The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1881-10-04
HOT AS HADES.

The Searching Health Which Roll
ing Mill Hands Sizzle and
Sweat.
rh.cas.. I Tribune.
\ Tribune reporter has by chance
made Il discovery which, though il
may be of no practical Importance,
can be written about to the enlishien-
ment of many. AMI possibly to the
e.lification OF sGme. Tie has solved
the question aS II what Is the hotties
place this side Of Hades-that i, the
hottest place where men have To live
and work. The particular season of
the year when the place in question
asserts itself i, of course. in the sun
ny summer time. when the thermome
lcrs OF ordinary cool localities are al
most too short 10 let the mercury
climb "a high Is il wants In. This
hottest of ali not placed in the sum-
MGR time Is no., a. would he natural
Is supposed, the local department OF
the Chicago daily newspaper. where
tie reporters sweat. and swear, and
grind out copy" nor is iJ in ~
Louis. or the har fell. or the laun-
dry. or The kilchen-ii i in the roll
Ing mills. None but the men who
have worked in these great hives of
human industry, among immense
furnaces and molten and scething
metal, have any conception OF the
heat which mill hand has To endure
while N his hard and tedious labor
lie who mop.s up IN irrigated coun-
tcGance behind an Office desk. or she
vino irons shirt while sprinkling it
with the perspiration that drips from
her own nose and chin, would create
Il comparatively cool current of air
nv promenading through a rolling
mill.
The reporter made these discoveries
b: happening 10 stroll through the
acres of buildings used by the North
Cnicago Rolling mill company, and
by chatting with few of the 500
and mere men who work about tine
premises, AMI vet somehow or other
do not melt. The heat Gf the sum
mer Is over row, but some idea was
obtained of what the lnen handling
frey ingots and melted metal hal
gone through with. They called last
saturday cool and comfortable day
for work, but the visitor, after short
time spent among the workers. felt
that only by a days soinurn in an ice
box could he be restored To normal
temperature.
From the time the ore goes into the
blast furnace until the rail Is sawed
and Strengthened, the men who have
handled it through all its different
changes have breathed and lived i'm
an atmosphere hotter than 999 out of
every l,0O0eyer even walked through.
Ii Is no wonder, then, that many of
the rolling mill lahorers succumb 10
the sultry, broiling AMI murky atmoS-
phere, for many of them did surren.
der to the heat during the summer,
throw down their iron implements OF
toll, kick off their heavy, hobnailed
shoes and in bed give oyertasked
nature an opportunity to restore Itself.
The public takes no thought of, for it
does not know, what these men suf-
fered from the heat. The superinien-
dent said that the mill hands, as Il
whole, had held out in good shape
through the hot days, but one of the
head. "rollers" said that "a good
many of the men had TO give up"
OF curse no one can say that these
laborers are not well paid for what
they endure, their wages ranging
from 81 to as high as s14 day, but
in the summer time their money is
earned at the risk of health. Usually
when a mill hand "keels over" it is
not case of sunstroke, but sheer col
lapse Of nature from over-exertion.
But what else is more natural, when
they have been known to perspire so
freely as to be able to take off their
shoes and pour the accumulated
perspiration out of them in an actual
stream when every 'puddler," and