iiiiiiF7
Fine Sight for Suffragists at
Car.cale in France.
0V manv of the "men in
1 '
1 t
K
Id
fcflUBhffXXLJ
! ill :f M W'W
wmww
I I Mr St?'
T 1 v,
s
the tlrtit," tlie moil who
arc the bread winners of
tl:c (-immunity. Ihe
work day after day in
more deadly peril than
the no'.dier on the bring
Hue or tin; buckskin-shirt-rd
pioneer of tlii; old In
dian lighting days! Mod
em commercialism bus
made human life tin;
cheapen, of all raw mate
rials. For tin pi-oof of this assertion
it Is unnecessary to go among the
coolies on the great embankment con
tracts of (ho lower reached of the
1 reach' rous Chinese rivers or anions
the Hindu lailwny gangs of the dead
ly lower Indian plains, where scanty
fiLd, foul water, the Parking cholera
germ and the Mrnnge iiuu-liinery of
the "foreign devil" all conspire
co'int their victims by the score,
reality iho greatest
toll of human life and
limb h; taken right
hen; In America, in
the Hteel mill, the mine,
the railroad yard and
on the towering steel
structures that dot our
cities ami spau our riv
ers. On the books of
many life insurance
companies there ore
lists of certain occu
pations, ominously
marked as "extra hazardous." On
tins lift none is more dangerous
than th:it of the "shot lirer," or the
man who tamps and fires the blast
in (lie mines. The ordinary miner
faces the menace of the deadly
"damp" that (lows like an invisible
poison stream through the lower
mine levels; be faces (lie danger of
explosive gases that may drive the
lite from his body; the fear of the
cave-In that may tlallen him under
tons of coal and shite is always with
him. All these fall to the lot of the
"shot-lire r," as well as (bo dreadful
risks of handling n high explosive in
the closewallod caverns and under
ground passages, where its force is
conllned ami intensilled. Such explo
sives are notoriously unstable, a stick
of giant powder may have withstood
the jari of transportation for long '
distances and yet when placed in the drill
h(.le by the "lirer" may prematurely explode
under the soft blows of the tamping iron on
the "iili" above it. Many fatalities occur In
similar ways.
A nevei-failing source of interest (o (lie
street crowd 1:; the movements of the struc
tuial lion worker. Viidoubtedly bis work is
(he most dangerous of nil the building trades.
It certainly is the most spectacular. With the
Inciiasiug ground values of the downtown dis
uii'ts forcing the buildings lusher each year,
he frequently finishes his work in the free
spncey, of the upper air with all Hie neighbor
ini. buildings far below biiu. He rides the
sleil b'-aius ts they aie swung troin the lower
1o the upper r-torics, holding to the cable and
balancing them to make sure they do not slip
their tether and shoot downward through the
computed tloors and create more havoc than
a ll'-im h shell.
On the steel beams hundreds of feet above
the strict tra'lie lie runs back and forth about
his labors, as surefooted at those dizzy
heights as a mountain sheep. A single false
step, a tiiomeulary dizziness and be would
plunge to his death a dozen stories below. Kv
cry minii'e of each working day his life is in
the bands of bis lellow-workmen. A heavy
bolt dropped from above, a loosened plank, an
unshipped cable or a Hying block and the
structure has taken ils toll of human llf". The
structural steel worker is rarely crippled, as
his injuries are usually such as to cause Im
mediate death.
Very similar to the risks of the steel man's
work are those of the steeple jack. Moving
like a fly along the tace of a fac tory chimney,
a water tower or a church spire, his dally
bread Is gained at the daily risk of life and
limb. The fear of high places Is not his par
ticular dread, as that is all in a day's work,
but every time he Is hoisted aloft be gambles
with his llfo on the strength of n strand of
cable and the coolness of his assistant.
It is the assistant's duly to raise and lower
and eli if t the man in the chair's position as be
moves u) and down and sidewlse on the face
of the building upon which they are engaged.
Many wonderful escapes are recorded In the
annals of these workers between earth and
sky. Only n few days ago n steeple-jack,
working on a factory chimney in North St.
Louis, saved himself when his tackle gave
wny by grasping a book at the end of n rope
suspended from the chimney top and arrested
his fall in midair, where he clung until res
cued by his thoroughly frightened helper.
Have you ever noticed the window-washer
going about bis business. 1.1 or -0 stories
above the. street level? lie stands on a nar
row ledge and bis work compels him to lean
far back over the crowded street, many feet
below, as be reaches upward to clean the
upper part of the glass. A slip of the foot
on the wet stone of the ledge, u single
stumble and the crowd of downtown shoppers
would see him dashed to his death on the
paving at 'heir feet.
Volumes bae been written concerning the
terrible life -destroying implements of modern
warfare, but the government statistics, com
piled by the interstate commerce commission,
show that the railroad switchman's work Is
inoi'e dangerous than that of the professional
soldier. A military movement In modern war
late lasts only a few months at the longest,
tint the switchman's campaign is every vfork
ing day. In a great terminal the noise of tug
ging engines and rolling coaches ami box cars
never ceases. On the procession of cars mov
ing steadily in and out depends the business
activity of the city and its surrounding ter
ritory. Hay and night the yard crews dodge back
and forth in this scene of tireless activity,
clambering over and between moving cars,
making flying couplings and cutting cars out
of tilings on the tracks as the cow puncher
frtM;jwn
TV. "ratT!'?"
-2?;i..? If W Ihnk S ATA.,
u ' ii. ( wtfim iiiWMiiw t r friths ,w v t." .-. . a., -is v.. -. v v,v -yx -.wwa -.: v .s --'.s.-x
' V'k to 1 77 f Jtf- rJ" ' y
'7, !; y?K 7 4 n i-
II I 11 IT It L i ITrl .v.. . . ft-.
MILE
ft
it1
A.
PREMATURE EXPLOSION Itl
MINE
which the American ra
tion exercises over Cu
bans, but c;uotcs r.s sig-nil-cant
that despite two
- Hp-,' x
t, .......
t r
F00T CAUGHT
PROG
cuts a steer out
of a herd. He
baps Irom mov
ing cars, boards
a Hying gondola
or an engine pilot
a miscalculation
inch in bi.i movements
would send him to his
death under the vvhei
Open switches, "dead"
switch lamps, derails and
the ever-prcsent switch
frog lie in wait for his
unguarded moments.
A few days ago a vet
eran switchman in the
l-'iisco yards leaped from
a moving yard engine ami
started across a passing
track to make a coupling.
His foot caught in a
switch frog. Another
crew had just ' lin ked'' a
car in on this spur, and
it came rolling down the
track upon him. lie hur
riedly tugged ami pulled
with all his strength to
loosen his foot. As the
car came closer he kicked
Vid shoved with the free
lot, a surer method, but
it failed him now. The
car was now close up,,,,
him as he rolled as fur
from the track as the
ii'on grip upon his font
would allow and watched
the heavy wheels roll
over bis leg nd ankle
His effort was in vain
as he died 0 ,h(1 opprnt;
ing table. Of nil the dnn
gerous positions in rail
road work, the switch
man's Is the worst. This
is so well known among
railroad employes that
"only a switchman L-iiua-
become a railron.l
military Intel ver.tions,
"i.ml even when the con
dition of Cuba was the
darkest and most for
bidding, at no time hm
a political party arisen
advocat!n. even Indi
rectly, annexation," and
tba't this fact shows how
deep-rooted is the na
tional sentiment umong
the Cubans and how
little the moral Influ
ence, the force of at
traction of the I'nitoi
s'latt-s. As a result the
people of the two coun
tries are leiis in loy
al ui.uiittuiidlng with
each (;tiicr than ever be
fine; a direct and unfor
tunate tcciaelice of t ho
"deli.oKi' i.'.ink proef ed
ings of the lute provi
t e
fx v- - 4 J "HjS VV.f -.-..-waF'
t .v..' :.' v" ft". YS ,f. a ll
.... - -gv - Ipilrsss y ) ! 2
of an etr k. '.w s - ', ssir.v "vs.::;---'--1 v-; '?; .' iPrM,.,xk-
a m& a-v ...... i.-.1 I-
s. M 3 VI. .af .: -? tAfl " ':;;-'' :,. ,-.. i d It
I U 2?-is'. ."3.f doorways m-
b a ix ..-." Vi- tte- vy . .- ; "Amr'-A !. fast
Vr. G .'- ';iki... 1 1 The conditions
3PPAKIHG OPS'AFETY BELT :225aj Lzl
Feminine Police Keep Order and Fem
inine Labor Carries on the Oyster
Industry That Make the
Place Famous.
Cancale, France In these days of
discussions of suffragist moventenis.
women's rights and feminine business
acumen, anyone in Fenreh of an exam
ple of an unusual sort might drop iu
upon this French channel port of
some 15.00(1 souls when they are all
at, home and see a truly woman run
town.
There is no woman mayor, lio Ioni
an in the town council. The ofliees
are left as a mere matter of form to
the men, who are seldom there to fill
them, but the women are law unto
themselves; they make up tb wholn
town, transact all the business, police
the place, maintain order ami africt
sanitary conditions, manage the
schools, and at the same time carry
on the most famous oyster industry of
France, doing the entire cultivating
and selling and transporting tho prod
uct of the ocean beds, even loading
and unloading the seagoing ships that
come and go at the port.
And what is still more interesting
J to their sisters In other partH of the
worm, tue gins ot i.ancaio are me
lirst to be married of nil the girls of
north and rentral France. Ask a
French sailor where of all ports ex
cepting of course out of chivalry his
own native town the most beautiful
of French Usher girls are to be found
and he will tell you at Cancale. You
will believe him, too, when you walk
along the tpiays and t ho narrow
streets and see the pretty faces and
neat trim llgures set off to the best ad
vantage in the lireton dress and clean
white cans, or watch the little groups
in the shade of the street iu the after
noon or within the deep set stone
,(
-1 -
f l I Wfcj
Oyster Girls of Car.cale.
nding nets and
as I hcli' French
that make
gossip-tongues
ti
a
J)AH$ER0U5 WORK
has
saying.
Dozens of laboratories
are seuttered over the city, where men work
day alter day in the noxious fumes of the
strongest life-destroying gases known to sci
ence. Kducated men of undoubted scientific
attainments work for hours in the interest of
commerce or 'the arts iu order to solve soni.
elusive problem. With rubber masks and
gloves the chemist tries to protect himself
and succeeds in a measure, but Ibe laboratory
has a long list of victims to answer for. Sight
less eye, defective hearing, twisted limbs,
paralysis, paresis. Insanity and death make up
the counts in the long indictment.
The list of occupations of more than ordi
nal y peril is a lon.' one." The tool grinder,
the man Who puts the liivt rough edge on all
cutting Implements, stands hour after hour
in front cf a heavy emery wheel revolving at
a tremendous speed. A fault iu the wheel, a
sudden acceleration or stoppage In Ils speed
may nuse the wheel to burst with the report
ai-.d dread efleet of a six-ll;ch shell. The Hy
ing pieces rend walls and ccilhms like paper
and i rumple heavy pieces of machinery Into
shapeless masses. No employe iu the line
of its force can hope to escape.
The powder mill employe' works In a
walled it'closure within whose bounds lie snf-tic-lent
explosives to shatter the mighty pyra
mid of (ii.eh to u shapeless mass of rubble.
The woiker in this place is under stricter
supervision than the Kaflir in the South Af
rican diamond mines. The utmost caution Is
observed, "danger" signs are nailed tip ev
erywhere; the grounds n,re picketed by watch
ful guards; no mutches lite lighted and a
supremacy, Lord
special fell soled shoe is
worn, as the chance spark
struck by a steel shoe
nail might cause disaster.
So. iu the midst of dan
gers, some of I hem immi
nent, some less threaten
ing, the bread-w inner in
many occupations follows
his .calling your in and
year out. In many lines
of craftsmanship and effi
ciency the supremacy of
American skill is unques
tioned. And to para
phrase our Kipling just a
little.
If life lie the price of
Ciod we are paying full.
Cuba's Grievances Stated.
The Cuban Opinion, a fortnightly review
devoted to Cuban affairs, has made ils initial
appearance at Havana. While it declaims a
feeling or hostility toward the government at
Washington and expresses a willingness to
"draw close r the ties of friendship mid cor
diality between the great American nation and
the young Kepiiblic of Cuba." yet the tenor or
ils contents is skeptical as to the good faith
of the American people and Its tone is any
thing but friendly, ll ib ( lares a purpose to
defend the national statu, the material inter
ests ami l!,e good name; of the Cuban people,
a laudable undertaking in itself, yet it charges
that there "Is a disposition in the I'liiled
States to look down upon the Cohans as an
inferior ami degenerate inclal product from
which nothing worthy or enduring Is to be
evpected." ll also says that "it is tills spirit
which conslaiitlv middles with our internal
affairs and attempts to dictate to our govern
ment; in short, which really considers Cuba
us In reality nothing but an American colony,
without any rights or her own, temporarily and
somewhat nominally In possession or a nice
unlit to survive, and In time to be supplanted
by Anglo-Aiuerlrans with their ill-concealed
hauteur urn) their utilitarian civilization."
The Opinion admits, however, that a series
of unfortunate circumstances has given the
Cnlted States un Interv-iillon In local affair
quite out or proportion to the moral influence
sional administration of tbe I'nlted States In
Cuba, wliiili has left behind it a train of sad
and shameful recollections."
The ollicial acts of Provisional (lovernor
Magoon, the Cuban paper claims, are open to
swift censure. It is alleged that his adminis
tration was ready to" squander the resources
of the Cuban treasury and that, the award of
Jihlli.UUU to the government nt Madrid only
three days before his provisional governorship
expired is one of "many transactions of a pe
culiar and dubious nature." Among other
lalse reports the Opinion charges that there
lias been a malicious effort in the Cnlted
Slates to cast discredit on the Cuban govern
ment in alleging the prevalence of yellow fe
ver, when, in fact, the fever was driven out
in 1H1 and the Island was kept, clean till Oc
tober. HHi.'i. when it was re-introduced from
New Orleans In spite of the precautions of
Cuban quarantine officials.
Tb" Opinion shows that there is $141,000,
nun c,r Aiiferican capital Invested in Cuba,
In railways, sugar and tobacco industries, real
estate, plantations, banks, navigation compa
nies, mortgages, etc., while the F.nglisli Invest
ments total $100.(10(1,01)0, ot which all but
JlO.Oou.uOii is in railways, It adds:
"Th lute provisional administration or the
Vnlted States in Cuba made ilseir famous for
the larpe number of contracts of all sorts into
which it entered, especially with American
contractors, for the construction of high
roads, bridges, aqueducts ami oilier public Im
provements. Many of these contracts were
made in the most inform:. 1, not to say Im-
. -al manner, and give- rise to nun h scandal
and to the complete discredit or the provi
sional administration. They cost the Cuban
treasury vuat sums and It is the general Im-pK-sion
that ill ninny cases (he execution of
the work has been very cyclic icnt."
woman run town come about in the
most natural way in the world. All
the men are Ushers and they spend
the greater part of the year in. sea.
They are good sailors ami they man
the craft that venture across (lie At-
antie to the ! rem b lishMig groamls
along the Newfoundland toast. It was
their rights that useel to come up fre
quently for adjustment by lisbery
commissions, and it is the loss of their
vessels that almost every ye ar brings
sorrow to Cancale and the neighbor
ing coast.
When the men do return they find
that the town his been managed so
well in their absence, and the thrift of
the women has been so well exercised
that they are content not to meddle
and to let. things go on as they have
been going. There are proportionate
ly more widows, and young widows,
too, in Cancale than in any other town
of France. A fisherman's bride waits
for four years after she has heard
that the boat her husband sailed away
upon has not been reported and then
she puts on her mourning. It is tiiis
uncertainty as to the fate of the men.
thrown helpless and homeless upon
the rear that at any time they may be
their own resources, that makes the
women of Cancale self-reliHut and
that leads them early to seek some
means of their own for an hone st live
lihood. For the men that remain in the
town the women do not seem to en
tertain the greatest respect. Most of
them have become Incapacitated for
work or are shiftless and idle. So the
vonieu run matters themselves.
The thrift that the conditions men
tioned Inspire is something or u pUs.
siou Riming the women. It seems that
there is n constant struggle with each
one of them to make more money
than the man who goes to sea. They
frequently accomplish this. t,0, fn'r
the returning fisherman finds fre
quently that his yearly gain of $ir,0 or
$J00 gut al ter a bard but lie from the
sea is more man equalled by the
tient and careful housewife that
h i t at home.
pa-he
Not Interested.
heard the latest news?
1 inquired
"Have you
Mrs. P.i.ztbod.
"Yes," answered Miss Cayenne. "It's very
shocking. Isn't it?"
"Ho you know then.?"
"No. 1 haven't the slightest Idea as to
the Identity of the people. Scandals are like
humorous anecdotes about celebrities; the
same old stories with different mimes Introduced."
Desert Plants Store Water.
The problem of storing a supply of
wilier for their own use and of pre
venting It evaporating Iiiih been solved
by the desert plants In many most n.
pen Ions ways, perhaps the most note
worthy example Is the so-called "wa
ter burred," which, of about the sl;:o
and shape of an ordinary beer keg, H
In fact, nothing more nor kh ihn'n a
Jiving water tank. Its whole Interior
Is composed of storage cells so ud
mliubly arranged that the pulp which
they form contains something k0 jqj
psr cent, of pure water.
