The daily Alaskan., 1913-03-25
WORK WITH DEATH
Perllous Ceilings Where Life Is
 Always In Danger.
HOW MEN LOSE THEIR NERVE

Courage Never Retnrns-A Loss ot
 Heart and a Race For Life.
 Human nature becomes callous to the daily association with peril. But now and then something tears away the callous spot and leaves the raw, naked nerve exposed.
 Structural steelworkers run many chances of losing their uerve-"drop- ping their goats" they call 1t. Only the other day one of them who had never known fear was standing on the outer edge Of lofty steel framework and chanCed to look down into the street. He saw a trolley car run over a newsboy. Instantly his mind was swamped with thoughts of death. Be stretched himself fat on the beam ard crawled to an island of planking. When a man once does that on top of a skyscraper be has finished his high work.
 "They never come back said an old foreman. Its pity. too, for they can never get a quarter the pay at an- other job that they dld at this before they looked down and saw death"
 Much of the worlds work Is done by men who have to keep their nerve in the face of peril Sometimes man will not go to pieces until after a long run Of danger. Primarily the cause may be fatigue or bad liver or bad nerves. but when 1t Is all over he de- cides be has had enough and seeks an- other vocation.
 In the places where high explosives are manufactured the men are subject ed to a constant nervous strain. They get used Co it, ike everything else, but when an accident comes there Is sure Co be some one aUnong the sur vivors who drops out of the ranks Of the workers.
 In plant where more dynamite, nitroglycerin. guncotton and other pentup destruction are made than any where else In the world nearly a thou sand lives depend more or less on a thermometer.
 In one step in the manufacture of nItrUglyceriu 1t is a qulyering, sullen fluid in a big caldron brilliantly lighted by electricity. Glycerin Is continually sprayed on the tons of heated acids within. As 1t mixes the glycerin
 s. .n. ..,gr.lI. ,gF-,1rnr fr,un Fha acids. and the mass becomes nitro glycerin. Round tbe caldron a man moves swiftly. nOiselessly, dividing hls attention between th2 contents and a thermometer that extends down into the bot acids. The temperature of the mass must not rise above so degrees.
 GIyceriu has many vagaries thal have been never been explained If, through one of them, the temperature rises ;a9,a,,i zee danger point the first thing the man on watch does Is to send more cUol soln. Ion through the pipes that coil snakewise round the giuut caidrCn. IT the mercury in the tube continues Co rise be shuts OR the inflow of glyCerin. IT this does not have the desired effect be turns on compressed air, so as to throw the mass into violent agitation. 1T this fails he has only one more card to play. He opens a valve and emptes the charge into the drowning tank" Then be makes a dash for safety.
 Only a few men who have ever been immediately exposed to explosions have lived to tell about them after ward Those who have escaped and have continued 10 their hazardous eui- pIoymeut are thereafter known only by their first names. There are only few Of these. The other survivors have sought other work where the risks are less. Said one of them:
 "You can't trust the stun any more than you could sleeping cobra l was at work one day around the mix Ing tank and things were going as usual when | suddenly noticed that the mercury in the thermometer was creep ing up toward SO Quick as 6ash | saw that something had gone wrong, and. one after another, turned on the cold. shut OlT the glyCerin and turned on the mir. No one ever watched any thing more anNiouSly than l dld that thermometer But the mercury kept on climbing. Then l made a grab for the quick opening valve SO as to drown the stun. One of the officers of the company was ln the room. had yell ed at him to run. But he stood there as cool as n cucumber. saying that be didn't think there was much danger. As soon as l opened the valve to let the stun otf ! made a jump through the window. There were plenty of emergency doors. but didn't want to take an extra step. The boss went out by a door. The fraction of second that | saved by taking the window probably added a good many years to my life. l landed on the ground and was running with all my might when was lifted or my feet and hurled al least 100 yards escaped with a broken leg. The boss, who had run in the opposite direction. was picked up dead. There was hardly a mark on him.
 "The explosion st in the drown ing tank. The stuG sttled at the bot tom. where agitation was impossible What sort Of a noise dld 1t makel Like the roar of a dozen tornadoes and