The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-09-19

man. just before his exit. is a type not de-
void of interest. He is often young fell
low with some other trade that he follows
all the year round except during the few
weeks of summer, when he takes vaca-
ton, as it were, secures the contract for
providing the city with certain amount
of stone at a ridiculously low figure coll
lects his children and his hammers and
sets forth for the hills. He is more fire.
quently the head of a family of five or six
by the time he is thirty years old. The oc-
cupation OF breaking stone does not, as a
rule, appeal to the unmarried man. There
is a monotony in it which, to his yet I'M
disciplined patience, is not to say inviting.
If, as an exception, a stone-breaker is
single, he is on the Mark Tapley order of
temperament, has white hair and very red
cheeks, and walks with a slanting elias
ITCHY. In any case he is sure to be very
thin and bony. and his children, if he be
married, are like him For it takes but a
few days between the burning rocks and
the burning sky to reduce to perspiration
all the fat he or they may have had in the
beginning. He goes to work at or in
the morning and keeps it up till dark, with
an hours interval for dinner. His five or
six small boys, that follow him with I'M
failing regularity take more frequent rests
and jolly one another by walking unsteady
fences with reckless emulation or by
splashing in the water Of the creek. For,
although the rock used is usually found in
the hills, in rare instances it is taken out
of the beds of small streams that have
come near to drying in the summer heat.
passed one of these little fellows, sitting
quite alone on his pile of rocks on a very
hot day in August.
Aren't you hot?" 1 asked, as paused to
watch him at it.
mot much,'' cooking an eye at me from
under his big peaked straw hat He wore
nothing else except a ragged shirt and
pair of blue overalls.
You help your father, I SUPPOSED" said
I, interogatively.
yep. Dads up there If you want i'm,
indicating with his hammer another pile of
stone further up. This looked rather like
an invitation to move on, but / tarried.
Don't you get very tired sometimes?"
"No-aw," said he very contemptuously,
with another glance, and renewed ham,
mering.
whats to be done with all this stone
when you finish it?'
That was the open sesame He laid down
his hammer and gave me full history of
the case with the glibness of feed attor-
ney. He was very comical but very much
in earnest, as it was probably the first
time in ali his ten years that he had ever
been trusted with anything like business
knowledge or tools, and he felt the impor-
lance of it.
Paterfamilias is even more communica-
tive. He will tell you everything about
rock-breaking and mending streets, from
the number of square yards in load and
how many loads he can break after supper,
to the last quarrel between the Council and
the street commissioner. More he will tell
you when he was married, how many
children he has, where he lived before NOV
ing the last time, and even what he buys
in market and his favorite way of having
it dished up. Perhaps the large long ST.
lences- of the hills, broken only by the voice
of his hammer, have something to do with
this little extravaganza of loquacity, when
he finds an auditor. During the week he
tolls in jeans or faded brown, but on Sun
days he may affect even a suit of black,
with linen cuffs and a big cigar. Thus
bravely attired with his white straw hat
we'll pushed back and his shoulders well
hunched forward, he sallies forth to con-
template from distance the work he has
accomplished in the past week, with the
same pride that CLOVIS in the breast of the
owner of young orchard trees. Presently,
one or two small sons well be seen to fol-
low him. They likewise, stand viewing the
work hands on hips in unconscious imita-
ton of their father-though, as they prob
ably have not changed their jeans overalls
for anything more Sabbath-like. their att-
tude does not present SO much dignity.
Then, as the last baby totters forth to scan
the enterprise, he is picked up by pater-
familias and carried to the actual scene of
labor, with the rest following perseveringly
in the rear for, perhaps, the fourth time
in one day. After which, he is carried home
again, making all the noise he can by
beating two stones together-the nearest he
can come to the accomplishment of his
fathers speciality.
At home the stone-breaker is untdy and
relaxed. He never sits erect If he can help
it, though that may be from certain
spinal sensitiyeness born of long acquaint-
ance with the rocky hillside. He sprawls, he
leans, he lounges in soiled shirt sleeves on
the doorstep, on the cellar door, on the
curbstone, with his damp hair hanging in
lank spikes over his face and the inevitable
pipe or cigar in his mouth. But even then
his child is loyal and makes dirt pies in
the gutter by his side, or goes to sleep
against his knee as he smokes and the
evening gees on. And when the stone
breakers wife comes to put the little one
to bed, she is liable to get a. hearty and
resounding kiss along with him, that
makes her lot seem as satisfactory as
that of the fashiona BILE matron on the 9TH
er side of town, to say nothing of the envy
of the carpenters wife next door. If there
are sermons in stones for those who run
and read the humble soul who scans them
through all the long, hot silences while the
light lasts should find something even more
substantially refining 1t may be that he
does.
The average workman can break three
wagon-loads of rock day, allowing a
square yard of rock to the load. For this he
is paid perhaps, so cents a load; and If 9TH
ers of his family help him on fair moon
light nights, he may sometimes make even
So or $4 day while the work lasts, as in
the case which brought this subject to no.
tice AS it will take something like $50 loads
of rock to cover every square OF street lis
feet wide it will be seen that the work is
somewhat long and tedious. The stone
crusher would no doubt be quicker if not
so entertaining, and it is bound to come
One of these big machines costs from So, 500
to ST. 500, and If a city owns one it is an
advantage, of course, to every one but the
man who makes his living with his ham,