The Tupelo journal., 1909-09-03

NEy
ly lower Indian plains, where scanty R
food, foul water. the lurking cholera e.
germ and the strange machinery OF
the foreign devil all ~conspire to SJ
count their victims by the score. In @i
reality the greatest TMH
toll of human life and
limb is taken right >
!. !: !. !. ! !. !. /. !. !: !: !: 1: !: !. !. !. !: !. !: !. ! ]. ]: !: !: ! !. !: :
here in America, in NMWN@
the steel mill, the mine, MMMI
the railroad yard and M1MX
on the towering steel W1TTNNhNWm
structures that dot our VNllNWIMNW
cities and span our riV- - VA
ers. M{NlHN1I wa
On the books of WDEl1HNM 4
many life insurance -M
companies there are ~&%M
lists of certain occu- XWHZMWN~
pations, ominously ~
marked as extra hazardous" On 81
this list none is more dangerous TM..X
than that of the "shot frer," or the d
man who lamps and fires the blast -
In the mines. The ordinary miner
faces the menace of the deadly ~
damp" that flows like an invisible
poison stream through the lower s
mine levels; he faces the danger Of Y
explosive gases that may drive the a
life from his body; the fear of the "
caVe-ln that may f1atten him under ~
tons of coal and slate is always with
him. All these fall to the lot of the
"shot-f1rer," as well as the dreadful
risks of handling a high explosive in
the close-walled caverns and under
ground passages, where its force is @w
confined and intensified. Such explo- NM
sives are VIGOROUSLY unstable, a stick ~
of giant powder may have withstood
the jars of transportation for long
distances and yet when placed in the drill
h0la nv fho .H6rar'1 NAV zu.J15o
under the soft blows of the tamping iron on
the Fill" above it. Many fatalities occur in
similar ways.
A never-failing source of interest to the
street crowd is the movements of the struc-
tural iron worker. Undoubtedly his work is
the most dangerous of all the building trades.
1t certainly is the most spectacular. With the
increasing ground values of the downtown dis
tricts forcing the buildings higher each year,
he frequently finishes his work in the free
spaces of the upper air with all the neighbor-
ing buildings far below him. He rides the
steel beams as they are swung from the lower
to the upper stories, holding to the cable and
balancing them to make sure they do not slip
their tether and shoot downward through the
completed floors and create more havoc than
a Pinch shell.
On the steel beams hundreds of feet above
the street traffic he runs back and forth about
his labors, as sure-footed at those dizzy
heights as a mountain sheep. A single false
step, a momentary dizziness and he would
plunge to his death a dozen stories below. Ev-
cry minute of each working day his life is in
the hands of his fellow-workmen A heavy
bolt dropped from above, a loosened plank, an
unshipped cable or a flying block and the
structure has taken it's toll of human life. The
structural steel worker is rarely crippled, as
his injuries are usually such as to cause i'm
mediate death.
Very similar to the risks of the steel mans
work are those of the steeple.jack. Moving
like a fly along the face of a factory chimney.
a water tower or a church spire, his daily
bread is gained at the daily risk of life and
limb. The fear of high places is not his par
ticular dread, as that is all in a days work,
but every time he is hoisted aloft he CANDLES
with his life on the strength of a strand of
cable and the GOODNESS of his assistant.
1t is the assistants duty to raise and lower
and shift the man in the chairs position as he
moves up and down and sidewise on the face
of the building upon which they are engaged.
Many wonderful escapes are recorded in the
annals of these workers between earth and
sky. Only a few days ago a steeple-jack,
working on a factory chimney in North st.
Louis, saved himself when his tackle gave
way by g%rasping a hook at the end. of a rope
suspended from the chimney top and arrested
his fall in midair, where he chung until res
cued by his thoroughly frightened helper.
Have you ever noticed the window-washer
going about his business, Is or 20 stories
above the street level? He stands on a mar
row ledge and his work compels him to lean
far back over the crowded street, many feet
below, as he reaches upward to clean the
upper part of the glass. A slip of the foot
on the wet stone of the ledge, a single
stumble and the crowd of downtown shoppers
would see him dashed to his death on the
paving at their feet.
Volumes have been written concerning the
terrible life-destroying implements of modern
warfare, but the government statistics, COM
piled by the interstate ommerce commission,
show that the railroad switchman's work is
more dangerous than that of the professional
soldier. A military movement In modern war
fare lasts only a few months at the longest,
but the switchman's campaign is every work
ing day. In a great terminal the noise of tug
ging engines and rolling coaches and box cars
never ceases. On the procession of cars NOV
ing steadily in and out depends the business
activity of the city and it's surrounding ter
ritory.
Day and night the yard crews dodge back
and forth in this scene of tireless activity,
clambering over and between moving cars,
making flying couplings and cutting cars out
of strings on the tracks as the cowpuncher