ruled by fcstiptuii bos ol apriukl Peerless (r fmdy la tbs hosts. Tbit rcaisdr l Irani s prcri.uoe ol a phraiciao thai bad BUT fain siperltBce IB pnctles, sod he eiaiaia ikat IBn renedj ssrsr lall him is cam of croup. prlakle's rrerleea t'ra awed Is peevliar Id luelf. at il la aa eiteroal sppltealtoa. doing sear 'lu tbs oscetiitr of pour.os drut dovu a foung cu.id, premies that aboulS not be Indulged Is at loot at il can bt avoided. Thit rsncdr hat bsen sold for rear on poaliire garate ear ' ar Birlc ef rrwrti rrSS. au I bersb? amber, ta all d.aaltra lu refund lbs price wusre th nuM) due BOi do all Ual la cUtoiad lor it A tat a sod ture rsaisdr for the eere of Croup sad tbs relief of Coanht. Coldt. Catarrh, iutat. w hooplas Cough aad ell kindred dtea Vor tals b diugf.iu. of iaaid i .osip of pnJe, WesBW. bi 1. A. miSU. VUls Sirete. III. New Arrivals at Alexander's Monday we will show a hnppv hrmdrrd new stylos of "Hightop" boots for women's winter wear. Tho ripest product of the plioemnkins? nrt. Every jxood leather in tnn or black. All desirable toe shapo, in either light or heavy soles, and all sizes and widths. $5.00 $4.00 Values $2.50 A FEW EXTRA SPECIALS 60c MORE. r f Men's Seasonable Shoes rSiER.OF $5.00, $4.00 and $3.50 GRADES $2.50 The styles Included nre of the class ttast mark; the wearer as well dressed, and are the latest models. Our $5.00 SHOE at $2.50 Is the IDEAL ROUGH WEATHER SHOE 600 TO 638 S A 1VIFLE SHOE MAN TAKE ELEVATOR ALEXANDER PAXTON BLOCK OPEN TILL M M. P. 16th STREET ENTRANCE. To the Man With Something Worth Selling One man in 1893, at our ( President's suggestion, started to use newspaper and magazine 6pace. His salesmen then cost him 9. He now pays less than 4 and has the pick of the best men in bis line, as they make the largest individual salaries. You can do as well if you buy your advertising space AFTER clearly understanding how you will MAKE it pay. We present plans for the use of newspaper, maga zine, street car or billboard space only when we arc sure that money thus invested will be more profitable to you than if spent in any other form of sales effort. We arc not wonderworkers or hypnotists. Wo have no secret formulas but when we take hold of a customer's advertising, wc concentrate an organization of sane, conser vative brains on the one campaign on hand. One department knows who's who among publishers; another department knows whafs what in illustrations; another knows how's how in writing advertisements; another knows business is busteessvrhen it cranes to placing contracts; another knows what the bottom's bottom is on prices and so on. . You will be insured as far as it is possible by having a "Data-Built Campaign" and by tho.usoof M Conference Copy." Let us put your name on our mailinrf list to receive monthly THE MAHIN MESSENGER. Telephone 1tTi or address MAHIN ADVERTISING COMPANY John Lee Mahin, President American Trust Building, Chicago J Mil j Sell or Exchange the Extra One Don't keep anything you have no more use for Some one who needs it will gladly pay you well for it Read Bee Want Ads today and learn who If you have been fortunate enough to have two cameras, and you only need one, why not exchange it for something you need? Perhaps you need a watch Well, some person may have two watches, but only needs one Maybe he will gladly exchange it for one of your cameras Read the Exchange Column in Bee Want Ads today. It will save money for you C