The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1899-12-27

~" "i io,OoO UuSy pcOple operating
the furnaces and rolling mills and
mining for coal. but the half has not
been told, and I'm afraid to tell what
think was told about the plants
that are going up and are under con-
tract to be completed and in operation
by lst Of April next. Hundreds of
handsome cottages, all neatly finished
and painted. are now ready and hun
drcds more going up for tn workmcn
who are to man these immense steel
planls-onc Of which is to be the larg-
est in the United States, and | was
told that by the lst of April these
PLANTS ut Enslcy will require $4,000
men, and they with their families
would make up Il population Of 100,-
900 people. There are cluster Of
five furnaces there now that turn out
100 tons of pig iron every day, and
these arc not the half Of them-and
the great steel plant is 10 make G,000
tons of steel every day. "Mirabilc
dictu' Have | got these figures
right? made some notes on the
back Of an envelope aud that's the
way they read know that the g.,
600 operatives is right, though anotn-
cr man said 10000 Not long ago
retold story that friend told me
about his hunting expedition on the
Pan Handle region just after the civil
war, and how he and his companion
campcd in an old cabin one night and
the wolvcs came down from the noun
taihs aud besicgcd them, and how they
shot at them all night through the
cracks between the logs and killed
hundreds Of them, and as fast as they
| killed them the pack Of hungry var
mints would jump on the dead ones
and cut them ali up-all except the
hair and boncs-and how the wolves
left at day.raak, aud after they were
all gone these hunters went out to see
how many they had killed: They
never found Il single wolf, but the
! ground for three acres around the
f, cabin was covered three feet deep in
hair. That what l thought he said
and rctold it that way. Not long
after this mutual friend told me
that my hunter friend was hurt at me
! for exaggerating the story, for he de-
clarcd that he told me that the ground
was covered two and half feet deep
in hair, and had, without any pro-
vocation, added half foot to it. And
so to keep the peace I agreed to take
off that.half foot and have ever since
done SO when repeated the hunters
story. 1t is sore temptation TO US
all to make story littl. bigger when
we retell it and we ought to be very
careful on that line And so I feel
very cautious about retailing the mag
nitude of things at Ensley. But my
eyes did not deceive me and I saw
solid steel billets that weighed 5000
pounds each piled up and cross piled
like great logs of wood, and I saw the
men molding them from the fiery fur
naces. The men had on large blue
spectacles and visors, for it is awful
to look uyon the dazzling heat that
glows from the caldron of liquid steel.
These caldrons were not tapped from
the bottom, but were turned up ae an
angle of 45 degrees, so that they
would overflow like water from q wash
bowl, and let the top Of the lava run
into the upright molds. These huge
molds were arranged perpendicular on
little train of cars tha: wss moved
slowly by electricity, and as fast as
one was filled another took its place.
Oh it was grand and fearful. These
caldrons were lifted up and careened
by great rams that looked like i'm
mense cannon. But I forbear. Tie
huge leviathans all around me made
me dizzy and I begged my friends to
let me 60 home, fot my amazement
was tired. Now just to think of the
wire department, where one of these
great billets was reheated and started
through the great rollers and was
squeezed smaller and smaller as it
went on through hundreds of them
till it was reduced to wire-steol wire
of all sizes, even down to silver steel
wire that was small enough to make
the bows To a pair Of spectacles.
What wonderful thing is the brain
of man. l could tell more about
Ensley, but remember that during
the civil.war, when Confederate mcney
had flooded the South and everybody
had Il hat full or bag full, 1 asked
treasury official how much had been
issued, and he looked dazcd for mo-