Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1903-01-25

RADFORD, VA, January 2--tSpecial.)
One may not hope to step out Of the
! beaten track and escape that ubiquitous,
unsque1chable individual, the newspaper
correspondent. Human beings must be
! diverted. entertained, as well as coddled,
warmed, dressed and fed. And the news
paper folk must do their part towards
banishing the ennui OF the world, Keeping
constantly on the alert for the grand,
gloomy, and peculiar. or something start
ling and unique.
In olden times 1t was no uncommon
thing for man to become hermit. Now
it Is morally. mentally. and physically
an absolute imposs.biiity.
Once 1t was easy enough to retire from
the world. dwell In a cave. and surfeit
on solitude. Not so to-day. Would one
quietly drop out of society, society takes
particular pains to ferret out the reason
therefor and trespass the more on his
privacy.
pear" a pack of detectives are put on his
track and the whole world joins in the
search-a thousand theories being adj
vanced-a1l of the blacklist and most
yillainous type-as the probable motive
of the act.
In other words, the man who wants
most to be let alone, by. the irony of
fate. is brought most prominently under
the public gaze.
The only way to keep out of the papers
to-day is to do nothing wicked. brilliant,
or unusual.
Young AIcHorg, son Of the New York
millionaire, who is working as a-laborer
at the Theresa Iron Furnace. failed to
act on this last suggestion, and Is &C
cordingly paying the penalty
What he Is doing is not without ire
quent precedent cup North" But for the
son of a millionaire to break rock and
carry iron in overalls. and SCOT is a unique
procedure In the.South.
But Mr.. McHarg feels that he is doing
nothing at an remarkable and can't I'M
derstand why such a fuss should be made
about him, He Is singularly aversey to
appearing in the public prints, and. with
the single exception Of that Of the Dis
patch correspondent, all requests for pic
lures and interviews have been met with
a polite but positive refusal.
The accompanying snapshot Of Mr.. Nc
Harg. and detailed account of his
work, was the result of ilalf-day's visit
to the furnace one day this week Brief
mention was made of his duties In my
last Sunday letter, but a fuller account
perchance may be permissible as illus
trating the work in one Of our States
greatest Industries
Mr.. McHarg does little Of everything
about the furnace; filling the place Of
any laborer who happens to be absent,
and working anywhere that there Is work
to be done.
Sometimes he is In the stoczhouse,
breaking, limestone. and ore. Again he
conveys the ''buggies' filled with lime-
stone, coke and ore up the steep incline
leading to tsoe top Of the furnace, eighty
five feet from the ground, and dumps
them into the flaming forge:
He goes down to the cast house and
works with the men moulding the pig
beds in the sand. When a cast is made
he helps regulate the flow of the IRON
and several hours later. when the metal
has cooled helps to carry it away, no
light task consid ering that a pig of iron
weighs ECO pounds. The pigs are broken
in two before being placed on the trucks,
and this, too, is one of the tasks at which
Mr. McHarg is sometimes engaged half
a day at time. $50
He works in the pump house and tends
the big stationary engine. He runs the.
locomotives and dumps the cinder kettles
on the bank Of the river.
He is studying the gases that burn in
the stoves to heat the compressed air
before it goes into the furnace. The stoves
are great iron cylinders, 65 feet in height,
and 20 feet in diameter. One Of Mr.. Nc
Harg's first tasks was to tend these
stove, changing the gases from one to
another every half hour.
For the pas week he has been filling
the place of the keeper" who is absent
on account Of sickness.
He tries the heat in the furnace every
half hour. keeping it at 1000 degrees Fab
renheit, and goes to the top of the fur