The evening times., 1896-04-16
WORKERS HIGH N the lIR
Fearless Men Who Labor Way
Above the Earth.
BRAVE HORRIBLE DEATHS
The Peril Attending the Work of
Placing the Capstone on the Wash
ingtOn Monument t-Precun tiOns
Taken to Protect the Men-Steeple
Jacks Are Scarce.

| city postoffice sometime and gaze upwards
at the mansard roof Of that huge iron and
! granite pile. Wriggling and crawling
| around over the iron trestles you Will see
| dozens of workmen who from that height
seem like realizations OF Gulliver's dreams
of the Lilliputians.
Although with nearly two hundred feet of
| space between them and the the ground,
| hey climb about as fearlessly and with as
much ooolness as though they were tread
| ing on board walks at an ordinary eleva
| ton. A single slip would send them head
| long to a horrible dea tn, but, although they
| have had several examples of that since
the construction OF the building began,
| they apparently never contemplate an ac-
cident.
| The new city postoffice is considered the
! ostdangerous structure ever erected here,
and on il are employed some OF the most
skillru! and daring workers in midair. Mr..
P. H.. Mclaughlin, the inspector of iron
and stone work, was one OF the superin'
;endents of construction on the Wash
:ngton Monument. and is the man who on
That stormy 9th of December, 1854, placed
| N position the big capstone and the alum
mum tip. Nearly all the men under him
nave Istu "iuC SApeiitbtVs
aone OF them have ever accomplished such
feat as his.
THE STONE CAP.
Putting the capstone in place was made
he occasion or great celebration. Presi-
lent Arthur and several members of his
Cabinet were to have bee present on the
scaffold, 500 feet above ground, but
owing to the stormy weather and the e1-
treme cold they remained away.
Gen. Casey and number of army Officers
and other prominent people were there.
however, and watched the work. \ scaf-
fold had been erected around the monument
at the base of the pyramid, Just below the
port holes, and another Il few feet from
The top.
The stone was hauled up on the inside
and showed through the window upon
The first scafrold, from whence it was
swung by a derrick to the higher one. MIR.
Mclaughlin and the party stepped through
he window aud ascendcd a ladder TO the
| top scaffold.
The wind was Blowing terrific gale and
it was raining quite heavily, but in spite OF
-hese discomforts they went on with the
work A bed OF cement was laid for the
-tCeptltU Cl lllt stOue anu WdS
set in motion.
Slowly the big keystone. four feet high
and almost as thick at the base, swung out
INTO the air, aud, swa wing hither and thither
n the fierce wind it was raised above the
second scaffolding and pla ced into position.
The aluminium tip, about nine inches
nigh, was then put into position and Sc
cured and the pcrilous work was finished
None of the participants seemo,l to regard
I as particularly dangerous undertaking,
however. although of course every pre-
caution was taken to prevent an accident.
THE NETWORK PROTECTION.
The precautions taken in the construction
Of the Monument and other high structures
n those days were in marked contrast to
those taken now. While the Monument
was in course of construction a network Of
unusual strength, projecting eight feet
from the building. and running clear around
the shaft, was always kept within six feet
below tie men at work. soft wasinipossibIe
| for them TO fall off. Not Il single man was
even seriously hurt during the building OF
the Monument. from the laying OF the first
! stone TO Mr.. McLaugblin's finishing stroke.
On the postoffice building there have
| been four fatalities however. and an acci-
dent few days ago came near adding an
other to the list. One of the structural IRON
workers was walking across the trestle
near the big wooden traveller that ruHs
across to support the blocks on which the
! big trestles are baulcd up.
| When near the middle of the main roof
| be made nhsstep. and bis fello w-workmen
turned away their heads. expecting to see
d. "a,
IN the steel beams nearly 200 feet below
Blythe rarest goodluck. lio wevcr, he thre W
out his arms in falling. and caught hold OF
suspended rope dangling from a beam
above him. His fall gave him sufficient i'm
petus 10 swing over about twenty feet ont o
The traveier. but the rope was slipping
| through his hands when he landed iG safety.
The most horrible death that has ia ken
place seine the beginning of the construction
Of the new city postOffice building was that
of young Beach, who fell from the seventh
story last summer. His death was largely
due to his own carelessness, although the
weak temporary flooring had something to
do wifi it. He walked out on the end OF q
very thin board and il broke with him.
Before he had time 10 save himself in any
wayne was piunging headlongd down through
maze of beams, bounding from one to an
other on every floor. He struck the first
floor, and hung across a beam like Il rag
There was not bone in his body that was
not crushed and broken by the fall.
Men engaged in work of that kind in
variably become reckless, and most fire.
quently the accidents that happen to them
are due to their own careIessness. Prac
tice has made them think no more of walk
:ng over an iron beam two or three hundred
feet above the ground than it would an Or
binary man of walking across a board walk.
THE sTEEPLE JACKS.
In nearly every city of any size there
are three or four riggers, or ''stecple jacks"
as they are popularity called. These are
men whose work is to climb steeplcs,
spires, Tag poles and high buildings. They
can turn themselves into painters, carpcn-
tiers, timers. roofcrs, or almost any sort
Of mechanic the occasion demands.
Probably the most dangerous piece of
construction in architecture is a church
spire, and it is for such work that these
riggers are required. There is a workman
among the iron workers on the city post
office who for years made a business of
painting steeples and flag poles. lie has
climbed to dizzy heights on the smallest
possible support, but in all the years he
was at work he never had an accident.
In fact, accidents among those who work
high up in the air are astonishingly inrre-
quent. Mr.. Mclaughlin has been engaged
upon that sort OF construction since the
war, and besides his work on the Monument
built the Ascension Church. the Ne W avail
Observatory, and several other difficult
pieces of architecture. 4 In all his experience,
hQvevIr The Onlv accidnnfs ho h.,s axra.