The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1901-11-01
MEN WHO TOY WITH DEATH.
Uncertain Career-Some
Narrow Escapes.


morning with the thought that you
may come home at night to your sor-
rowing family in basket, says the
Springfield Republican. There are
men in Springfield who face death six
days out of seven, and think nothing
of it, and it is death of the most hor-
rible kind. These men handle the
dynamite and nitroglycerin which
are used in blasting rock in the differ
ent quarries, and they pay but little
heed to a handful of the dim beyond
in the shape of a stick of high explo-
sive done up in yellow wrapping
paper.
These men are experts in their
trade, and hold the positions of fore
men of the various gangs who do the
drilling and blasting in East Long
meadow and Wilbraham. They are
young men mostly, the trade not being
conducive to old age. They begin as
assistant foremen and remain such I'M
til premature crash causes a vacan-
cy. At first the fear of high explosives
is drilled into them until they regard
the sawdust-lined boxes with horror.
But in a few months they become ac-
customed to their trade and handle
the big sticks of dynamite as boy
handles a big frecracker. They claim
that dynamite is not such terrible
thing after all, unless you eat it, and
then it will give you a violent head
ache. Men have often done this, and
it makes them very i'll for short time.
A new assistant foreman is almost al
ways broken in in this manner.
Dynamite is an uncertain quantity,
however, and acts differently at diff
ferent times. 1t burns without an ex-
plosion and can even be dropped on
the ground without going off, but this
is not safe experiment to try. Let
a stick be stroked with a piece of
metal. however, and if the man who
does it wishes to communicate with
his friends he will have to use long
distance telephone. NitrOglycerin is
almost an unknown quantity, and even
the most hardened quarryman handles
it with the utmost care.
In loading a rock with dynamite
various methods are used, but the
most popular one is to put the ex-
plosive into the hole quietly and then
press it in even more gently with
stick When the hole has been almost
filed the percussion cap attached to
a 30-secOnd fuse is put in and then bit
more dynamite put in on top of it. The
whole charge is then covered tenderly
with little sand and match touched
to the fuse. While this is being done,
the innocent sons of sunny Italy have
been seeking the long grass and tall
trees for safety. Each one yells "fre!"
at the top of his lungs as he runs, and
just before the blast goes off there is
nothing to be seen but the feeting
foreman. After the crash and when
the shower of rock has subsidized to
some extent the Borrowing foreman
goes in search of his Italians. He finds
them peacefully slumbering or talk
ing in the woods, and when told to
go back to work each asks in a
curious tone if the blast has gone of.
It was heard in the three adjoining
counties three minutes before. 1t
takes some hours to drill hole for
blasting, and that is the sad part of
the whole game. After the blast
there is nothing left of the hole and
no example of handiwOrk to hand
down to posterity.
Strange things are apt to happen
to the little tin box in which the
sticks are kept. This box is placed
carefully in the big tool box each
night and the keys of both boxes are
placed deep in the pocket of the
foreman during the night Wild adj
ventures often take place near the
boxes, and one of the foremen told
of a narrow escape which a gang of
men under him had this spring. The
dynamite was used freely during the
day, and some loose sticks of it were
left in the bottom of the big tool
box. When the six o'clock whistle
blew the Italians flocked to the tool
box like homing pigeons. The men
began to throw their picks and
crowbars into the box at long range.
Just then the foreman came on the
scene and yelled at them to stop, as
he dove behind the nearest tree. No
one knows why the whole gang were
not blown into bits. 1t was just one
of the strange freaks of dynamite.
OF course, as dynamite and "ielly"
are not allowed to be carried on the
trains, they never are, but there are
some interesting times for men who
sit in seat holding a bag in their
arms during the entire journey. One
local foreman said he took a trim
awhile ago in a crowded car, and if
anyone had hit his travelling bag no
one on the car would have reached
the next station collectively. When
he got to the end of his journey he
went to a hotel to get luncheon, and
while he was registering placed the
bag on the desk beside him. A man
came in while the foreman was pre-
senting his autograph to the clerk.
and was hurt because the bag was on
the desk. To assert his rights as q
true citizen of free country he
grasped the bag and threw if on the