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.