Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1905-02-23
In A KILN-TOP
BY
ALBERT w. TOLMAN

DNVING his heavy four-horse wagon
up on the stage beside the open kiln
top, Harry Sanders stopped his horses
and twined his reins round the whip
stock standing in its case on the righf
of the seat. Then he pulled on his
leathern grabs" and began to pitch his
load of limerick, piece by piece, into
the granite-lined pit that yawned below
him, vomiting forth ceaseless tide OF
smoke and heat.
Underneath. in the body CT the kiln,
were 20 or 80 tons of limerick in every
stage of burning, from the thoroughly
calcined Jumps at the bottom, Whlch
needed only shoveling out and cooling
off to prepare them for packing in the
casks, to the fragments last thrown IN
at the top, crusted with coal SCOT, put
not yet heated enough to show any signs
of crumbling. From this mass, through
which the arches sent steady flood OF
streaming fame, spun out by the forced
draft. rose a mingled column OF car
bonic acid gas and coal smoke, deadly
combination for the human lungs.
"Tf a man ever falls into one Of those
tops, he's done!" burner had once re-
marked; and no one who had seen the
smoking pits in full blast would be like
ly to question the truth of the assertion.
1t was Monday morning, and the rock
in thekiln had settled considerable as
lance. The top was something over II
feet in diameter. From this point the
body of the furnace gradually contract
ed. until Just above the arches II meas
ured barely eight feet across. UP 10
within two or three yards OF the surface
it was lined with friedrich, but for the
remainder of the distance blocks OF So
called fire granite were employed.
The workmen below never intention
ally put on fresh coal when a cart was
being unloaded above; but sometimes
they could not avoid doing so, and then
the driver was subjected to very un-
pleasant smoking.
On this morning Sanders was unfoT-
tunate. He had not thrown OH oCZeh
pieces when he heard the scraplng Oh
Ehoyels. and in few seconds, curling
I'D through every crevice in the rough
pit bottom, came the sooty vapor. Thick
er it grew, eddying and whirling round
him in choking clouds. But the team
must be unloaded, and he could not stop.
The faster he worked the sooner ne
would be through.
With dropped heads the horses stood
patiently waiting for the signal 10
start. They were used to the smoke, and,
indeed, were so far forward that they aid
not get nearly so much as their driver
He was completely hidden by 1t. Aspec-
tator a short distance away could not
have told whether or not he was stlll on
the top of his load.
Sanders worked rapidly, tossing the
lumns one after another into the kiln
TOP. The wagon was perhaps a quarter
unloaded when his left toe caught un-
der an especially large piece OF rock, anu
he stumbled forward. Then fragment
under his other foot gave way and he
pitched over the wheel into the mouth
of the kiln. AS he fell, he caught I'M
availingly at the whip-stocK, rounn
which the reins were twisted 1t yield
ed and the place where he had stood was
vacant. So blackly did the smoke roll
over the wagon that a man ten feet OH
could not have seen him fall.
Almost before the driver had time to
realize what had occurred, he found him.
self sprawling in a loose, helpless heap
upon the rocks he had just thrown in.
They were not yet heated through put
their sharp corners cut and bruised him
severely.
Instantly the deadly peril of his situa-
tion dawned upon him, and he sprang to
his feet. bent upon getting out at once.
Warm. black and sitting, the smoke
wranped him about like shroud. He
began to cough and choke. An ordinary
man would have succumbed immediate
Iv in that fearful atmosphere, but San
6ers had become 50 accustomed to
hreathing coal smoke that he did not
vield readily to the fumes. He was per-
fectIv aware that his life-could be meas
ured by a very few scores Of seconds un-
less he extricated himself at once from
this fiery pit Two quick steps brought
rim 70 the front wall He pushed his
hands up along the hot granite blocks.
and found that he could reach well over
the highest layer. A moments grasp
unon some firm projection. the quick
thrust of boot-toe into crack in the
lining. and he would be out of his diem
ma In jiffyL