Los Angeles daily herald., 1876-01-01

below the pumps and breathe freer,
and at last we are at the bottom.
Here is
A MOTLEY GROUPE
Some are pushing cars along the
tramway, some shoveling, some rails
ing timber, and each keeping indus
triously at his task. Many of the men
are stripped to the waist and the per-
spiration flowing from every pore.
Others are reclining in out out of the
way corners tanning themselves in the
vain effort to catch full breath. The
air is very bad, so that the candles dis
posed along the sides of the tunnel
burn but dimly. Others which we
carry to light us along our precarious
path are eXtinguished altogether and,
after lighting them again and again,
we give over the effort "a utterly USE
less. Cinnamon are employed alto
eether for eXcavating, and white men
attend to raising and fitting the tim
bers. The Chinese gangs are superin-
tended ny white men. We visited
both ends of the opening, climbing up
into the long close headings and
ANb OUh W
Completely; nor was our sense of Sc
curity strengthened when We peered
up into an opening from which mass
of earth the size of small house had
caved in few days previously. 1t
seems that the men had run into
he'd of quicksand and hence the acci-
mt. After spending nearly an hour
Il the inspection of the work we as
ended to the surface and were glad
enough to breathe the fresh air again.
our clothing was wet through with
perspiration and the damp of the tun-
mel. How men can endure daily toll
in such place is a mystery which we
are unable to solve. Some of the poor
fellows do fall by the wayside and un-
dergo long siege of fever as result
of the dampness and exposure. More
than one of them is brought to the
Los Angeles Hospital and never leaves
the place alive. AS a general thing
however we may say that the men
enjoy
A FAIR IMMUNITY FROM DISEASE AND
ACCIDENT.
Taking company of fifteen hundred
men anywhere they will be subject to
sickness and casualties, and 1he av-
erage would be but little less perhaps
than it is among the force of men en-
ployed at the tunnel. The white men
work twelve hours of the day and the
Cinnamon eight. They go on In shifts
and thus keep the work under head
way night and day. Only the best
class of men are employed among the
white laborers and they receive good
wages, averaging 81 90 per day and
board. There are some men at work
as day laborers down in the tunnel
who are prepared to fill almost any
social position. The Cinnamon re-
ceive ST 20 per day. The company
lodges, boards and provides for all of
its employees. In continuous line
over the mountains from one end of
the work to the other the cations are
dotted with temporary houses and
tents in which the men live. They
are furnished excellent farewell
cooked and served up in a good cleanly
mgnner. There are five different
cgmps, supplied altogether with fif-
teen saloons. Messrs. Sissen, Wallace
& Co. have quite an extensive store,
which among other branches of trade
supplies provisions for the Chinese
force. Subsequently we visited
THE SOUTHERN END
OF the tunnel in company with Mr..
Frates, the Superintendent. The ex-
cavators have penetrated here to the
depth of eleven hundred feet and the
work goes bravely on. 1t is expected
that the workmen on this end will
connect with those in the South end
of Incline No. 5 about 1.-THE middle OF
February next. AT the rate in which
the work is progressing throughout,
the Superintendent thinks that it will
be finished within the prescribed
time or by July, 1876.
THE TRACK
Has been laid the full distance from
San Fernando to the mouth of the tun-
mel and trains now run through from
Los Angeles to this point where sta
ton will soon be established. The
ack-laying was conducted under the
of Mr.. S. T. Harris, q
brother of the General Superintend-
ent of Construction for the Southern
Pacific Road and a resident of Los
At one time Mr.. Harris had
225 men at work in his force. The
track is all laid of steel rails and il
of the best material and construction
THE ENTIRE FORCE
Employed by the company numbers
about fifteen hundred men, classified
as follows: 1000 Cinnamon, $50 me-
chanics, 60 wood choppers, 80 or 40
cooks, Is teamsters, s blacksmiths,
messengers, etc, etc. The men in
charge of the work are ]. b. Harris,
General Superintendent of Construc-
tion; Fred. Frates, superintendent in
charge; L. f.. Bartlett, Master Me-
chanic; S. j. Davis, Superintendent of
Construction; Col. Gray, Chief Engi-
neer for the road; VIM. Lamby, Engi-
neer in charge; S. T. Harris, Superin-
tendent of track-laying.
We cannot close this article without
expressing
OUR THANKS
to Mr.. Frates, Mr.. Koons and indeed to
all whom we met at the tunnel for
their uniformly kind aud cOnsiderate
treatment. We are also indebted to
4 e. n y 1..