The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1897-07-17
Hottest Business on Earth.

Hottest Business on Earth.
A temperature Of 100 degrees above zero.
the return Of which has driven thousands
from the city and has resulted In dealt
and insanity, would be hailed with delight
by the men employed in the great sugar
renneries that soon are to be among the
industries of Greater New York.
or all the hot places It is the privilege Of
man to enter these are undoubtedly the hot
test In the tall structures along the river
front in Brooklyn can be seen daily hum
dreds OF men to whom temperature such
as has driven most New Workers to despair
would De godsend. From morning tn
night these men labor in rooms the tenn.
peratrre OF which seldom falls below 40.
In all the tales of suffering from the heat
that comes from the large cities Of the coun-
try none are more distressing than those
from the sugar refineries 1t may be an
element in the business that men should
literally be roasted to death in order to car.
ry # forward. The capitalists who con.
duct rehneries insist that such IS the case.
They declare that their plants can not be
shut down during the excessively hot
months of the summer, and they add thai
they keep the buildings as cool as possible
fer the men,
This is one instance. however, in which it
seems Incredible that human beings can
long survive the burdens imposed upoT
them. The men engaged in this industry
get through the winter months with con-
siderable difficulty owing to the heat. and
when the summer sun returns they FIND
themselves working in veritable furnaces
each in modern Dante's inferno. They
throw the windows wide open and resort &c
mechanical devices to keep cool, but the
effort IS IN vain. Few men can hold their
own against temperature Of 49, even
when no exertion is required of them. Niue
less can hundreds Of men engaged IN the
laborious work Of sugar refinery go about
their duties and long survive the intense
heat.
The department Of the Brooklyn refineries
In which the sugar is crystalized would be
regarded by most persons as extremely hot,
yet it is very comfortable when compared
with the temperature in other departments.
Here the sugar is poured in semi-EQud
state into metal cones, which act as filters
or coolers. The heat is very oppressive
and many employees drop down while at
work despite the fact that their dress con-
sists Only of light overalls and heavy shoes
The cones into which the sugar is poured
stand on their narrow ends in racks all
about the floor, and the workmen stand
over them in the heat radiating from the
hot sugar. Even in the coolest weather Of
the year and with the windows all open the
men here cannot wear thin undershirts with
comfort. Streams of perspiration run down
their backs as they bend over their work
To add to their discomfort the air in the
rooms is moist and steamy
But wearing as Is the work on the lower
floors, 1t is in the upper stories of the re-
fineries that the extreme measure of suffer
ing is to be found. There the temperature
stays regularly IN the vicinity of 40 de-
grees above zero. 1t is on these floors that
workmen fall exhausted day after day
Some revive on being taken to a window
while others are able only to get to their
homes. But the collapse of one or two or
a half dozen men in the afternoon no longer
is regarded as a matter worth mentioning
1t has come to be considered as merely in
clden,al to the business.
The majority of the employees in these de
partments of the big refineries are Poles
and Hungarians. They decide to become
sugar refiners as soon as they land in this
country, and they try TO adapt themselves
to the conditions they find in the factories
Those who seem able to stand the wor6
are sent to the top floor where the grea:
watts, with dark, slippery passageways be-
tween them. In these watts the sugar is
boiled. The men stand over the watts,
stirring the sugar with long sticks. On all
sides are big tanks, and each Of these radi-
ates an Intense heat.
When to the closeness Of the room and the
heat from the watts is added the other dis
comforts of the work. 1t becomes little Won
der that the men drop in their tracks from
day to day. They look pale and careworn,
all of them: their feet stick to the sugar
covered planks as they walk between the
watts, and they constantly are covered with
perspiration. 1 am told that as many as
eight unfortunates have succumbed to the
heat in a single alley in one afternoon, and
that four men fell where they stood in the
next alley.
One floor Of the ref,neries IL Of iron, and
is covered by the 1N heads of the great
charcoal filters below. The feet of the
workmen have to become accustomed to the
heat of this floor before the men can endure
it. The bases of these filters are two
floors below, where they are placed so close
together that the firemen and strokers bare
~ have room to bring coal for the fur
naces. Here air is almost unknown, and
clothing is a burden. The men go from
furnace to furnace with their loads of coal.
perspiration dripping from every pore OF
their naked bodies. Their only opportuni-
ty to get air is when they are waiting foI
a new load of coal outside.
And for all of the toiling and suffering in
this intense heat the men are paid from
81 "A to sl.95 for a days work Of from twelve
RI fiftaon hnrIrS