Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1889-11-28

man displays exceeding care in select
ing his position and in managing not
to touch certain wires.
AT last he descends from the cross
pieces and stands upon the flag walk.
But he has no time to waste, and is
soon of to another pole, up that, at
work in the maze. then down again
and OIL to another pole. Then, per-
haps, his work takes him to the roof
Oh a house, and he must climb careful
~ over the slanting tin or slate, be
careful about clumsy scuttle holes, and
often support himself delicately at the
caves, five, six, perhaps eight stories
above the ground. Soitgoes with him
until six o'clock p. m. and at that hour
the regular work of the day ceases
This Monday it is hard to keep the
work up until six o'clock p. m, for it
is dark, and even at five o'clock the
llneman has to strain his eyes to see
clearly that he does his work right.
Besides, 1t is raining even now, and the
poles and cross-pieces are slippery. A
false step, an incautious movement, a
weak thrust of the spur into the tall
stick. and the lineman would fall to the
stones below.
well, | am glad there's one more
days work DONE" remarks the work.
or among aerial wires, as finally he
touches the earth again. I'm glad"
ne goes on, "for now know that for
dozen hours or so won't be running
any more chances of accident than men
in other kinds of work. Ordinarily we
linemen don bother much about think
ing of the danger we are in on the poles
and on housetops. That is, a year ago
we didn't mind it much, but now we
seldom begin days work without
wondering whether it is'going to be
our turn next to slip and fall or touch
a deadly wire as Feeks did. You see
it's been pretty nearly within the last
year that the fatal accidents have hap
pened, and | tell you they have made
us men rather nervous. We always
know we had hard life, but we kind
err got used to it. There didn't use to
be so much danger Of getting a death
shock. Now the danger has in
creased.
"How do men get to be linemenp"
ooh, just the same as men get to be
engaged in any thing that is perilous.
A young man hasn had chance to
get some safe, pleasant trade; he
wants work, and he takes the first
thing that comes his way. l lived in
small town up the State, and had
been doing various things. A tele-
graph company came along and want
ed me to help put up new line. |
got job, just the same as lots, yes,
most linemen, got started-in hand
hing the reels of wires or helping the
mon that strung them on the poles ]
was groundman-that's what they
call 'cm-and did my work all right.
None of us groundmen had to climb
poles. The foreman wouldn't let us.
He said it was risky and the company
wouldn't let lis go up the pole and fall
down and smash our heads. They
didn't care for us or our getting hurt
but they did care about having to pay
damages. That's what was the matter
| Well, | worked along for some months
and never went up pole. But l knew
| could do it, for there wasn't tree
anywhere around my town that
couldn't got up along with any Other
boy, and without being boosted
either. So one Sunday lot of II;
ground men were talking about climb
ing-we were boarding at q farm
house along the road where the line
was being built, and Sunday we didn't
work-and while we were talking
about skinning up trees and climbing
telegraph poles follow dared me tC
go up pole. 1t was big one, ant
the ground all around was stony, Sc
that a fall would have been serious
but l put on a pair OF climbers an(
sailed up that pole as slick as the fore
man could have done it. That's wha
made me n lineman. The foreman
heard there was a groundman in tn,
gang that could go up apole, and mex
time he had to recommend some fell
lows for promotion l was one Of thos,
he named. So here | am, going VI
poles and fussing around with wires
How did | learn what to do with tn,
wires? Oh, from watching the line
men whenever as groundman | hat
the chance. 1t isn't hard work just {,
repair or change wires; the Difficult
part is in the having to do it so higl
up in the air with such an awfully in
secure footing. Sometimes a wire i
slack; then all there is to do is to pull
! it taut and fasten it Perhaps lin
has got out of place and crosses an
other. The current is spoiled then
and we have TO straighten the wires S
that each will be independent of tn
other. Or may be there is piece @
bad wire somewhere. We find it on
and cut it down, and then put in a ne'
stretch and splice it at each end. Non
of these things is very hard nor re
quires much expert knowledge. Sti
a lineman doesn't get them all at oncs
Generally he begins on easy work
The first thing he has to know how
do is to climb pole. Then when h
gets there he must know just what {
do. Some groundmen learn TO CHM
pole, but there they stop. Perhar
it's because they don't know how
work in wire even little bit or ma
be it's because they get nervous an
, are so ratified that it takes too long fC
, them to get through simple Job"
: The lineman struck an importaI
subject when he spoke of nervousness
, Many men can tell lust what ought |