Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-09-24

There was sort of landing outside
the door. The rail was about feet
high, with no lower guard. We specu-
lated on how it would feel to fall
through. This was caused no doubt
by the fact that workmen had to brush
past us to come from the saws to the
time clock
Suppose one of them should become
irate at our intrusion and give us a
shove? Well, we would put up a lively
fight for it. we promised the wide world.
The dresSed-up gentleman smiled in
disdain. He smirked at the time clock,
he smirked at the workmen, he
smirked at the world in general.
just then a man in overalls came up
with yellow slip and an arm full of
neatly cut planks about feet long,
all of which he delivered into the i'm
maculate arms of the gentleman. They
parted without words, leaving us alone
with flywheels and leather bands.
There were any number of bands,
running around like number of
wheels. Some of the wheels were
large, some small, but whatever their
size they turned so many revolutions
a minute on the same shaft.
AS far as we could count, the wheels
turned about 100 times minute. The
saws interested us most. Once upon a
time we had stood squarely in front of
such a saw when colored boy had
come up and said: BOSS, if 1 wuz you,
I wouldn't stand dar. Dat saw some
times flies off the handle"
| We wondered if the galaxy OF busy
saws before us might not "fly off the
handle" Carefully we tried to get be-
tween saws. but there were SO many
of them that we decided it was more
trouble than it was worth. Surely the
men were standing squarely behind
them. We took reassuring glance at
the workmen's compensation law notice.
X X X x
The average man with eyes which
are none too tough may be glad that
he does not work in a woodworking
shop. Those flying bits of sawdust-
would they not perpetually be getting
into a fellows eyes? They filled the
air, dancing in the sunshine like pro-
verbal notes, only these notes were
solid Slivers of solid wood.
All the men wore caps. At first we
wondered why. After we noted the per-
| petual dust we ceased to wonder. The
| whirr of the belts and the cry of the
keen-edged saws produced a veritable
din in an unaccuStOmed ear Dare say
the boys there didn't hear them at all
Custom makes anything easy. The
noise was steady, not intermittent, and
that ought to help. The uncertainty
of some noises is what makes them
hard to bear. We can recall a man
with poor sense of humor who
thought it funny to fire off As on
the Fourth of July. 1t was not the
noise but the uneXpectedness Of it that
caused one to jump.
There were piles of lumber every
where. with here and there one of
some finished scroll work, or neatly cut
boards. Baskets of rolled papers stood
under counters, and there were piles of
work over IN darkened corners. A drift
of sawdust was over everything, includ-
ing the men. The smell of cut boards
seemed part of the dust drift.
| None Of the men smoked, we were
happy to note. What would happen If
one pulled out a pipe and started to
strike match? We had no desire to
make the experiment, however. That
| flight of steps was too near.
Just then man in blue overalls came
up and solved our problems. Here
you are" said he, handing us the board
and the yellow order. We thanked him
and departed down the steps. We
could have walked off down the street
with our board, but stopped to pay, as
a matter of form. Industrial America
Is run on the basis of honesty.
AS we walked up the street we looked
for the fair equestrienne. but she was
gone. We knew she would bel