Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1882-11-18

man who went from crowded BIZ :
ling city toa quiet country place, but
could not sleep because it was so pain
fully still. He needed the rush aud
roar to llll his senses to their accus.
toured rest.
My family and I enjoyed rare
privilege the other day. A friend who
is in an important Office of the National
Tube Works Company came to let me
know that he could get pass for us to
visit the works. We arranged as to
time and, duly equipped with the au-
thority, he led us through the vast es-
Enlistment. 1t is impossible for us to
describe the scenes presented TO us so
as to give an accurate view. | am not
technically informed ON the processes Of
manufacture Jr on the names and rela-
tions of the various parts Of the intri-
cate and extensive machinery, and
none but an expert could tell the whole
story. But at least this is true: we
found acres (6fteen am told) lying
along the Monongahela river, occupied
with the large buildings and yards of
the works. Twenty-six hundred hands
are under employment and pay at
present, the concern running all day
and all night, except Sundays, by ex-
change of service. l hear that the
rolling mill turns out about one hun.
dred and fifteen or twenty tons of sheet
iron per day, which is at once sent into
the tubing department and made into
pipe of all sizes, from an eighth of an
inch to sixteen inches in width. On
last Saturday the tracks of the yard
were so completely blocked up with
trains of loaded tubing that they could
not be cleared, and one of my elders,
who has charge there, was at work all
, night, | believe, and failed to reach
forenoon service because of it. He
says there were over one hundred cars
, crowded into all available space, with
immense weight of tubing aboard,
t which could not find locomotive force
, to send it off to points Of destination.
. We saw the men making the tubing
5 from the point where the pig irondrop'
into the pudding furnace until the com.
/ pleted pipe comes out of the vat of as
phaltum, and lies dry and black anC
shiney before the outside door. Wha
furnace fires were there, what stream!
e of molten metal, what masses of insult
. ferably heated iron, what huge ma
). chimes for Eliminating and adapting thu
t immense thicknesses to right measure
ments, what curious processes of weld
: ing the parts together, and temperinl
and forming the tube to right hardness
}, How those men and boys could stanC
It the fearful heat, the horrid grease anC
t CRIME, end the strain upon muscle
= brain and nerve do not know. Ye
the work goes on day by day, weel
r. after week, necessarily. Some of tn
n men amidst it are earnest, true chris
It tians, walking worthily before thei
e fellows, while Others are as bad il
- morals as bad can well be. No soone
!. are these released from labor than the
d 20 at once to hunt the curse of life
!, whisky, and spend the hard earning
II which their wives and children need O
At the accursed drink. Many an interest
ing thing | saw in this wide and whir
ling scene of mechanic art and activity
but none SO full of interest as the d
rectiug minds and energies of the me
and youths whose brain and Drawn al
!" taxed to the utmost in the productio
l of those uncounted tons of hollow wal
~ for merely mechanical uses.
Z But my pen has run away with N
Ut on this subject, and am not nearl
u done. Yours,
\" M. B. DEWITT.
80