Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1900-11-08
THE STORY OF A
, A N D PIP E 5
BY Charles MORGAN Harger. {
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PP0s- the tail. cOIumnIlke reservoirs
mat hold h 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 aot numerous or often
cleaned, but especially because of the
peril attending the task.
VI the half dozen, James Vert has
probably come nearest death and sur
FiVed- L crswled through a water
MAIN hole at the base of a standpipe
on which this work was being done
the other day. Once inside, it seemed
IKE d bottom of a hundred-foot
aron-walleG well. Far above cleaned
a circle of blue sky, with now and
then a bit of cloud crossing it. Swing
ing at h end of a rope 80 feet above
n iron floor of the standpipe was
the painter. He welded his brush
carelessly, filing it from a 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 a locomotive.
He drew himself higher and high
er 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
~ 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 TAX
ing up with them in towns where he
worked. For my part 1 don't think
this is the place for 'em. You see,
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
beer 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 gid a church cross if we
get a chance. There is from $50 to
$500 in a job of that kind. for there
amt many that wants it. Then he
went to work on the standpipe. The
water was drained put. 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 a
lot of boys gathered around to see
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-
cially one of them-Frank Smith his
name was. He used to sit for an hour
at a time watching the sky at the top
and hollering questions up at Jim as
he was painting.
1.-THE first Goa 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, as we nave to paint it rather
klsa1r TIN wonfa1 70 nYr;f Co%,rlor
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.
sit is one of our rules not to work
when there is a storm, but out on the
plains so many clouds are floating
around hat it is hard to tell when
there is danger. One afternoon in
April the sky was filed with scatter
ing shower clouds, and there was a
brisk breeze blowing that might mean
ANYTHING from a drought to a tor
nado. Jim paid little attention to it,
and painted away, with nc sight of
the sky except what was visible
through the round top of the stand
pipe. You see for yourself that it il
only q speek out of the big blue of
the prairie sky.
The manager Of the waterworks
plant was busy that afternoon and
did not 60 out to look at the work;
the town loafers, who had had their
curiosity satisfied. cared nothing for
IL. and Jim was all alone. 1t must
have been about three o'clock that
the storm gathered in the northwest.
Il 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. 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 well. But cyclones don't
come out of the northwest in the
prairie states, and there wasn't any
danger on that score.
"The first Jim knew of the storm
was when the tossing, foam-like edge
that races ahead of these western
showers went over the top of the
pipe. But he was painting halfway
up the 10o-foot wall, and not knowing
the country, didn't think it meant
ANYTHING. More clouds went over and
then came a change of the wind that
made the tall tower tremble and
scared Jim at last. He tried to loosen
hrs rope from the pulleys and go