Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 31, Number 176, 22 July 1906 — Page 3

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'&iwmx if err x ' i' i P. ". Yi 'k - - liaiSSVCIs.! i U W 2 ''In the midst of life we are la death." An enterprising genius with a fondness for figures baa estimated that the average man or woman living In a big city escapes death 1,000 times during the revolution of the clock's metal hands once around the dial. Viewed from bis standpoint,, the unfortunate individual under the thread suspended sword of Damocles bad a tenure of existence, the certainty of which compared to that of the twentieth century citizen is as frail as the delicate mesh of a spider's web opposed to the strength of a 10-Inch cable. The average man In going to and from his work. It has been figured out, has 20 chances W being run over by a team, 13 chances of being run Into by an automobile, takes 82 chances of being in a trolley wreck, has something like ,70 chances of being bit by a falling brick or overhead sign, has three chances In 10 of being caught In a falling building, has one-half a chance of .being burned to death, baa about 5 chances of being hocked to death by a fallen electric wire, escapes falling Into a cellar-hole on an average of once U a block and has B2 opportunities to stumble on a defective sidewalk In every mile. In addition to this there are the possibilities of being assaulted by some desperate character, of being bitten by a mad dog, of being blown up by an exploding manbole, of being caught by a sewer caveln, of being stung by some poisonous Insect, of being overcome by beat or cold, or of being stabbed by mistake with a hatpin In the bands of an enraged female, as was a man in Chicago recently. Bloodpoisoning set in and be died 10 days later. Heroes there are in the dally walks of life, who go unsung to an unmarked grave. The driver of a fire truck In New York city who swung his horses against a telegraph pole and killed himself to save his team from running over a little child la not one whit braver than the little newsboy who went without eating for three days In order that his sister H might have food. The fireman who climbs a ladder amid smoke and flame and carries a weeping woman to safety on the ground is not one bit more a hero than 1 the girl who feeds your cuffs to the mangling , and Ironing machine at the common steam laundry around the corner. Xlardly a day passes but that one of these machines somewhere does not "squeeae" the hand of some poor operator and make a cripple for life. There Is applause for the soldier who goes marching behind xnusJc to the scene of battle, but none 'for the army of grimy tollers Who, some thousand strong, march every day into the big steel plants of the country. One of these big plants, year In and year out. It has been estimated, kills a man a day and Injures so many that the list Is never given to the public. In certain five years of American history our railroads killed over 10,000 of their men and wounded, 160,000. Compared with that record the list of casualties of the Spanish - American war fade Into mere nothingness. Substantial contributions, of course, would be made to these figures If the list of killed and injured by trolley and other vehicles were added. One of the peculiarities of the Industrial situation Is the fact that men seem to ask no more for their services because of the danger attendant upon their work. The man who takes death for a companion every time he dons his worklug clothes gets no more than the man whose occupation appears much safer. The $2,000 per day paid the man who takes the dip of death at the circus dwindles to a mere (15 per week when the pay' envelope comes around. Death is ever with us, and the dangers of our dally tell but give the grim reaper an additional chance to cut down the number of our allotted days. The average citizen, used to the snrroundlugs In which he moves, pays so little attention to the possibilities of a violent dsatU that to suggest to him that he la In danger would cause a smile. Every soldier realizes that sn unexpected bullet may lay him In an obscure grave at any moment; the sailor Is st the mercy of the tempest and rockbound coant; the policeman frequently gives battlt to the foes of society, and the fireman takes uls life lu his band on every run that he makes. These are the recognized heroes of society. Thousandsyes, millions -of laborers there re who face foci mr more subtle than that which beset the soldier and the sailor. These heroes battle for their daily bread and for the dully bread of others. They battle that out of the bowels f the earth may come the coal to keep alive shivering thousand in the months of winter; they battle that the world may hare light and beat and comfort; they battle that their children may not starve and that the children of the rich may have luxuries. Tbey expose IUicuj selves to the deadly fumea of aw-

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ful poisons In many a branch of manufacture; they expose themselves to the dangers of firedamp In the mines, to the dangers of disease In mnny forms, to perils unsuspected by the users of their products In order that the world may progress. Perhaps it does' not occur to the reader that the printer who set the story now being read did his work at a machine from which arises constantly the fumes of deadly gas used to heat the metal from which the type Is cast, and from which, in cases of disorder, has squirted molten metal sufficient to cause death. And the Illustrations which adorn this page what of them? The photographer who got the photograph's of the structural Ironworkers was himself perched upon an Iron beam 10 stories from the ground when he took the picture. In order to get the photo of . the fire horses In action he had to wait until the team of plunging equine was almost upon him, snap the shutter and jump. One false move and be would have been trampled under the feet of the excited beasts. The taking of the pictures' was not sufficient to Insure their production. From the photographer they went to the photoengravers. Here again men are braving death that newspaper readers may be amused. The process of making a halftone cut can be simply described as a process of taking a photograph through a screen and printing it on metal Instead of the ordinary photographic paper. The men, in developing the negative, use for purposes of cutting out and more sharply defining the figures on the film a solution of potassium cyanide, or, to be more explicit, Prusslc acid, one of the most deadly poisons known to science. A splinter of this, so small as to be hardly discernible to the naked eye, will kill a dog instantly, while a particle smaller than a little green pea will kill a man before he can walk five steps or utter 10 words. Its action is upon the heart. Kecently In Chicago several photo-engravers were eating their lunch in one of the large newspaper engraving plants. One of the men suddenly spit out his food and said : "My God, boys, there's cyanide in my Pie." He started for the sink but fell. When bis fellow-workmen reached his side he was dead. Each cut, after it is printed from the negative upon the metal in most cases link is etched away with another deadly poison, nitric acid. . The effect of nitric acid is upon the lungs, and half-tone etchers who remain in the business long usually die of tuberculosis, as the result of constantly inhaling the fumes of the acid with which they work. Every occupation that involves the handling of heated metal or the operating of machinery is fraught "with a certain specific danger to life and limb, and the newspaper plant Is no exception, so that not only the photographers and the cuttnakers, but the sterotypers, the pressmen and all other mechanics employed In the plant of an up-to-date newspaper like this take their life In their hands dally that you may have your news served hot with your coffee. Another Kind of Hero. In even so prosaic an occupation as the canning of meat or the making of sausage heroes move dally In a solid phalanx, never pausing or showing fear of the dangers that beset them. The fearful exposures of conditions that existed In I'acklngtown. Chicago, and other great centers of the meat-packing trade have forcibly drawn the attention of the country, not only to the dangers In the dally occupations of those who work In the packing-houses, but to the dangers that menace the Innocent in all parts of the land who eat of the canned tuberculosis and the picketed disease. Working in poorly ventilated shops, breathing the foul air, standing up to their ankles In water and slowty Inhaling and exhaling tuberculosis germs, this branch of the great army of labor Is surely entitled to a position at the right of the column under banners especially emblazoned. Specific Instances in which men have fallen into the rendering vats only to N?come a part of the contents before rescue coulil reach them are numerous, and one who claims to be an authority recently told of a case where a man fell from exhaustion at bis work in a eertaln Western packing-house one day, was carried out, carted home and died the next day of consumption. This latter incident Illustrates not only the unbealthful conditions under which the employes of the slaughter houses were compelled to work, but adds a striking note to the sound of warning to those (large numbers among

3asiibHs ;Vi; , the working class) who dally carry to their work. In dlnner-pall and lunch-box, packing-house sausage sandwiches, thus adding to the natural dangers that beset them In their toll, the Insidious menace of a death that glares at them from their dally bread and lurks in the lunch which their wives with loving hands prepare. While it Is true that every laborer, in a greater or lesser degree, takes his life In his hand when he enters the place of bis employment. It Is probably equally true that no class Is in the constant danger that besets the coal miner. Only a short time ago there was a fearful mining disaster in the Courrleres district of France, where 1,400 men met their death, and hardly a month passes but that In some part of the world a mining disaster of appalling magnitude does not occur. To a certain extent explosions of firedamp cannot be entirely prevented, but science has come to the rescue with appliances which enable men to live even In an atmosphere laden with the deadly gases. The first Invention of such apparatus was that of a Frenchman, Dr. Regnard. whose appliance has been Improved upon by other contrivances built upon the same principle that of supplying pure air by artificial means. Two devices to be worn by miners while in a mine filled with firedamp have been tried and found successful. One furnishes fresh air or renews the supply of purified air, while the. oVber carries a surply of compressed air to be liberated as Deeded. Both are strapped upon the person of the miner, and the head of the operator Is encased in an airtight helmet, eo that the only nlr which Is allowed to reach his nostrils Is that which comes from the contrivance upon his back. Of course, the great force of miners could not work with these appliances upon their backs, and besides It would be too great an expense. They are Invaluable, however, for rescue work, when men are sent to the relief of imprisoned or overcome miners. The average man and woman knows little of the men who produce the origi

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a nating motor power pf the world's machinery. They are 400,000 men and boys who delve Into the bowels of the earth and work there In an unnatural condition. John Mitchell, president of the United Mlneworkers of America, in an interesting interview recently said of the conditions of their employment: "They are removed from the sight of their fellow-beings, obscured from the rays of the sun, jth hundreds, oftentimes thousands of feet of rock between them and those they love. They work in a place that teems with dampness and danger, where not a day goes by but what more than one unfortunate miner meets death by falls of rock, loal or slate, and where at frequent Intervals, by reason of the explosion of gases which are permitted to accumulate in the mines, there are accidents by which tlie nation is appalled: humble homes are made desolate, wives are made widows and children orphans. That Is how these men dig the dusky diamonds whose ruddy glow cheers the hearthstone parties In many homes.". When drinking your soda water or your pop you seldom stop to think that with every bottle of the harmless-looking fluid that was put up the operator faced a danger ns great as that of the soldier who marches Into battle. The bottling of carbonated or any highly charged mineral water or, in other words, drink that has a nzz to It, is highly dangerous. If the bottle or siphon is weak at any point an explosion !t almost inevitable. Frequently employes at these places bave been blinded or otherwise terribly injured by these accidents. A Carboy of scda water, charged to a pressure of something like 400 pounds to the square Inch, burst in Buffalo two or three years ago while It was being carted over a cobble-stone street on a delivery wagon. Both horse and driver were killed instantly and the windows in houses for blocks around were broken. In up-to-date establishments for the manufacture of these charged waters every precaution

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K3S is taken and the employes who fill the bottles, as well as those who put on the labels and handle them In the early stages, are protected by an iron mask, which shields the eye The bands and arms are protected by gloves made of thick wool. Formerly leather or rubber was used, but It has now been found that the first mentioned material answers the purpose better.Recognised Dangerous Trades.' There are certain trades that are recognized as dangerous. Take, for Instance, that of structural ironworkers. Thanks to the erection of many steel-frame buildings all over the country this trade has come Into prominence during the past few years. Everybody knows that these men, crawling about at great heights, are in constant danger; that is, everyone knows It, but the men themselves. During the erection of the great cantilever bridge over the Niagara Gorge, below Niagara Falls, a certain workman was cblded by the gang foreman for the needless risks be took while working in his elevated position. "Take a chance like that again and I'll fire you," said the foreman after some particularly foolhardy piece of climbing. "Fire away," responded the workman, and to show bis contempt both for danger and the foreman, he ran nimbly to the end of a two-foot plant and stood on his bead, kicking his feet In the air over a chasm 160 fret deep.- He was discharged, but, being a particularly valuable workman, was reinstated after a day or two. During the erection of the electric tower for the Pan-American Exposition a structural Ironworker fell from the very tip of the tower 407 feet from the earth. He spread out his arms. Instinctively, and, as luck would have it, tbey caught . on a projecting piece of scaffolding and his Journey was stopped when be bad still over 350 feet to go. He crawled slowly over the beam to the tower and went back to work, not even shaken or unnerved by bis miraculous escape. Steeplejacks, the men who scale high chimneys, church spires, flag poles and

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go Into other inaccessible places to make repairs, add ornaments, etc., seem endowed with the characteristics of the common house fly and go about with apparent unconcern, while the blood of the spectators Is chilled with the realization of the awful risks that the men take. The workmen In factories where high explosives are made are also subjected to a well-known danger. Men who work with powder, gun cotton, dynamite or other high explosives, must be protected, and at certain points in their manipulation the men stand behind a network of woven rope. Such a protection, being flexible, is much better in case of an explosion than an armor of steel or wood. Trades Not ThouffUt Dangerous. There are, however, a number of trades believed to be entirely without risk that are really very dangerous. Among them are that of furrier and tanner. The Introduction Into the lungs of fragments of balr results In serious injury to the health; but the greatest danger Is from malignant poisoning. Men employed in polishing stone run great danger of tuberculosis from getting fine particles of stone into their lungs, while sand-blast engravers are so exposed to danger that an especially designed air-tight suit has been Invented for their protection. This latter trade, quite common in Europe, Is comparatively unknown in America. Ths manufacture of white lead, too, Is a dangerous occupation. The dangers are also experienced by house painters, who are subject to the double danger of the possibility of a fall from a high place and the white-lead poisoning. The man who makes the common kitchen and pocket match frequentjy falls a victim to phosphoric necrosis. The polishing of electric light bulbs is exceedingly risky for the eyes of the operator; and employes in factories where ammonia is used In any form are dally subjecting themselves to the dangers of death from diseases of the kidneys and other organs. Employes In European ammonia factories seldom attain an advanced age. Gases of powerful corrosive strength escape from the ammonia and kill vegetation for miles around. Chloride of lime, too, in the process of its manufacture Is a very dangerous article, and employes who make It frequently wear special masks. Even with this protection they are enabled to work for but a short time. The farmer, away from the rush and bustle and hurry of the city. Is' supposed to live a care-free and perfectly safe life; but with his many threshing machines and other machinery, his splrlted'horses. his mad bulls and his hives of bees, he Is found to be subjected to a constant string of dangers which seldom beset the city man. There ere something like 275.000 beekeepers In the United States, everyone of whom is in danger of being stung to death every time be goes among bis insect charges. Still Another Class. In a class by themselves, when the dangers of dally employment are being considered, are the railway employes. The nineteenth annual report of the Interstate Commerce Commission shows that for the year covered by the report there were killed and Injured in the railway service 04,201 persons, of whom 10,046 were killed zrod 84,155 injured. The figures look like the report of casualties after some of the world's big battles. The members of this vast industrial army, fighting with steam and steel to defeat time and space, met death and InJury in various ways. Some fell from the cars and trains; some were run down; some while Jumping on and off cars in motion and some by collision. While In the act of coupling and uncoupling cars 307 were killed and 4,019 were injured. The various branches of the service suffered as follows: Trainmen Killed. 2,114; Injured, 20,275. Switch Tenders and .Watchmen -Killed, 229; injured. 2,070. All Other Employes Killed, 1.2S5; inJured, 85,722. The number of passengers killed In the course of the year covered by the report was 441, and the number of Injured 0,111. The most picturesque figure' In the list of the railroad employes is the locomotive engineer the man who, like the general of an army, leads a regiment of people safely across a stretch of travel. The locomotive engineer never regards himself particularly as a hero because be is always a hero. He has long ago learned to look death in the face to act quickly in emergencies. He gets his orders from the train dispatchers. He reads bis orders and be obeys them. Like the hero of the Six Hundred, "His not to reason why, his but to do and die." It is an unwritten law that the engineer of the locomotive, like the pilot of the boat, never leaves bis place. Straight into the thick of danger he goes, his eyes to the -front and his hand on the throttle. In the same category may be classed motormen of the The Victorian How often, In reading an account of some serious disaster at sea, one notices the announcement that certain of the heroes of the occasion have been awarded Lloyd's medal. It Is the reward almost comparable, in fact, to the little bronze cross on which the two stimulating words "for valour" are engraved whkb Is presented on the recommendation of the commanding officer to the soldier who does some deed of special gallantry in the face of the enemy, or the sailor wbo distinguished himself under similar conditions. To the public, however, Lloyd's medal does not convey so serious a meaning; perhaps because the recipients seldom wear it on their dress "plain for all folk to see," no doubt shrinking In natural modesty from the display on ordinary attire of the record of a deed which Involved the imperiling of life and limb from the overwhelming forces of nature instead of from the bullets of the enemy. Lloyd's medals are two in number. The older, which wao founded in 1S37. as made in silver and bronze, and is awarded as an honorary acknowledgment to those wbo have, by extraordinary exertions, contributed to the saving of life at sea, while In 1683 it was decided to give a medal to skips officers and others wbo. by standing by, have contributed to the preservation of vessels and cargoes from perils of all kinds. This latter emblem is In silver, though at first it was made in bronze. The medal for meritorious services Is sn oval one. The reverse side bears the words "Presented by the

electric cars of the big cities, drivers of ambulances and fire engines In fact of most any kind of a vehicle, chauffeurs of big power motors, navigators of airships, etc., etc. Uifnaual Occupations. And this mention of airships brings to mind a list of unusual occnpatlous occupations that are exceedingly dangerous, but are participated in by very few people. Aeronauts and airship men like Santos Dtunont and Roy Knabenshue are among them; Barney Oldfield, Webb Jay and several other professional automobile racers, the men who handle wild animals at zoos and menageries and the broncho busters of the Western plains. The soldier in war time takes a good many risks for his $15.60, but he falls to face ths almost certainty of death that confronts the circus performer every time he loops the loop on a bicycle or leaps the gap on an automobile. The men who repair , dan geroos steeples and the divers who go down where McGInty Is supposed to be ruminating at the bottom of the sea; ths bridge Jumpers who leap for fame and cash, and the circus tumblers and athletes who seek to amuse by various physical feats, the trainers of wild beasts all as carelessly take their lives In their hands and run as many risks ss doss ths man who makes a living by blasting rook or shooting oil wells. Every shop that has machinery In It piesents certain dangers to the workmen, but tbey,. having become used to the buss and hum of the grinding wheels aud whirring belts, are totally unconscious of their danger until mangled by their iron servant. The tight-rope walker at a circus thinks no more of the danger he tuns than did the packer In a powder mill, who was found calmly smoking his cigar in the midst of enough stuff to send the entire Russian Army to heaven or wherever It deserved to go. He bad lighted ths cigar after lunch and forgot to put It out when he entered ths factory. Men become familiar with the dangers that surround them snd forget about them until it is too late. Doctors and nurses, for tnstsnce, think no mors of entering a smallpox-Infested bouse than you or I do of crawling Into bed at night. Though, perhaps, the most dangerous occupation there Is that of healing and caring for the sick those who enter it, thanks to their professional and scientific training, take almost unconsciously, and certainly mechanically, precautions that effectively protect them nine times out of ten. Particularly dangerous along this line is the work of the men In the bacteriological offices Ih the health departments of all big cities, who examine ths spittle of supposed consumptives and ths culture of diphtheria" patients, looking for germs of the disease. They usually wear tubber gloves, an antiseptic coat and a silk mask. ' Not alone In the waking hours does danger beset. Somnambulists frequently arise from their beds and walk from roofs or plunge down elevator shsfts. Only recently a well-known ballplayer got up from his berth on a coast line boat and, mistaking a direction, walked Into the waters. He was never seen agsln and his body was not even recovered. Even so useful and harmless an article as a plate of false teeth can. llie the worm, turn and take human life. Several people within the past few years have been choked to death while in bed owing to the fact their false teeth slipped down their throats. A woman a nervous f sleeper, by the way while dreaming wound herself up In the beasneet ana smothered herself. She was found dead next mom In. A little child, trying to crawl through the slats In the side of its bed, got all Its body through but Us head and hanged Itself. , Fires frequently break out at night, and the danger from this source, except In the most modern of buildings. Is considerable. No man knows when he may go to bed aqd forget to turn the gas completely off, thus courting death by asphyxiation. In ons week the papers of the country showed that 24 individuals were killed by either Illuminating, natural or coal gas whlls they slept, i Every day brings to notice from somewhere or other at least one instance where Individuals or whole families have narrowly escaped a termination of existence from this cause. To revert to a' favorite theme of the comic papers, a boy engaged for the purpose, by watching the papers from all over the country, discovered three cases In a month where people were killed by the closing of folding beds, while one man actually suffered death as the result of the collapse of an ordinary old-fashioned bedstead. But despite It all. the last federal census shows that one person In every 100.000 population, or to be exact, 3.504 people were living at the age of 100 years or over. SAMUEL WILLIAMS HIPPLER. Cross of the Sea. Lloyds for meritorious services," and contains a scroll between the two Inscriptions on which the recipient's nam Is engraved, snrrounded by a design of oak leaves, while the clasp by which ths medal is suspended Is appropriately formed of two dolphins, with their tails together, encircling a balL It need hardly be said that It would be impossible for the committee of Lloyds to recognize all the heroic deeds which add lustre to the story of the sea; but as Lloyd's Is the center of Information connected with shipping, It may be takeq for granted that cases of merit rarely escage the notice of the Institution, Extracts from the log, and the evidence of the master or officers wbo have been rescued, with in some cases a letter from the captain commending the conduct of various members of the crew are generally procured to serve as evidence on which the committee msy base its Judgment. Since 1837, when the medal for saving life at sea was instituted, less than 125 medals bave been awarded, so that ths sver8ge Is barely two a year, though is 1901 14 medals were given, but most of them were for one ship. That the standard is kept very high is evidenced by ths fact In 1900, and in 18!)3. and 1834 only One medal was awarded in each one of these years, while In 1892 none were given.' The bronze medals are considerably more numerous, numbering as tbey do some 300, while the medal for brave service has been awarded to considerably less thsn a hundred recipients during the dozen years it has existed.