Upton Sinclair

“ At intervals she would emit a howl like a tortured animal, and her brood would take it up in various timbres. Hal stopped to listen to the sounds, but Mary put her fingers into her ears and fled into the house. Hal followed her, and saw her fling herself into a chair and burst into hysterical weeping. And suddenly Hal realised what a strain this terrible affair had been upon Mary. It had been bad enough to him--but he was a man, and more able to contemplate sights of horror. Men went to their deaths in industry and war, and other men saw them go and inured themselves to the spectacle. ”

“ But women were the mothers of these men; it was women who bore them in pain, nursed them and reared them with endless patience--women could never become inured to the spectacle! Then too, the women's fate was worse. If the men were dead, that was the end of them; but the women must face the future, with its bitter memories, its lonely and desolate struggle for existence. The women must see the children suffering, dying by slow stages of deprivation.
Hal's pity for all suffering women became concentrated upon the girl beside him. ”

“ He looked at the girl, who sat staring before her, bent forward, her arms hanging limply over her knees.
"Mary," he said, "you must go away from here! It's no place for a tenderhearted girl to be. It's no place for any one!" ”