Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1903-03-04
HandlIaS High. High Explosives.

80 soNoo Sohe nerve 10 Toy Win
eternity every day and go 20 work
every morning with the thought that
you may come home at night to your
lsorrowing family in a basket. There
are men who face death six days out
OF seven and think nothing of it,
and it is death of the most horriable
kind. These men handle the dyna-
mite and nitroglycerin which are
used in blasting rock in the different
qparries, and they pay but little heed
to handfuls of high explosives done
up in yellow wrapping paper.
These men are experts in their
trade and hold the position of fore
man of the various gangs who do the
drilling and blasting. They are
young men mostly, the trade not be-
ing conductive to old age. They
begin as assistant foreman and re-
main such until a premature crash
causes vacancy. 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 accustomed
to their trade and handle the big
sticks of dynamite as boy handles
a big firecracker. They claim that
dynamite is not such a terrible thing,
after all, unless you eat it, and then
it will give you violent headache.
Dynamite is an uncertain quantity,
however, and acts differently at diff
ferent- times. 1t burns without an
explosion and can even be dropped
on the ground without going off,
but this is not a safe experiment to
try. Let a stick be stroked with a
piece of metal, however, and if the
man who does it wishes to communi-
with his friends he will have to use
a long-distance telephone. Nitro
glycerine is almost an unknown
quantity, and even the most hardened
quarryman handles it with the ut
most care. Anything will explode
it, and many men have been strewn
over the landscape through it's offices.
In loading a whole 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 a
stick. When the hole has been al
most filled the percussion cap at
tached to a thrity-second fuse is put
in and then bit more dinamite put
in on top of it. The whole charge is
then covered with little sand and
match touched to the fuse. While
this is being done the sons of sunny
Italy have been seeking the long
grass and tall trees for safety. Each
one yells "Fire p' at the top of his
voice as he runs, and just before the
blast goes off there is nothing to be
seen but the fleeing foreman. After
the crash and when the showers of
rock have subsidized to some extent the
sorrowing foreman goes in search of
Italians. He finds them peacefully
slumbering or talking in the woods,
and when told to go back to work
each asks in curious tone if the
blast has gone off. 1t was heard in
the three adjoining counties three
minutes before.
Strange things are apt to happen
to the little tin box in which the
sticks are kept. This box is placed
carefully in the tool box each night
and the keys of both boxes are placed
deep in the pocket of the foreman
during the night. Wild adventures
often take place near the boxes, and
one OF the foreman told of the narrow
escape which 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 6 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 was not blown into
bits. 1t was just one of the strange
freaks of dynamite.
Of course, as dynamite and "jelly"
are not allowed to be carried on the
trains they mover are, but there are
some i::>eresting times for men who
sit in a seat holding bag in their
arms during the entire journey. One
local foreman said he took trip
while ago in crowded car, and if
any one had hit his travelling bag no
one on the car would have reached
the next station collectively.
Man Kills Wife and Her Lover.