Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-05-23
GREEN WHISPERS? SURE
Keswick, Gal, Is Full of 'Em. and
 Their Owners Won't Shave.


 Keswick, Gal, Is Full of 'Em, and
 Their Owners Won't Shave.
 WesWick, Shasta county, has gained fame and notoriety in more ways than one. In the first place, its great shelter has given California high rank among the copper-producing states of the nation. Above the great hive where 1,500 men work in shifts through every hour of the twenty-four there hangs always a pail of black smoke which can be seen for many miles. With the glow of the furnaces and roasters reflected upon it, this pill lar of cloud by day becomes a pillar of fire by night, and the sight has few equals Then Keswick is leafless Town, for the sulpher fumes have lick ed up every blade of grass and every hardy weed and caused the trees within a radius of nearly mile to shrlvel, die and quickly rot away.
 Black whiskers, red whiskers, white whiskers, pink whiskers-all the end- less shades from umber to maroon-are common enough, but green whiskers will startle you at a glance that is if you go to Keswick, for so far as is known you might go about everywhere else in the world and run no danger of being startled in this most remarkable way Keswick hardly appreciates it's distinction, Keswick is so used to green whiskers. And 1t is not as if some hu- man oddity had come, like purple cow into the herd, to Keswick, but there are scores of men whose hirsute appendage is absolutely and unmistak- Sably green.
 You meet an elderly man in over- alls and jumper coming down to the shelter gate with his lunch pail in his hand about time for the whistle to blow for change of shift. He is an intelligent, evenly balanced working man. anything but freak, and yet his flowing beard is about as green as stage grass in a play. If you bow he will lift his hat to you, and you will further observe that the fringe of thin locks about his bald spot is almost the same emerald as his beard. Here comes a husky fellow with red che 'ts. Under his pudgy nose there flares in ,mustasche, and it Is so green that 1t makes a striking contrast with his cardinal jowls. He is the last man in the world whom you would expect to find in the dye-room of the hair-dres- ser's. These two green -whiskered workers are but the advance guard of a small army which begins to arrive presently.
 The fact that all the green-whiskered and green-ha fred citizens of Keswick file in at the same gates gives a key to the mystery. It is what happens after they pass in through the gate, before they emerge again eight hours later which makes them green. Many members of that little army are 'roaster stiffs,' and all work about the ope1l-air ore roasters and in places where the heavy calcine smoke is continually streaming over them.
 The calcine acts upon every hair that it touches and after a time the worker finds that his whtskers and his hair are changing colors. Of course the dye shows quickest on whiskers, because they are more exposed than the hair under the workers hat, and gray or white whiskers naturally show the emerald tint quickest of all. The urishman's auburn whiskers offer re- sistance for a time. Then full red ND0dIu " HI nave AuilO LIuCCS VI s1lAAOeeo5 tints of the rainbow. At length the green claims it's own.
 Oddly enough it is the workmen whose work keeps them where their twhiskers will change color who seem fondest of wearing boards. The call cine worker, as rule, has whiskers. No other department of the shelter lhas-or had before the strike-so great a percentage of whiskered men in it.. And there is reason for this. The 'sroaster stiff' will tell you that it isl good deal better to grow whiskers and give them over to the calcine than it is to shave clean and at length come to have complexion of decid- edly greenish tint. Many of the men are content to wear a Santa Claus mask of green in order to save their skins.
 The green is a good deal less than a scar because it is permanent only while the owner of the whiskers is working in the fumes. Let him keep away from the calcine for a month or so and sunshine and simple treatment will bring back the hue that nature meant Or he can shave the green crop and bring out fresh lot of an- other color.-San Francisco Chronicle.
 MIR BRYAN's CANDIDATE.