The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-02-15

| dumping it into the terrific fire.. When
cast is made he helps regulate the
flow of the iron, and, hours later, when
it is cool helps to break it up and carry
it away. 1t requires physical strength,
for pig of iron weighs 200 pounds, and,
| although they are broken in two, it is no
easy thing to lift into trucks pieces OF
iron weighing 100 pounds FOR half a day
| at time.
On other days he is assigned to the
lpump-house and works around the big sta
| tionary engine. One of his chief delights
| is running the locomotive that is used
| around the plant. And when it comes
| to coupling cars he displays a skill that
Is the envy of others about the works.
| This millionaire laborer, whose face be-
| comes so begrimed that his father would
not know him, devotes much attention to
! studying the generation of the gases that
heat the compressed air before il goes
! irto the furnace These gas stoves
| az they are called. are cylinders So feet
| high and 20 feet in diameter. and the care
OF them was one OF his first tasks.
| Recently the youth has been filling the
place OF a sick keeper, whose business
it is to watch the furnace. Every half
hour he goes to the top OF the furnace to
| see that it is properly filed. In between
times he lets off the Stag. and that is
father exciting. for the sparks fly thick
and fast as he pierces the plug with a
long steel rod and the r-olten mass pours
down the trough into the great cinder ket-
ties. Then he puts the plug again and
turns HE attention to the dumping OF
cIhders. Incidentally he shovels Stag from
the donkey track. patches up leaks in
the c;nG-i buckets AID performs other
tasks. There isn't a moment that he Is
not busy during the twelve hours that
make a days work.
At noon he eats his dinner from tin
pail that he carries to work every day.
as do the other employees. 1t is not at
all remarkable that he has tremendous
appetite.
One has TO be young to want TO dance
and enjoy other more or less strenuous
amusements after days like those which
young McHsrg goes through And it
should be remembered that the furnace
knows no Sundays nor holidays. The
work goes on continuously day and night,
for when the fires are permitted to go
ola it requires several days to heat the
furnaces to the necessary temperature
Not once has the millionaire laborer
been late, and even the hardest worked
man in New York cannot understand how
hard it is TO get up promptly at o'clock
every morning. Since he started McHarg
has missed but one day, and the circum-
stances have increased his popularity
enormously. At the hotel where he makes
his home Henry c. Allen. a young civil
engineer. was stricken with illness that
promised to develop into pneumonia. He
was all alone. with no one 20 take care
of him. McHarg had Allen carried to
his own room, nursed him all night until
noon the next day, when some of his
relatives arrived.
McHarg was dancing a cotillon on New
Years eve when a fire broke out more
than a mile distant. He fastened to the
scene and helped the few fremen in
checking the flames which had already
consumed five dwellings. He returned to
the hotel wet to the skin and almost ex-
hausted. He went to bed, slept for two
hours and appeared at the furnace at 6
o'clock on New Years day and put in
his usual twelve hours of toll.
It isn't at all remarkable that he has
won the respect of the men by whose
side he works and the admiration OF his
superiors. Captain James Dunae. the SUI
perintendent of the furnace, says that the
boys faithfulness, his energy and his
intelligence are remarkable. and that he
would get to the front if he had no
money or backing
Il never saw any one learn more rap
a
Superintendent He works with his head
as we'll as with his hands. and he is quick
to see where improvements in the fur
mace may be made. He hopes to build
a furnace himself some day"
AS for McHarg himself, he refuses to
see anything, out of the ordinary in his
course. He doesn't seem to understand
why it should attract any attention. He
is really a modest youth and newspa-
per fame seems to frighten him.
81 want to learn the business he said.
land the only way is to start at the be-
ginning and work as the other men do.
IL is hard work, but it is very interesting
and ] enjoy it. 1 have pretty good time
in Radford. The social life is delight
full
All of which goes to show that there
IS pretty good stuff In this millionaire
laborer, who goes TO work long before
daylight every morning. OF course, he Is
a laborer only at the works. He has the
best rooms in the best hotel in Radford,
and has surrounded himself with all the
Injuries money can procure. The plea
sure he misses chiefly is that he de-
rived from his automobile, but he is going
to have his big machine sent to Radford.
He hopes before long to be promoted to
work that will give him a little more
time for sleep and which viii not require
so many hours TO remove the CRIME from
his face.