Waterbury Democrat., 1900-11-15
THE STORY OF A $ I A N D p l P E
By Charles Moreau Harger.
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it-of cleaning and painting stand pipes, the tall, columnlike reservoirs that hold the water supplies of many towns and small cities and furnish the pressure for the mains of the streets, lawns and residences. The vocation is not crowded, partly because the standpipes are not numerous or often cleaned, but especially because of the peril attending the task.
 Of the half dozen, James Vert has probably come nearest death and sur ViFed. b I cray41ed' through water main hole at the base of a standpipe on which this work was being done the other day. Once inside, it seemed like the bottom of a hundred-foot iron-walled we'll. Far above gleamed circle of blue sky, with now and then a bit of cloud crossing it. Swing ing at the end of rope 90 feet above the iron floor of the standpipe was the painter. I:e wielded his brush carelessly filling it from bucket of waterproof black paint that dangled beside him. He whistled as he worked, and the sound came roaring down the huge tunnel like the scream of locomotive.
 He drew himself higher and high CT until he reached the dizzy rim and looked out over the tallest build ings and spires of the town. Then he loosened the rope, and it whirred through the pulleys as he came swift ly, down.
 "Scare you?" he remarked, as he alighted safely and refilled his bucket. NO danger in this. I've been doing it for four years and never got hurt. Jim did, though-he's my partner"
 Then he told me about it.
 Jim always liked children; he had none of his own, and was forever talk ing up with them in towns where he worked. For my part l don't think this is the place for 'em. You sec, we stay a week or two in a place, &C., cording to how long the standpipes have gone without cleaning-and some towns are mighty careless about fixing such things. We usually go together, but one day the company we were working for got orders to repair two pipes the same week, and we separated.
 "Jim went out to a prairie town in eastern Kansas. The standpipe was the highest in the state and had not been cleaned and painted inside for six years, so the job was a long one.
 "Jim settled down at a good board ing house and put his money and package of gold leaf in the village bank. We always carry along some gold leaf to gild church cross if we get chance. There is from $50 to s2Oo in a job of that kind, for there ain't many that wants it. Then he went to work on the standpipe. The water was drained out, and he be- gan to scrape the rusty iron work inside, putting it in shape for the two coats of paint he was to give it later on. Every day there were 8 him work. They stopped as they came home from school and crawled through the main at the bottom in side the pipe-just as you have this morning. Jim always let 'em do it. I don't like it, but maybe he was right in it that time.
 'Of course there were a lot of men that came, too, but they only came from curiosity. and one trip was enough. They didn't come back. But the boys were there every day, espe- ciaIly one of them-Frank Smith hia name was. He used to sit for an hour at time watching the sky at the top and hoIlering questions up at Jim as he was painting.
 "The first coat was put on easily, and then the second was begun. This is a kind of rubber paint that the water will not hurt, and it is slow work, we have to paint it rather thick. Jim wanted to quit Saturday night and join me on a church-steeple job that we had found down in St. Louis, and he was putting in every minute of his time to finish the sec ond coat.
 E'It is one of our rules not to work when there is a storm, but out on the plains so many clouds are floating around that it is hard to tell when there is danger. One afternoon in April the sky was filled with scatter ing shower clouds, and there was q brisk breeze blowing that might mean anything from a drought to tor nado. Jim paid little attention to it, and painted away, with no sight of the sky except what was visible through the round top of the stand pipe. You see for yourself that it is only speck out of the big blue of l the prairie sky.
 ''The manager of the waterworks plant was busy that afternoon and did not go out to look at the work; the town loafers, who had had their curiosity satisfied, cared nothing for it, and Jim was all alone. It must have been about three o'clock that the storm gathered in the northwest It came up with a clean edge,- as the western people Say-that is, there were no clouds ahead of it. only clear sky and sunshine.c But. the storm it. self was an ugly one. It had hail and thunder in it, and the people were anxious lest there might be too much wind as we'll But cyclones don't come out of the northwest in the prairie states, ard there wasn't any danger on that score.