The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-02-15
Men Who Work in Places
That Are More Than Warm

First a hand came through the oval,
then a forearm. bare, sinewy and
grimy, followed by a head and pair of
shoulders, and presently there was a
Whole man out, gasping, grunting and
putting.
Hot in there?" he was asked.
"Hotter'n blazes," came the quick re-
ply.
The huge boilermaker drew himself
UP to his full height, expanding his
lungs with long. deep breaths as
though the free air of the world tasted
good to him. No doubt it did. /. For
five solid hours he had been cooped up
inside that boiler lying flat on his back
most of the time, using tool after tool
until the seven-inch strap that he was
working on firmly riveted over the leak
which had caused the temporary shut
down. While the work was going on
the big mill was idle and many en-
ployes were having a forced holiday,
so that it was necessary to rush the
job. Every minute meant money.
When the leak was discovered it was
thought that by plugging it with alum
and ashes, it would be possible to carry
on until Saturday night when the fire
could be drawn, and all day Sunday
taken for the repairs. But the make
Shift didn't answer the purpose and the
fire was drawn during the week, and
without waiting for the boiler to cool
off, two skilled men were put at work
to rivet on the necessary patch.
The interior of that boiler was like
unto the steam room of a Turkish bath
in temperature, but much unlike it in
convenience, for a man couldn't stand
up and stretch himself and then lie
down comfortably to wait for Sweat"
He got the sweat soon enough without
waiting.
1t is part of the bOilermaker's business
to learn to sweat. While there is a
great deal of his work that can be per-
formed in the shop such as replacing
tubes and repairing jackets, he must
always be prepared to go inside when
occasion requires. and he can't always
wait for cold engine. either. In all
cases Of emergency he goes in when to
the uninitiated the interior is like the
entrance to the brocken. And thus it
has become a proVerb that no man
knows what it is to be warm until he
has "sweated like boilermaker."
Not the Only Warm One.
But the boilermaker is not the only,
man Who has warm job. There are
other trades just as bad in respect to
heat, some of them worse, in that the
men engaged in them have to work
steadily and continuously all the time.
day in and day out.
Those skilled workmen who are en-
gagged in the casting of the various
parts for all agricultural implements
manufactured belong to this class. The
liquid metal is handled in huge cru
clbleS like so much water, but the heat
from it is intense, and while great care
IS exercised in the various operations.
every now and then some unlucky one
gets burn that marks for life, for a
drop of molten metal simply burns a
hole. In all of the big railway repair
shops in st. Paul there are men work.
ing at making castings for all sorts of
machinery from the locomotive down
TO the moving machine. Between these
and the boilermakers there are prob-
ably 500 men engaged In the various
works
Another class Of "hot laborers >,
though not so numerous, is quite as
important. They are engaged in the
Stereotyping trade, and are to be found
IN every modern printing office in the
country. After the type is set and the
various forms or pages of the paner
made up just as it is intended to he
published, papier nache cast is taken
or 1t, and this cast is used as a die or