The Savannah morning news., 1902-12-26
DARING ON SCRAPERS.
wOrkmen Who Ride on Beams and
Play with Death.
From an Exchange

FROM an Exchange.
They had been watching a man as
cend to the tenth story of the frame
work of a new bank building by the
simple expedient of standing on a large
beam and holding on to the hoiSting
rope.
It's against the rules" explained the
contractor, but they will do it. You
can't stop EN-. 1t is just as quick for
a fellow to go up by the ladders as to
risk his life in that way and mighty
little more trouble, but familiarity with
danger breeds contempt for it. That's
why there are very few buildings put
up in this town without at least one
man being killed in each.
only the special providence which
watches over the reckless as well as
over babies and drunkards prevents a
whole lot more deaths among these
housesmiths. The insurance companies
hate to take them as risks at any price,
and 1 don't blame them. There's a
hair-breath escape a day at least on
one of these tall buildings.
Some of the things I've seen myself
I'd hardly have believed if any one
had told me about them. I'll tell you
just one, and though don't expect you
to credit it, my reputation as truth
full and sober man may be good enough
to carry it. 1 was an eyewitness.
1--WE were putting UP a big hotel.
The framework had just reached the
eighth story, and the masonry and the
flooring of one or two of the interven-
ing stories We're already in. l was up
on the top with the gang of house
smiths, and they were hosting up
big girder. The foreman was kneeling
on the edge of the frame, shouting di
rections down to the street, and the
girder had just reached the top.
LAS they were swinging it into place
the men let go for moment, and the
end swung around upon the foreman,
hitting him behind as he knelt, and
sweeping him over the edge into the
street. 100 feet or - below. There
seemed to be no possible chance for
his life. Somehow, though, he fell
against the slack guy rope which was
dangling from the beam. His leg and
arm got tangled in it three stories be-
low, and he stuck to the rope. More
than that. the slack rope actually
swung him into n window in the fifth
story. That happened to be one of the
few in which the flooring had been
put in. and the rope dropped him on
the floor unhurt
HE had been working for our firm
for years, and I knew him and liked
him as a good foreman. When he went
horror struck. 1t was a minue or two
before l recovered my self-posse session.
Then l hurried down expecting to find
his mangled body in the street.
las / went down the ladder 1 met
him coming up, bruised, but not seri-
ously hurt, and all he was thinking
of was how he could best tell the men
who let the beam slip what sort of a
BANKED set of blankety- blank, shift
less. ood-for-nothings they were.
He did. Though he had had as mar
row an escape from death as l can con-
ceive of a mans undergoing, he went
right back to work and bossed the
gang for the afternoon after firing the
man who he believed was responsible
for the accident.
Some folks were surprised to read
of the bridgemen and housesmiths who
only thought of being paid for their
overtime when they went back with
the firemen up the tower of the East
river bridge and fought the fire stand
ing on the burning Nidge while they
hacked away the timbers. / wasn't l
know the kind they are, and for sheer
reckless daring they're hard to beat"