The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1883-02-02
TRADES THAT ARE FATAL.
How Insurance Mon Regard Certain Avo-
cations.

were daily engaged in certain almost
fatal trades.
"There are many occupations" said
the insurance man, chat are specially
dangerous { 1 use the word in contrad-
istinction to the term unhealthful) to
human life. 1 mean such occupations
in which accidents are likely to happen,
if extraordinary care is not used.
Those workmen who in painting the
houses have to stand on suspended
stage, hanging often by single rope,
literally carry their lives in their hands.
Masons and bricklayers engaged in the
erection of high buildings stand in i'm
minent danger of their lives. Sailors,
fishermen, pilots, engineers, drivers of
locomotives and car drivers all pursue
dangerous occupations and live every
moment, as it were, with the risk of
being killed; but it is not to these dam
gerous employments 1 refer when L
speak of those that come under the
head of unhealthy ones. There are
trades in which thousands are getting
their livings that are absolutely fatal
in themselves"
"And are these fatal trades, as you
call them, essential to the demands of
modern civilization ?"
"There's the rub. Let me tell you
that these baneful, pernicious trades
which undermine the health of the
workers to such an alarming degree,
swelling the death rate and filling our
cemeteries, are almost all not merely
essential, but really indispensable to
the welfare of the public"
"In a word, you mean that there are
useful vacations, in which men,
women and children are employed, that
are detrimental to health, and shorten
life?"
"That is so. / would call them
deadly industries. Factory life at the
best is but poor affair, but when the
work is Notwithstanding, what fear
full thing to consider"
"Will you refer specially to some
of the trades which you deem I'M
healthy?"
"Well, there are the workers in brass
and copper. The artisans employed in
this trade actually suffer from slow
poisoning, living life of hardship,
sickness and disease until nature ref
uses any longer to put up with the ter
rible injustice and demands a reckon
ing. Brass and copperworkers suffer
in health, and die victims to their trade.
The factories in which brass and cop
per are filed, turned and worked, are
dirty places as rule. In addition the
atmosphere is heavily charged with
particles of metal dust, which float in
the air, penetrate the lungs, and de-
stroy in an insidious manner the bodies
of the unfortunate workmen who must
constantly inhale it. This metal-poi-
soned air enters and permeates the
human system so thoroughly as to color
its secretious and perspiration. The
proof that the blood of these workmen
is vitiated may be found in the fact
that the operatives thus exposed get
their linen worn next the person
stained with greenish color, and when
heated, green beads of perspiration issue
from the pores Of their skin. That
their throat and saliva are perniciously
affected goes without saying. The
blood of such persons is poisoned to
that degree that their bruises, cuts and
wounds ulcerate and are healed with
dHiculty.
"You draw an awful picture" said
the reporter.
"Here is case; a young man with
ruddy cheeks, bright eyes and buoyant
movements, full of health and manly
vigor, held for some years the position
of foreman in brass cannon-lock lac
tory. His health failed him; he was
victim Of blood poisoning, the result
of his deleterious employment, lie
never recovered his health, for the
fatal dust had penetrated his system,
and corrupted his blood. He left the
factory, Travelled, tried change of air
and new life, but even the best me-
dical skill was powerless to restore his
health. There was no remedy which
could dislodge the fatal deposit nor
purify the vital current of his body.
He fingered for years, his existence a
living death, and finally went down to
the grave in the prime of his manhood,
amartyr to his deadly craft, leaving