tldr; read and understand what you're signing before you sign it. Then, too, they would swindle you with the contract--and how was a poor man to understand any

tldr; read and understand what you're signing before you sign it. Then, too, they would swindle you with the contract--and how was a poor man to understand anything about a contract? It was all nothing but robbery, and there was no safety but in keeping out of it. And pay rent? ... So long as they paid, however, they had nothing to fear ... -- Upton Sinclair, The Jungle, 1906