Arizona weekly enterprise., 1882-06-03

ed by OVerWOrk. lis lace was scanned with deep, stronsly-marked lines, such as professional athletes sometimes show after years of intense physical strain. There was dull, weary look in his sunken eyes. His hair was fecked with gray, and white stubble appeared on his cheeks and chin.
 "Perhaps you're 50?" said the visitor.
 "Tm 35," replied the fireman, with a bitter laugh, Out I've been at see in the fre-room for sixteen years"
 Then he went on : "You see they want young, strong men just in their prime. If they're too young or too old they can't stand the work. As soon as @ mans strength begins to fail he's thrown aside. They have no use for him. And the average life of fireman is forty years. Wedon't texpect people to understand what the work IS. They go to sea and sit on deck under an awning, flaming themselves and complaining of the heat. But under their feet in the fire room, with the thermometer some- times I'D to 175 degrees, we are shovel ing coal and raking the fires for very fife. There isn't minute to stop"
 "Phat's so," broke in another "Ive SS0u d t1lldu NtS3b lSt 6 CIId1tCO tO HI HID pipe and get the fireman next him to tend his furnace just for the minute 1t took to jam the tobacco in and strike match. And mans pretty busy when he cant find time to fill a pipe"
 "After tue men have signed papers," resumed the first speaker, "say for a months voyage to Mexico and back, there's no such thing as letting up. When fresh gang comes in, the en- gineer who goes on watch with them is bound to get as many turns of the shaft, perhaps sixty minute, as the engineer before him did, and if there's any falling off the fremen hear from him right away. The fires have to be 'raked' and 'sliced' and coal shoveled in every minute. The steam has to be kept up to the mark. and tine water-gauge watched. There's no time to think, and men have hardly breath to speak"
 "A mans got to go in for all he's worth, said anothsr. "Every vein and muscle end bone has to jumpits best"
 f'Don't men break down under the strain ?'
 Break down." with grim laugh. "Why, young fellow, in the sixteen years I've been at sea I don't know of a trip when haven't seen men fall fiat and half dead in the fire-roon. and there are few trips when haven't seen fire man die. Think of the heavy work a mans doing with the mercury up to 13C or 150 degrees, and no fresh air Men get overloaded. Their faces will grow pale as corpse, they Il stagger and drop their shoyels and tumble over on the coal. Then they're hoistsd out on deck and perhaps water dashed over them. But in the tropics therell be no air stir ring on deck. They'll be put into theiI hunks in the, steerage, and the doctor comes and they get medicine by law, fol
 every fireman pays 10 cents month to
 ward keeping up the medicine chest
 I've seen men get cramps and fever
 through drinking so much water. A nal
 will often drink four quarts in four hour
 and sweet itall rightout. When hegoe
 out he can wiring streams of water iron
 his clothes. On some steamers the,
 have ice water and oatmeal for the fire
 plen, But sometimes they don't hay
 the ice. I've often hoisted bucket II
 in the ventilating shaft to try to cool it
 and then drank the water lukewarm
 When a mans sick, or dies from over
 heating or cramps or fever, it's all th
 worse for the others. They have to q
 his work and theirs, and may be work si
 hours on stretch. Often a man is S
 tired that he can't eat or sleep when h
 comes out. What wages do we get fo
 this work? We've been getting $50
 month for coal-passers and $40 for fire
 men, and we struck lately for begga1l
 advance of $5. A man has to go in as
 coal-passer shoveliDg from the shoot
 first, and learn the frenlan's trade, for
 fireman has to learn about the steam an
 managing the fires.
 "There's never day off from tn
 time he leaves till he comes back. It 8 steady jump all the time. h port h has to rub up and work around the ma
 chinery. If he dies his family gets $d from our Charitable Union, but tn , steamship owners never make any pro
 vision for fremen. Perhaps he has ha dozen children, and out of his $+0 h has to pay $10 just for rent, 10 sa nothing of food or clothes, when singl men pay about 8 per week, or $20 } month, for board. How much do the
 have left?
 . "You must know that the pitching the vessel makes freman's work muc 7 harder Men are thrown backward an 5 forward and badly bruised and burned . coal is flying around, and sometime ] they have to stretch lfe-liDes acres. ! Nobody has any consideration for fire
 men. It's only an order, curse al , sometimes blow. When men com i out from their four hours work, perha,
 the engineer will throw them some ove. l alls and tell them to wash them. TT idea is to get the most work they ca out of the fremen in the shortest time
 and the work has to be done. There no such thing as shirking. Sometime } they get reasonably good food on boal ' ship, and sometimes they don't. Fir men used to have rations of rum to kec ) them up to their work, but they ga, l that up about six years ago, and now ? man can't get any kind of stimulan l Men die like sheep, and no notice : taken of them, except to make the otl l CTS work harder. And if they begin 1 t grow old the steamship owners WOE r have them. "-Nca0 York Tribune. .