In The Steel Mills

When I went to thé superintendent and asked for work, he said, "What can you do?" "Anything. I am large, strong, active and willing. I hare been atxrat machinery all my life and want work badly. ' ' He touchpd a button, and a boy appeared. "Show this man down to the converting mili and ask Fred if he can do anything for him. Good morning!" he said, and my interview was over. I put on my new overalls and jumpei and followed my guide down through the milis. We made onr way through piles of stock, raw material, rolls, etc, and came at last to the huge converting mili. The superintendent was found and tho word delivered. He glanced at me a moment; theu said, not unkindly. "You look good and strong. Jump in and help those fellows there on those vessels. ' ' I hardly knew what he meant, but through the smoke and steam I saw some men beneath one of the vessels, or converters, working with sledges and bars to get the bottom off. The mili, with its ponderous and massive cranes, the immense vessels all covered with black scale and soot, the flying sparks, the roaring flames, the lights coming and going, the air fllled with steam and smoke, and, finally, the shrill and deafening noise, awed, confused and even disconcerted me more than I should have liked to acknowledge. I seized a sledge lying near and jumped in. We at last got out the "keys, " as they cali the wedges which hold the converter together, and by the help oí a hydraulic ram took the bottom off. This lef t a white hot opening 8 feet in diameter and about 6 feet from the ground, under which we must work. It seemed to me as though the skin on my neck and hands would burst with the heat. My clothes even steamed and smoked. How I wished I had been anywhere under the sun - good old Sol - rather than under this fiendishly hot sun hanging so very'near us! When we had the new bottom on, we went up to the platform above the converters and drove the keys home more securely and stopped any small hole there might be with "ball stuff." A shrieking engine passed by me and Bwiftly poured into the converter a "heat" of iron. Then the blast was turned on, and a cloud of yellow and saffron flame, mixed with sparks and small partióles of metal, rushed out of the mouth of the converter into the air. One of the men caught me by the arm and pulled me away just in time to save me from being seriously bnrned, for I was not expecting the flame. By noon I was so tired I eould hardly stand, but I stuck to it for all I was worth. During the afternoon I frequently feil down because my knees were too weak to hold me up. My hands were burned and blistered, and my new overalls were füled with holes burned by flying sparks. About 4 o'clock in the afternoon, while working under the platform, I was startled to see a stream of red fire run over the edge of the platform and strike in the midst of some workmen. As it touched the wet ground it exploded with a report like that of a cannon. The molten metal flew in every direction. Many workmen were burned more or less severely, and in the case of one poor fellow - it makes me sick still to think of it! - the steel came down directly on the head and back. We got him out of the steam and smoke and carefully and tenderly cut his burned clothing from him. As we placed him on the stretcher the burned flesh dropped from his bones. When I was relieved at 6 o'clock, it seemed as if it would have been ntterly impossible for me to live in chat mili another hour. I dragged myself to my room and went to bed at once. All that night I tossed and turned my aching bones, trying to get into some position less painful than the last. I was tortnred by a thousand grotesque fancies and by the picture of the poor fellow who was burned so badly. At last I got into an uneasy drowse, but I ieÈ, as if I had not been asleep a minute when my alarm clock announced to me that it was 4:45, and that I must get up to my 5:10 breakfast. Oh, the misery of that rising and going to the mili! Every bone and sinew seemed as if made of redhot iron, and the joints as if rusted together. It was a dark, f oggy morning, I found, when, having desperately got up enough will power to dress, I tumbled out to my boarding house. The Pittsburg smoke and fog are proverbial, but I really think that on that particular morning one might have cut tangible chunks out of the black, wet air. The board walks in Homestead are never in repair, and on the way to the milis I stumbled along throngh mud and stones, over boards and into holes, carrying in my hand my tin dinner bucket, which contained my midday meal. On my flrst Sunday we relined the converter, and it became my duty to stand up in the inverted vessel and hand up the ball stuff and limestone with which to reline it. The vessel had been left to cool simply over night, and I suppose the temperature of the dry air inside of it stood at about 140 degrees. I worked as hard as I could, but near noon I fainted, for the first time in my life. My experience at Homestead was the experience of the majority of workmen there. - "Homestead as Seen by One of lts Workmen" in McClure's Magazine. The resurrection plant, a native of South África, becomes dry and apparently lifeless during drought, but opens lts leaves and assumes all the appearance of life when rain falls.