The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1892-10-06
LIFE rs VERY CHEAP.
OCCUPATIONS THAT SHORTEN THE
LIVES or TolLERs.

Dangers to which Painters and Potters
Are Exposed--Lead Has Slain Its Thou
sands and Mercury Its Handreas--Ef-
feet Of Too Much silver ON q Man.
My lady delicately tracing embroid-
cry upon fine linen knows nothing and
cares less about the men who fashioned
the needle she holds in her tapering fin
gers. But these men shortened their
lives in the making Of it. Perhaps BY
the infinitesin.al fraction Of second for
that particular needle, but when they
they ground it and polished it they in
hailed into their lungs the invisible par
ticles of steel that flew from the whir-
ring stone Consumption is very COM
mon disease among needle makers.
Human life Is the cheapest thing on
earth. .How many lives viii it COST
is question that never enters into the
calculation OF architect. bridge builder,
manufacturer -of any one who supplies
the necessities OF the world, forwards
its progress or adds to its comforts.
Human life is the one raw material OF
which the crop never fails, in producing
which there are no strikes. And while
there are vast number of trades and
manufactures in their very nature dam
gerous to life, you cannot induce the
men who work at them to take up other
occupations. Not even the offer of
higher wages will tempt them, which
goes to show that man has as little re-
gard for his own life as any one else has
for it,
No need TO mold lead into bullets to
make it deadly. Workers of lead, house
painters. artists, gilders, calico printers,
| typefounders and typesetters, shot found
ers, potters and braziers will tell you
that So will the workmen who handle
vulcanized rubber, those who wrap
goods in tinfoil, even the fishmongers
who handle lead counters covered with
brine. Lead poisoning. next to alcoholic
poisoning, Is perhaps the commonest
toxic condition. Lead collie is almost
as prevalent as that other collie that
rouses the happy father and sets him to
pacing the floor with his squalling son
and heir.
When a man suffers with chronic
lead poisoning his digestion is disturbed.
| He has no appetite, and his skin usually
takes on q peculiar yellow hue. His
gums show a characteristic blue line,
which is sulphide of lead deposited
there. He has pains in his joints and
/ ofttimes paralysis. His paralysis usually
affects the extensor muscles of the hands
/ and> fingers, and SO produces what il
/ popularity called drop wrist" Once in
1 while lead poisoning affects the brain
A case is recorded where painter suf
fering from it sthought he saw wind
bags blown up to look like men,, and
other apparitions which made remarks
| to him and caused him u great deal o,
| anxiety. With all due Difference to the
| medical faculty. il would seem doubtful
| whether talk about wind bags blown
up to look like men" should be taken as
an evidence of insanity. There surely
are such things in real life.
Workmen employed at extracting GOLD
from its ores. those who silver mirrors
makers of barometers and thermometer,
have of course to live in an atmosphers
more or less impregnated with mercury
So do those who etch, who color the
finer sorts of wool and who take part ii
the manufacture of felt hats. In these
latter occupations the mercury is in tht
form Of its nitrate. Mercury Is the de
| light of every dentist whose heart il
really in his work Too much Of it sal
ivates man and makes his teeth droy
out, SO that mirror silverer is extremely
apt to 60 mumbling, toothless. through
life like o "lean and slippered panta
Loom
Photographers. makers of hair dye.