Los Angeles herald., 1906-11-09

Witnln ten miles or Kansas City is a
village whose people live In continual
dread Of a terrible death. 1t is Holmes
Park, three miles south OF Swope park.
Near this little village is a powder
mill in which are made each day 1000
kegs Of the most powerful blasting
powder.
Within few rods Of the little white
schoolhouse around which the children
OF the village romp and play Is great
magazine in which are stored 10000
1t would wreck every house in the little
village and would cause the buildings In
Kansas City to tremble as IL an earth
quake shook them.
In this powder plant twenty-four men
work. Death, stark and fearful, star9s
them In the face every moment. The
tiniest spark, struck from n bit of iron
anywhere would cause the explosion
that everyone breads.
These men who work eye to eye with
death have faces sober and drawn with
anxiety and fear and continual brood
ing over what might happen. No man
ever becomes accustomed to It SO that
he forgets and is care free as work.
men In other trades are. In or around
this powder mill Is never heard a snatch
OF a song or a merry laugh. The men
work in silence.
Faces Haggard with Fear
The mental strain is hard and the men
do not stay long. They come and go.
Some stay for year, more stay for
six months but the majority quit after
few weeks of 1t. There are always
new men to take the places of those
who go. The high wages tempt them.
Men who do common labor are paid So
a day. Others who work in the "corn-
ing MILL" where the liability of explo-
sion is ever present, are paid $3.50 a
day.
A man may be daredevil, he might
have the courage to fight his weight In
wildcats, and he might begin work in
the powder mill without fear In his
heart. But everywhere he would see
the utmost precautions against the
dreaded explosion and soon this would
begin to tell upon him. He would see
the rules before his nose at every turn;
mo matches allowed anywhere upon
the place, no smoking, no striking of
iron against iron, no drinking of intoxl-
cants." He would see men moving
slowly, lifting things gingerly and lay
ing them down with care, even putting
their feet down tenderly upon the pow
der-strewn floors, always fearful of the
spark that might strike. But more than
all else he would be impressed uncon-
sciously with the strained look upon the
mems faces, and soon the same hag-
gard look would come into his face, he
would dream of the awful thing at
night, he would brood over 1t by day, |
and then he would come to a point |
where he could stand it no longer and |
he would quit the job.
Their Wives Are Fearful, Too
They tell story of man who had |
worked in the powder mill until he was
almost a nervous wreck. He had |
dreamed hundreds of times of being |
torn to atoms by the explosion of the
mill. One day at his work beneath |
huge cylinders in which tons of powder
were revolving he turned and saw d
parcel In red bandana handkerchief
which fellow workman had laid in a
corner. To his imagination 1t looked
like red blood splotches of a torn and
mangled body and he turned and ran
and did not stop until he was beyond
sight of the powder mill.
The wives of the powder makers suf-
fer with the nervous strain fully as
much as their husbands. They know
that If the explosion comes 1t will be
without a moments warning or time
for thought.
But the children play around the
school house as cheerily as children
anywhere. They are the only ones who
do not feel the burden and the gloom
in the powder village.
Not long ago a spark some way
touched the clothing Of a man who
worked in the powder mill. His cloth
ing was saturated with powder There
was no explosion, but every thread
upon him went up in flash and he
died from the burns. Luckily for the
others In the mill he was not where an
explosion might happen.
To Prevent Explosions
There are sixty acres in the powder
mill grounds. 1t is very hilly. The