Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1889-12-07

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
lineman has to strain his eyes to see
clearly that he does his work right.
Besides, it 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
er among aerial wires, as finally he
touches the earth again. I'm glad"
he goes on, 'for now know that for
d dozen hours or so l 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, year ago
we didn't mind it much, but now we
seldom begin a 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 1 tell you they have made
US men rather nervous. We always
knew we had hard life, but we kind
or 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 linemen?"
"Oh, just the same as men get to be
engaged in any thing that is perilous.
A young man hasn't had a chance to
get some safe, pleasant trade; he
wants work, and he takes the first
thing that comes his way. 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. l
got job, just the same as lots, yes,
most linemen, got started-in hand
hing the reels of wires or helping the
men that strung them on the poles.
was a groundman-that's what they
call 'em-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 us 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, l worked along for some months
and never went up pole. But l knew
l could do it, for there wasn't a tree
anywhere around my town that l
couldn't get up along with any other
boy. and without being boosted,
either. So one Sunday lot of us
ground men were talking about climb
ing-we were boarding at a 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 a fellow dared me to
go up pole. 1t was big one, and
the ground all around was stony, so
that a fall would have been serious;
but put on a pair OF climbers and
sailed up that pole as slick as the fore
man could have done it. That's what
made me a lineman. The foreman
heard there was a grOundman in the
gang that could go up apole, and next
time he had to recommend some fell
lows for promotion l was one of those
he named. So here | am, going up
poles and fussing around with wires.
How did ! learn what to do with the
wires? Oh, from watching the line
men whenever as a groundman l had
the chance. It isn't hard work just TO
repair or change wires; the difficult
part is in the having to do it so high
up in the air with such an awfully in
secure footing. Sometimes a wire is
slack; then all there is to do is to pull
it taut and fasten it. Perhaps line
has got out of place and crosses an
other. The current is spoiled then,
and we have to straighten the wires so
that each will be independent of the
other. Or may be there is a piece of
bad wire somewhere. We find it out
and cut it down, and then put in new
stretch and splice it at each end. None
of these things is very hard nor re-
quires much expert knowledge. Still
a lineman doesn't get them all at once.
Generally he begins on easy work.
The first thing he has to know how to
do is to climb d pole. Then when he
gets there he must know just what to
do. Some groundmen learn to climb
a pole, but there they stop. Perhaps
it's because they don't know how to
work in wire even a little bit, or may
be it's because they get nervous and
are so ratified that it takes too long for
them to get through a simple Job. "
The lineman struck an important
subject when he spoke nervousness.
Many men can tell just what ought to
be done with the wires, and could do
the work if it were to be done on the
ground. They fail utterly, though,
when the job must be done on the
cross-piece of stick of timber as high
as a mast. The successful linemen do
not drink. They say that even little
liquor makes them unable to stay on
high cross-piece. Their legs are
Bhaky, and sometimes they drop their
tools It's dizzy work under all cir
eumstances. But when the nerves are
affected and a man is dizzy, too, the
combination is more than he can stand
Some cnmnanies will not engage a