Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1901-05-14
CHAPTER xvIII.-CCOntinued.)

works near the mouth Of the Run and
along the narrow strip of available
ground between Coal Hill and the river
Insensibly that atmosphere, pulsating
with energy and thrilling with the opera
ton of tremendous forces all about him.
awoke in the young man new ideas and
comprehensions of life, stirring him first
with awe, then with curiosity and finally
with a burning desire to bear an active
part in that mighty vibration. The ma
chinery's rumbling roar filling the air.
the quiYering of the solid earth beneath
his feet, the vivid bursts of cOlOred flame
that dazzled his sight, the earnest, pur-
DOseful activity of the muscular toilers
who jostled him-all together had for
him an indescribable fascination. This,
he knew, was more truly mans WORK
than any he had known before.
One day he accidentally learned that
the daily wages of a puddler were more
than the weekly earnings of a skllltul
harvester. The embers of Scotch thrift
latent in him began to glow. He wished
60 be a puddler. What did the puddler
do? He went to the mill and watched
one critically. The chap he made study
of was a huge, muscular fellow, very
giant, with short curly hair, close-matted
and dark with perspiration; a neck ike
shat of a bull; naked to the waist, show
ing thews and sinews like those OF a
gladiator. His eyes were red and his
skin seemed baked to Il light reddish
brown. With his brawny legs braced
wide apart, the big muscles of his arms,
shoulders and back knOtting, extending
and writing like serpeuts in motion, he
busted himself doing something with a
long iron bar thrust through hole in
an iron door.
John tried to look into the hole, but
11uld see only an intense white light, that
seemed to dry his eyeballs and left a
-herry-red spot in his vision, wherever he
.oOked, for several minutes afterward.
But the giant saw clearly what he was
do5ng with his iron bar there. His train
I'd sight could distinguish nice gradations
Of color in that apparently incandescent
glow. Presently he uttered a sharp word
If warning, at hearing which his helper,
standing near and, like him, naked to the
waist, sprang under a heavy stream of
aEater flowing constantly from an open
rape higher than his head, was drenched
IN an instant and jumped back to his
place. Then the puddler shouted another
word; there was a rattle of chains, q
skreek and clash of metal, and where
the hole had been yawned n wide opening
&RtO the tercely glowing chamber where
molten iron boiled like water in a pot.
John knew that was what was in there,
but could no more see it than he could
distinguish objects upon the suns sur
lace at high noon. But the puddler did
not appear to mind the dazzling glare.
Quickly stepping backward, he withdrew
Erqm the furnace-front the iron bar he
had been manipulating, with a great ball
If iron, in a plastic state, adhering to the
eHd. That ball, larger than his head,
looked to John like a chunk of the sun.
The helper, by the aid of tongs pendent
from a ''traveler" in the semi-blackness
Ear overhead, seized the candenr mass
and ran with it before him, like small
Genet of which he was the tail, or. the
true phlOgiston, away across the mill to
.he 'cruSher." The furnace door closed
with a clang, leaving only
a pencil OF white light darting out of 4
little hole in its center and stabbing like
a blade through the murk of the mill;
and the puddler, leaping under the falling
stream of water, spread his big arms and
threw back his head TO let the crystal
food dash upon his upturned face and
broad, hairy breast. Steam went up
from him as if he had been red hot.
John had some doubt as to whether his
eyes would stand such cooking as the
IL hot hn
work pleased him, and he resolved to
master it. Whether he would continue
at it an hour after he received his sum
mons of recall was quite another matter.
1t would be absurd that he, already the
owner of two fine farms and prospective
heir to a third, larger and better than
both Of them. should acquire a permanent
habit of pudding iron for days wages
during the rest of his life, but what bet
ter or more manly occupation could he
find while divorced from his farms
None, surely. So he found employment
as a helper with a good-natured giant,
whose willingly given instruction and his
own natural al ritude for learning speed
lily put him in possession of the merely
mechanical trick of pudding, and opened
his eyes to the seriousness Of an attempt
70 master n real knowledge Of this deli
cate scientific process.
Half dozen workers in iron and glass
bearded in the same house with John
Cameron. They We're generally rough
fellows, honest enough but coarse. and in.
stinctively appreciatlve of the fact that
he was not really one of them. Conse-
quently they rather held aloof from him
There was one. however, Il glass blower
known as Billy the Barker" with whom
his sympathetic pity brought him upon
terms Of more intimacy. Billy was Z
lean. understood, hOllow-cheeked chap
past middle age. weak and shy, upor
whom consumption had set the seal OF
doom. He had frequent violent and pro
tracted spells of coughing. and was I'M
able TO work more than one or two day,
IN the week usually, so he was destitute
wretched and tired Of life.
One night. John returning home very
tate from work. found Billy seated on tn,
we'll cover in the garden. with his lear
arms twined about his knees, and SILVER
inE.
Hello exclaimed the young man
What are You doing here? Don't 20,
know that with such a cough rs yours
YOU shouldn't be out in this damp Night
air?''
Il know I shouldn't. hut there's n,
choice for me I'm sort of shy about hay
jug heavy boots chucked ut my head.
"What do you mean:"
There are four Of us in the room
where have u bed. My three compan
lens close the windows and smoke pipe.
until eli is blue. That sets me cough
'ug. and If cannot stop when they wan
70 80 20 sleep, they run me out"
How do they run you oUt$"
"Chucking their hob-uailed boots AZ m,
bead"
How often does this happens"
Pretty nearly every night
And do you stay out all night, $
that they may Sleepg"
We'll hardly all night, sir. Wbe,
they're sound asleep Jo'rdS morning.
slip in. But tonight Jem Hodges ha
been drinking and IS ugly. aud be swear
AeU break my neck il show my fac
before daylight"
do you think he would?'
i haven't the slightest doubt OF i;
sir"
L have. Come risht I'D now and let