midnight
Then , too , Elzbieta had heard something about a chance to scrub floors in Durham 's offices and was waiting every day for word . In the end it was decided that Jurgis should go downtown to strike out for himself , and they would decide after he got a job . As there was no one from whom he could borrow there , and he dared not beg for fear of being arrested , it was arranged that every day he should meet one of the children and be given fifteen cents of their earnings , upon which he could keep going . Then all day he was to pace the streets with hundreds and thousands of other homeless wretches inquiring at stores , warehouses , and factories for a chance ; and at night he was to crawl into some doorway or underneath a truck , and hide there until midnight , when he might get into one of the station houses , and spread a newspaper upon the floor , and lie down in the midst of a throng of `` bums '' and beggars , reeking with alcohol and tobacco , and filthy with vermin and disease . So for two weeks more Jurgis fought with the demon of despair . Once he got a chance to load a truck for half a day , and again he carried an old woman 's valise and was given a quarter . This let him into a lodging-house on several nights when he might otherwise have frozen to death ; and it also gave him a chance now and then to buy a newspaper in the morning and hunt up jobs while his rivals were watching and waiting for a paper to be thrown away .