Evening star., 1897-07-31
ONLY SKILL COUNTS
The Danger Makes Little Difference
in the Matter Of Pay.
SOME VERY HAZARDOUS OCCUPATIONS
Always Plenty Of Men Who Are
Willing to Risk Their Lives.
IN AIR AND UNDER WATER

Written fer The Evening Star.
Workers In extra hazardous employ
ments, as a rule. do not receive pay ade-
quate to the apparent risks they run. II
the work, aside from the danger, is Of high
grade, the men are paid little more than
is called for by the same work under ordi-
nary conditions. There always are plenty
Of men who will take big risks for the
sake Of getting money, but they are not SO
many men skilled enough in their line TO
do satisfactorily the work for which the
danger is braved.
An enterprise just started in New York
harbor illustrates this. The first caisson
for the New York side of the new East
River bridge is ready for the men TO work
under compressed air in the underwater
chambers. These men will receive from
$1.15 to $2I5 day, the working hours be-
ing from eight at the start to six when
depth of over fifty-five feet is reached.
The caissonS are to be sunk sixty feet on
the New York side. At seventy-five feet
the air pressure IS considered high. The
Brooklyn caissons must go down ninety or
100 feet.
When these men once get into the COM
pressed aid chambers their labor consists
merely in shoveliEg mud, and, later, the
concrete.
In addition to the qualifications of a dirt
digger. says the contractor, all that is re-
CURED is a cool head. good judgment. care
and a sound physique. The contractor
even hedges on the last essential Men
with not the best of lungs have been great
ly benefited, he says, by working in cais-
sons.
CaissOn improvements.
1t is hoped, indeed it is expected, that no
lives will be lost in sinking the East River
bridge caissons. More than a quarter of a
century has elapsed since the Brooklyn
bridge caissons were sunk. involving the
death of several workmen. Since then the
advance in this department of bridge build
ing has been marked. Electric lights take
the place of oil lamps in Illuminating the
working chamber, and the elimination of
the sooty smoke is great advantage to
the workmen's health. Telephone comnu-
nication can be had with the chambers,
improved methods Of ventilating have been
devised. and the result should be the safe
guarding of human life.
The diver Is incline to regard the caisson
worker much as machiniSt would look
at a sewer digger. Divers pay varies, ac-
cordins to depths and the intricacy of the
job. From s. to So a day is a wide range
but the average wage probably is s.. A
diver must be a skilled mechanic. He is
not called upon to shovel. But, besides
being brave and cool enough to go down in
his armor, he must have the machinist's
skill to take apart and save such Of the
ships fittings as are wanted. Still more is
his mechanical knowledge called into use
II the sunken vessel is TO be raised.
A Divers Solitary Hours.
The depth to which diver go Is
about twenty fathoms, or 120 feet. At that
level the pressure is tremendous. 'rhe av-
erage depth in and about New York har-
bor is sixty feet, though occasionally 100
foot jobs in He'll Gate are offered. Yet the
1ov to fhot fc-
sen laborer'S, and the working day of the
former. at given depth. is shorter by
one-half than that Of the man in the cais-
son.
The caisson worker has the companion
ship of his fellows. The diver is alone.
Strange fish poke their noses around him,
AMI the dead men who sunk with the ship
peer at him with CLASSY eyes. For fear of
ENHANCEMENT of the air and signal lines,
the divers go down one at time. The
divers life is not necessarily short. OF the
100 divers in New York, there are not a
few who have been in the business for
twenty-five years. Not a divers life has
been lost in the vicinity of New York har-
Dor for ten or twelve years.
4 Sailors Risk.
From the depths to the heights of extra
hazardous employment is matter only of
emerging from the water and climbing a
steeple. Sailors do not consider Steepie
climbing any great feat.
Most Of the men who earn s25 for few
hours work in this way are ship riggers.
familiar with rope and tackle and high
stations. The rocking of the ship makes
the sailors task of reeving the signal
halyards in the main truck far more diff
cult than climbing a steeple. except that
in the latter case the tackle must be riggal
But the landlubber will often stare all day
at the man who is repairing a steeple-top,
and think it pretty risky work.
Ship riggers often are called upon to
climb flag poles to paint them, and in this
case stirrups are worn to aid in climbing
Frequently. too. ship riggers get calls from
country towns to put the top touches on a
church steeple. Repairs TO chimney tops
also are often made by riggers. This kind
Of work tS not constant. and the pay
though adequate for experienced men, Is
not enough to tempt outsiders to learn the
business.
Iron workers on the steel skeletons Of
sky-scrapers need steady nerves. There
is not the scaffolding on the twenty-fourth
story for the man who bolts the beams and
girders that the painter and the .nason
finds when he ascends. Yet the iron work
ers pay is the same when laboring on the
twenty-fourth story when he is on the
first floor. Three dollars a day is consid-
ered fair wages for him. If he isn't salts
fed. there are end Of men willing to
take the same risk that they may earn q
living.
Cripple Creek Gambling.
From the Nebraska State Journal.