BENEFITS OF AMERICAN LIFE
James T. Farrell
T
AKISS FILLIOS
was a strong shepherd boy from the moun–
tains of Greece. His hard-working mother saved up enough
money to pay his steerage fare to America where the streets
were paved with gold, where there were buildings as big as
mountains, where all the women dressed like princesses, and all
the men had their pockets lined with money, where every boy
had a bicycle, and every man and woman owned an automobile
and all the houses were like palaces. At the age of thirteen,
Takiss, large for his age, arrived in a paradise known as
Chicago.
He was met at the train, a scared and bewildered boy, by
a relative who took him to a home on South Halsted street.
Takiss was immediately employed by that relative in a candy
store. Quickly, he discovered what it meant to live in paradise.
It meant working from six in the morning until six in the evening,
and until later on weekends. It meant sweeping out the store,
washing dishes and windows, polishing, arranging, mopping,
running errands. It meant attending night school to learn
English when he could scarcely ,keep his eyes open, .and where
he was frequently laughed at for his blundering efforts. It
meant walking along, living in the midst of dirty streets where
coal dust, soot, smoke, and the poisonous fumes of automobiles
choked his nostrils, and made him cough. . It meant loneliness,
with the pain of memories of his homeland of Grecian moun–
tains, memories of his mother, and of the long slow days with
the sheep.
For a long period, Takiss was a very lonely boy, remem–
bering that homeland of his, and the games he had played with
the other boys, remembering the smile and kiss of his old mother,
remembering always. And he was afraid of America, and of
that tremendous paradise known as Chicago. He worked dog–
gedly day after day, earning five dollars a week, and from that,
savmg a small pittance which he deposited in an immigrants'
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