The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1901-05-11
BIRTHPLACE OF CASH.
HOMESTEAD. WHERE THE CAR
NEolE FORTUNE ORIGINATED.
Great Hills Of Broken Earth md Hure
scraps Of Iro. Are Hero Transmitted
Into, Gold. Free Libraries and Art
Gallsries.

ocfsPS % AsOs Ares'4aeee Transmitted
Into, Gold. Free Libraries and Art
Galleries.
No Arabian visionary ever fancied
SO remarkable a birthplace for mil
lions as the Carnegie works at Home
stead. writes Douglass Storey. the
/, English correspondent. Nesting into
the Monongahela, on the fiat ground
by. the river, by day they are marked
by q cloud of smoke, at night by' a.
dozen pillars of fire. No man ap-
preaching the hamlet Of sheds can see
there only the crude outlines of a steel
factory. It is the laboratory of an al
chemist where great hills of broken
earth and huge heaps of scrap iron are
transmitted into gold and old-age pen
sions, into free libraries and art gal
ler1es. Everywhere there is the n
OF great, mysterious power laboring to
equip the most generous Of modern
;Rillionaires. Human agency seems
Inadequate to effect the marvels of the
pills, to manipulate the bubbling ma
e stals, to interfere with the fierce fur
~ Ftes and fiery forces OF the factories.
- touch an electric button that re-
leases a force of $1,000 tons is easier
and more miraculous in its results
than the rubbing Of any Arabian
lamp. Yet everything here is con-
trolled by tiny levers and buttons q
woman or a child might manage. OPP
posite to a roaring furnace a little
train OF iron trucks is standing. To it
comes noiselessly, mysteriously, u
great engine that reaches forth a
braWny iron arm, grips up one Of the
trucks, and thrusts it into the furnace.
Backward and forward over the glow
ing Goals the big iron carries the truck
until 1t finds the hottest corner. Then,
turning the truck, empties its load of
!, pig iron, shavings, limestone or coke,
shakes 1t and carries it gently to. the
waiting string Of wagons. There is no
fuss OF men, no anxious couplings and
un%couplings. Then engine has done
all its work unaided, save for a single
man, who sits within, lingering a little
sheaf Of levers. Some time later n
returns to the furnace and, gazing
with blue spectacles through the peep
hole, sees the popping, sputtering
DEVILS porridge within. In time the
door will be opened and the boiling
metal be run of into great caldrons
hungrily waiting in the pit beneath.
In a single one Of these open hearth
sheds are IL furnaces, each with it's
100 tons Of metal. Under ones feet,
on moving platforms. pass slabs of
fixing, scorching steel. When the
melodramatist and the author of the
dime novel have penetrated the mys-
teries of Homestead they will find rare
opportunities for sensational villainy,
such as never yet has appeared be-
tween two yellow covers. One stands
on q bridge naked of fencing and I'M
derneath rattles a block Of red-hot
metal that would grill a man in a
twinkling. It is on its way to the
rollers, and there is a pressure which
would grind him to powder. Every
where are furnaces and caldrons of in
cinerating metal, awful hydraulic
presses and silent, remorseless engines.
For the man of melodramtic imagina-
ton Homestead is the place Of horrible
possibility. I stood in one of the long
sheds while a charge was being drawn.
The hot steel gushed out, a violent
white at first, uncovered in golden
sparks, immensely beautiful. As the air
got at it the outer edge grew orange,
and on the surface the frothy cream
gathered and dubbed, a ruby red.
When the vessel was full the claws Of
a great electric crane were fixed in its
sides and It was swung upward-a
proper tankard for some bacchanalian
demon to Qua1f! As 1t dangled above
u heads. SO tons of swelling steel, l
marveled at the silent power of this
birthplace Of wealth. II a stay should
break, OF q bolt snap? And I moved
hastily away from the sinister vicinity
Of the swinging caldron. Seven thou
sand men labor daily in the Homestead
works. but nowhere is their presence
Melt. And yet the work done by n
machine would tax the muscles Of the
army that built the pyramids. The
making Of millions is no child's play,
and simple pieces Of mechanism will
here perform before one feats
Of strength that were impos-
sible to q force Of a hun
dred thousand men. In the armor
plate department is an engine which.
will exert q pressure Of $4,000 tons. In
another shed is q reversing engine Of
ia B horse power. There are electric
can s that will carry hither and
StAithd weights of 100 tons as easily
IT. t. lor would raise a Handkerchief.
knpsoassd Light for Consumptivsa
DR.. George @. Hopkins Of Brooklyn
mas been using decomposed light in