Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1911-07-13
Big CONSTRUCTION WORK
Building of N US New Subway
Will Require $4,000 Laborers.
Cost VIII he Four Times That OF Sucs
CanaI-"Humnn Cat" Has Fallen q
Mile in Two Hundred Separate
Accidents.


on the new subways next fall, the great
est municipal undertaking In the history
of the country, and costing as much as
the digging Of the Panama canal, New
York will be confronted with the greatest
labor famine It has ever known. When
the dirt begins to fly there will be a de-
rand for labor greater than that which
has been caused by the digging Of the
Panama canal and although there Is al
ways large floating army OF unemployed
here 1t will come nowhere near to make up
the total of $1,000 laborers who will be
needed, and as result Father Knicker-
booker will have to seek labor outside.
and during the next four years there will
be small excuse for any able-bodieo man
In this city being without Job. How
tremendous the task Of providing these
new transportation facilities Is shown by
The fact that they will cost more than
four times as much as the Suez canal
which was heraded throughout the world
rs a marvellous undertaking. 1t is esti-
mated that more than 100000 cubic
yards OF earth will have to be excavated.
OF iron and steel $4,000 tons will be need
ell or enough to construct s. buildings
equal in size to the Metropolitan tower
CT TO lay railroad tracks from New York
10 New Mexico. while the 100000 cubic
yards Of concrete which will be used
would build a good sized city. Altogether
the building OF these new subways will
get a record never before approached.
The recent holdup Of a mail train in
which the robbers escaped with the reg
tsiered mail Is cited by postal authorities
fere as emphasizing The rarity of losses
Of this kind While hundreds of millions
OF dollars are transported by mall. the
total indemnity paid by the postotiice dur
ing the past year on account Of train
robberies was only S769 Much of the dis
inclination on the part of the professional
f'ghwaymen to interfere with Uncle
Sans property in transit undoubtedly Is
duo to tho reputation which the old
gentleman has gained of never letting up
on the trail Of peculator and of event
ually Handing" every man VINO tries to
Frey upon the mails. Another reason for
the comparative infrequency OF train rob
teres undoubtedly is that by far the
greater part of the mail is now trans
ported by the railroads and it is a much
rlCre difficult matter to hold up fast
train than a stage coach or star route
carrier. BY the increase in the use OF
the railways as mail carriers the govern
n. ent gains in two ways for not only i!
railway transporta don far safer but +
Is also cheaper In fact the railway,
claim that the rates paid to them by III,
government for carrying the mails ar,
so low that they lose some millions o
dollars a year on this end of their bust
less, and as the postmaster-Cenera ate
Investigating nearly 400 lines has lust re
Ported that more than a quarter of then
src undergrad. the loss which they SURE
in this connection is vastly greater thai
that which arises from the depreciation
q would-be imitators of Jesse Jaipt-
That this occupation offers small cnanc
Of profit is shown by the fact that in TIN
past two years. according to postonc
records, there have been in the entir
country only nine train robberies involv
ing the mails and il is said that even /,
this latest holdup the mail train was at
tackled through mistake by bandits VIII,
were really after a heavy gold shipmcn
travelling by express on another train
Failing more than a mile without in
jury Is the record which has Just been Sc
i'lt ny u man kiloWU TO ilS 1ellOW work
trs as Nine Lives Tim" and the human
cat who Is neither an aeropanist no
halloonist but "A painter who has don,
his falling without the aid Of any arti
fetal means Of support. He rounded on
his two hundredth fall OF % feet or owe
this week by tumhling 100 feet from tn
eighth story of building In which he wa.
a work, landing on his feet and escaping
without any more serious injury thai
damage to his trousers although had
Wires which broke his fall 1t Is likel,
that this would have been his last tum
bile. Only three weeks ago he fell MT
feet from another building and his recor
includes twenty falls from barns, thirty
eight from trees. and more than 100 fror
the roofs Of residences. Falls from bl
cycles. fences and downstairs have bee
so numerous that their total has no
been kept, since the human cat regard
them as entirely too trivial to remember
But in spite of his peculiar proclivity 70
taking unexpected drops he always land
On his feet and has not a scar to shoN
for his mile of tumbling SO accustome
has he become to miraculous escapes tina
he now believes that fall from the high
est building in the city would leave hr
unscathed.
That crooks are honest men as com
pared to many local merchants is tn