New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-01-21
A SHAKEN ATTACHMENT
THE ASSISTANCE OF AN EARTHQUAKE
IN A MoMENToUs DECISION

From The Argenaut
Inc cannery cook looked nervously at his
watch Quarter-past eight and no fruitI He
s'ooped to the tank cock and three axna,i
mental Jets Of steam sputtered up in frnDatient
bubbles through the cold water. Somewhat "a
heved' he shut the valve and glanced At the
CLOCK on the wall. Apparently it had stopne4
like the rest OF the works.
The slowest gang of girls I ever SAW he
s1oreeo- Dave was high pressure boiler. but
ne frequently let off
A younglsh, brown whiskered man in a mink
goI shirt, jumped on the edge of the tank and
balanced there periIously He was the nanagar
OF the California Consolidated Apricot Cou,pany
1Sest4essness and vehemence boiled down he
OFTEN said he paid Dave extra wages to help
MN rune One reason why the manager man
@seu everything so well was because he knew
so well how to manage the manager.
Hang it. Dave" said he, "the minute q girl
gets to be good for anything, she quits and
marries. If I could keep my best help life
would be worth living. Come girls, comet"
1t quickened the workers across the half par
tition. this clarion call and the glimpse of the
managers tense face.
The boss is getting cranky said a brown
haired girl with rubber glove fingers on. bur
riedly pokng half apricot through the little
round hole in the top of the can. All the pack
ers had their fingers protected against the
cruel curve Of the tin. White cotton rags would
do.
Have you noticed how the boss has duded up
lately?" asked the blonde, who sozzled the syruD
into the packed cans with the rubber lawn hose
that came down from the vat in the attic She
was rather stately and ambrosiaI and reminded
one Of Hebe a fTieze irrigating her row Of
gods with sweetened water. The California
Consolidated had dumped a ton Of sugar into
its nectar pots that very morning
Don't you sabe?" asked another girl. Jessie
did. pretty pronto." Spanish adapts itself eIe-
gantly to slang in the Southwest.
ooh, you're Iocoed!" rejoined Hebe, swishing
the nectarous nozzle from one little tin god to
another with an elysian disregard of the spill
The manager viii look above jessie" she
added.
You see"
Dave had turned the valve again. and the
steam roared into one of the big tanks An
other Kissed and growied and the conversation
Of the girls was inaudible- The packers had
caught up with the process room, and the april
cot factory was in full blast. How deity the
sealer bIistered the yarn of solder around the
can tops which spun on the revolving disks il
front of him! The metal string ran down from
a coil over his head the whirlng can caught it.
and the hot iron tied the knot. The other work
ers might fall behind. but the sealer could stand
in his tracks hold his hands over the whirligigs
look pleasant and keep caught up.
The manager drew d breath Of satisfaction as
he saw the platform Of cans lowered into the
Kissing bath Give EN- fOrty-ive minutes this
time. Dave he said. and passed into the label
ling shed
If there wa7 anything that pleased the man
ager more than another II was his labelling de-
partment; and perhaps he could not have told
whether his labels or his Iabeller gave him the
more pleasure. To the eye they were equally
inviting. The cream and yellow undertones Of
the enameIled wrappers appealed to ones mag
nation; they tasted good Upon them the de-
sgner had ripened two juicy apricots, suggest
ing that the only bite in the world worth taking
came from the fabulous orchards Of California