Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 August 1899 — THE WHISTLE SPLITTERS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE WHISTLE SPLITTERS.

You Will Find Them in Nearly Every Large Hive of Industry. There is an old joke about the laborer who leaves his pick in the air and hurries off to dinner when the 12 o’clock whistle blows. He does not care about the pick, it will come down all right, but he does not want the “boss” to have a minute of his time that is not paid for. His noon hour is 66 full minutes, and they begin as soon aa the whistle lets out its first toot and lasts until it has exhausted itself at 1 o'clock. This man always has the

privilege of working with a pick if the “boss" needs a man very much. In factories about towns there are always a few employes who come to be known as “whistle splitters.” Their splitting begins in the morning when taey cross the threshold on a run just as the sound of the whistle dies out in a sob. At noon they are out of the door simultaneously with the first blowing of the whistle, and at night they have their coats and dinner buckets all ready to be grasped as soon as the whistle starts to blow. These men see their fellows become foremen or get better positions elsewhere while they stay at the same old wages year by year, because they are too mean to give the “boss” two minutes more of their valuable time than he has paid for. Every one In the shop knows the “whistle splitter.”

“SPLITTING THE WHISTLE."