St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1899-09-16
WORKERS IN COLD PLACES
the Temperature II Near
Freezing.

"Men who work every week day In
an almost freezing temperature are q
study" said refrigerator expert, .'es
pecially in these hot days of summer
There are very many men who work
in temperatures varying from 30 to 81
degrees, and. of course. they suffer q
great deal after their days labor is
ended when they come out into the
heat of the day. Take, for instance, the
men who work in the vat rooms and
the ice departments of the big brew
cries. Get the boss to open the big
door and then peer into these big. cold
damp departments. On hot day you
will feel your lower limbs become cold
as you stand on the outside when the
door swings open. l would not advise
you if heated to go in.
.'You will see the employees going
around among the big watts and pipes,
each carrying lighted lamp or torch
They generally keep such places well
darkened. The damp floor is of flag
stones. The men are clad in winter un-
derclothes, woolens, overalls and rub
ber boots. They go about their busi-
ness and don't mind the cold because
they are used to it. Should an ordi-
nary mortal venture in there with sum-
mer apparel on he might get pneu-
monia in short order. When those men
come out and go home on a hot sum-
mer evening, of course. they are dis.
tressed before they get to where they
live. Many breweries have places
where the men can take off their heavy
clothes and boots and put on summer
clothes. But even then the change
from 32 to 90 degrees is very severe for
them. Still, il you examine them
closely you will find that nearly all of
them have rosy cheeks and they are
stout and hearty. 1t is not the beer
they drink. They work in the cold,
move about, have plenty of exercise,
and, of course. they drink beer at Ger
tain hours before breakfast, after
breakfast ana all through the day,
probably 90 or 80 glasses in ten hours.
AS a general thing they are healthy
men. but they are much distressed on
hot nights because they work in al
most freezing temperature for from
ten to twelve hours day, and when
night comes they suffer.
''Then take the employees of the cold
storage houses in all cities. The men
work in temperature as low as 30 de-
grees. You see the big storage plants
are divided into rooms or apartments
where different articles are kept at
different temperatures. For eggs the
temperature is about 81 degrees, and
for butter the rooms are but slightly
cooler. But these places are not damp
and disagreeable like the vatrooms of
The other evening I saw an
odd sight. A laborer in a sugar re-
fnery, brewery employe and cold
storage laborer walked home together.
The brewery man, just out of 30 de-
gree temperature, was suffering from
the heat. The sugar man. Just out of a
temperature of $50 degrees was smiling
in the cool 90 degrees, while the cold
storage man mopped his forehead and
thought the heat was burning him up.
"Men in big refrigerators, who work
say two or three hours at stretch at
30 degrees. mind it more than the men
who are in freezing temperature all
day. Brewery men who work in the
cold don't run SO much risk in drinking
cold beer as the men who work in the
heat. But all brewers now instruct
their employees not to gulp down cold
beer. but to drink it slowly.
.'They say people live longer who
work in high temperatures, and that
those who work in low temperatures
do not average more than Sc. The old
est people. they say, live in the tropics.
Yet. to look at these brewery men in
the cold vatrooms you'd think they'd
live to be 20 or son. Y. Sun.