Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1886-12-02
A stoker.s Life.

Passengers on an ocean steamer
know little about the lives fthe stok-
ers, who shovel coal into the ships
furnaces. Crossing overin the Ceph-
alonia OF the Cunard Line this sum-
mer," says a correspondent, II was
leaning on the starboard bow one
evening, when black figure came out
of some hole which leads to the dark
regions below the decks, and leaned
over the rail near me.
"He looked like an imp from the
kingdom OF Pluto. He had on an
| indescribable suit of clothes, if it may
be called q suit, and he was actually
dripping with black sweat.
"rhere was something very mourn
full and yet resigned in the mans face,
whose red eyes looked out from their
sooty framework like two partially
extInguished Goals.
1--WE were soon chatting freely; that
is to say, / asked questions, and he
answered, with aslight foreign brogue,
which | shall not attempt to repro
duce. He told me he was one of the
eighteen or twenty fremen, and had
just come upto get breath ola
"'How much coaldo this ship burn
in a day.
"'Well, sir, about eighty ton. If we
forced her to go fifteen knots an hour,
as she is built to go, it would take
nearly twice that. Some of the New
York steamers burn two hundred tons
a day
"1t must behard work. Your work,
| mean
"Yes, sir (modestly). NO man
knows how hard till he tries it, SIR
"How many hours a day do you
have to shovel?'
"'Well. SIR, goes onat four o'clock
tomorrow mornin' an works till
eight bells, eight O'Clock, you under
stand. That's four hours. Then |
comes up to breathe an get bite OF
somethin', an the second gang goes
on for four hours. They knocks off,
an the third gang goes on. That
brings me on agin at eight bells, four
O'Clock in the afternoon. You see, !
puts in eight hours a day, four hours
at a time
ait must be hot down there?
"lt's an awful place, sir. One hun
dred and forty degrees where / work,
raking out ashes. Takes a young
man to stand that, sir
81 looked at him closely. He could
not have been over twenty-five.
"'You must get terribly thirsty.
What do you drink
"'Nothin' but water. Three or four
quarts. Sometimes we puts a piece
OF ice in it. Not often, though. You
see 'twoqlGn't be safe
How much pay do you get for
this work?'
"'Well, sir, the c. Company, il /
do say it, does better by us than any
other company. Wegets four pun six
teen about twenty-four dollars a
month
THAT isn't much to support afam-
iIy.'
"'You're right. sir. Most OF us don't
have families. I've got one, though,
an my wife an little girl we've sick
when left Liverpool
az couldn't get. him to talk much
after this. and finally he moved away
toward the forecastle, saying, as he
went, Good night, sir Perhaps he
wanted to think by himself of his
wife and child, for it is entirely posi-
Bile even in this world of social dis.
tinctions for a stoker to have emo
lions and affections.
at Is said that stoker on an
ocean steamer wears out in six years,
though he may possibly live two years
more If he is a very strong, rugged
young man when he begins. All at
tempts thus far to substitute machin.
cry for manual labor in filling the
furnaces have been failures. Heaven
help the stoker, and give us all more
sympathy for him and others like
him."