Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-10-04

reach the age of retirement. Death or permanent injury by fall is the more common end of the workers ca reer.
 | The falls of skyscraper workers are more accurately described as falls within the building than as falls from them Fatal falls of more than five stories are rare, for there is generally something in the way of the descend ing oody to break it's fall.
 While the American housesrnith or bridge builder prefers to remain in America if he has his choice of jobs, ke is sometimes called on to go abroad | to exhibit his skill and daring for the 1 benefit of foreigners. In such case he makes a contract with his employer, | st!pulating the amount Of wages to l be paid. often including board. and containing a clause calling for trans porGation both ways, dead or alive. This grewsome condition is made so that the American worker may be certain of having his last resting place at home in case of fatal acci- dent abroad.
 To an onlooker one of the most in- teresting of the workers on a high building is the man who throws the redhot bolts and rivets Often he is an apprentice, but to judge from the nenchalance with which he filings the heated missiles twenty feet or more into the kegs waiting to receive them one would think that throwing such things is the most natural affair of everyday life. The sizzling chunks of iron are taken from small temporary | xr-;&L thrown to a workman standing ready to catch them in an empty nail keg. He passes them to the riveter, who places the rivets in the holes already prepared for them in the steel beams and fastens to their heads the heavy bolts. The "man with the keg'' is of necessity more accurate in his catch ing than the "man behind the bat in the major baseball leagues, since a miss is apt to mean the sudden death or maiming of a fellow worker below through the dropping of the lump of hot metal on him A miss is therefore an extremely rare occurrence, but a common incident of the trade is the casting off by the flying bolt of hot sparks, which find their way to the i hands or faces or necks of the toilers underneath. But nobody minds that Its all in the days work" as the iron- workers themselves put it.
 Probably the narrowest escape from death by a falling redhot bolt is that recorded of a Chicago workman sev- eral years ago. He was standing at the foot of a Madison street building in course of erection when a rivet catcher ten floors up had an of" mo- ment and let one of the missiles go past him. It fell to the ninth floor struck a girder and then continued it's course to the street, striking the mans clothing just behind the shoul- der. It burned a path for itself through his shirt and trousers with out touching the skin. Had his posi- tion been different by but the fraction of an inch his death would have been certain
 Closely akin to the work of the sky scraper erectors and equally perilous is that of the bridge builders. The men who work to throw across rivers spans of steel and iron are in constant danger of falling through missteps and of crushing by the sudden collapse oi portions of the uncompleted struc- | lures. III Iu6lT case ldll IS dlIllOSt invariably fatal, since there is seldom anything between the earth or water and the bridge to break the descent The recent collapse of the great can talever bridge in course of construction over the St. Lawrence river at Que bes, in which seventy-eight workmen lost their lives. serves to illustrate one of the dangers to which the bridge builder is constantly subject.
 In many instances men working on bridges have been blown overheard and drowned. Sometimes a part of the bridge building machinery went with them, as was the case at Thebes, Ill cantalever bridge was being constructed across the Mississippi Three of the workmen were on a trav- cling crane when a sudden gust of wind struck it and blew it into the water The three men were taken dead from the water, seventy-fivs feet below.
 Among the other toilers who con- stantly as a matter of business risk their lives in work high in the air are the window cleaners. the firemen who fight the flames in the upper stories of buildings and the steepls climbers, or "steeplejacks." The last named, who are called upon to do all sorts of difficult and dangerous work. not only on steeples. but on chimneys. towers and other high structures. almost in- variably declare that they consider their calling. all things considered, far safer than the businesses which tie men to the earth. In addition, most of them are fatalists.
 The perils of the steepIs climbers life are partly compensated. in his own mind at least. by the excelIancs of his pay. For Psinting a single 9ag- stan he receives from 5I9 b SIS. and fer bigger and Tners difficult jobs shs pay is in proportion. Repair work on the top of s high spire. requiring. out side of the climb. but 2 few minutes, has often nettsd the climber from s15o to ss0o. according to the difacuity of the ascent
 Like the housesrHiths and the bridge builders. most of the steepIs jacks are Americans Some of the best msn in the business make trips to Europe to work on stssplss and chimneys there
 1t doesn't take any great skill t9 do stsspls climbing. only grit to think you are safe. and then there is no more danger than when you are on the ground said an expert climber ~Tou don't care about trying it2 We'll I suppose it's a case of every man to his business. and this one Is mine One of the beauties of 1t is that there isn't much cOmpstitfon
 CHARLES N LURIE