Evening star., 1896-11-14

The ground hands are the heavy labor
ers of the gang. digging holes for the poles,
and dragging the poles. which are strewn
under sheds at intervals all along the line,
to their proper places to be elevated by the
pole raisers." who are experts in this
" ork, although they may know nothing of
the duties OF the linemen. The men who
place the poles i'll position must be climb
ers. for it is their business to nail tine
cross-arIns to the poles, after the poles
have been placed vertically. These extra
workmen are only taken along on re.
pairing expedition. however. when it is
known that there are poles down along the
line. Otherwise, the gang is made up en-.
tirely of linemen.
One Wire Mt a Time.
When the storms injury to the system
has been so general that the greater num-
Der of a company's wires are down, the
chief lineman does not attempt to get all
Of the wires running over the same poles in
working order as he goes along. If the
poles carrying five wires from Washington
10 Baltimore are down at intervals, he, of
course, has to raise or renew them. This
done, he. directs all of his own energies and
those of his gang to getting one of the
wires In working shape. letting the other
four wires remain in their broken condition
until this task is accomplished.
This was dc lie when the September storm
laid low every one of the wires between
this city and Baltimore. The linemen de-
voted themselves exclusively to the patch
ing up of one wire, and then repaired the
others in more leisurely fashion, If any of
the work performed by field linemen can
be called leisurely. In order to get one wire
In operating condition between two points,
the wire Is often simply strung without
being attached. along the poles for the
time being. When the crush is over the
field linemen repair it in the regular fash
ion.
1t looks simple enough to climb a tele-
! graph pole by means of the pole-clutcnes
which hnemen strap to their legs Wash
inston folks had chance to see a good
deal of this pole climbing when the local
telegraph and telephone linemen were
making their repairs in the city after the
September Storm and because of the facil-
ity with which the linemen did it, a
ubiquitous Star reporter heard a good many
young men express the belief that they
could do 1t the first attempt without
half trying. and with one hand tied behind
! their backs. They were mistaken.
Difficult to Learn.
1t is difficult. painful and exhaustine
feat to Climb pole by means Of the pole
clutches. 1t takes long time to acquire
the art, and there are many degrees of pro-
hciency in doing IL even among the linemen
themselves. The novice who attempts 1t
discovers upon trying to take the first up
ward step, that the clutch on the inside of
his instep has no more Srasp:ng power than
the runner of a skate. 1t requires dis
tinct knack to dig the spur into the pole
SO that it will sustain the weight of the
climbers body.
The novice would also find that his first
ascending step would cause sharp thrill
of pain to run from the instep Of the foot
In use up along his spine to the top of his
mead. The pain would be particularly felt
ut the point of the straps contact with the
leg. The pressure of the straps against the
leg is SO great that the circulation is soon
stopped. and linemen suffer greatly from
this. When they ascend to the top of a
pole not supplied with cross-arms they have
to hold themselves in position while doing
their repairing by driving both clutches
into the POLE when the cutoff circulate
causes their legs to Sleep
They have to he extremely careful in
coming down under such circumstances.
The climbing of a lineman is dangerous
when ne Is WORKING on rotten pole. The
decayed wood offers little or no resistance
10 the grasp OF his clutches. and when he
does obtain good foothold the wood Il