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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 1903)
L7k mum PAGES 25 TO 32 PART FOUR NO. 5. VOL. XXII PORTLAND, OREGON, SUNDAY lORNING, FEBRUARY 1, 1903. MOST HAZARDOUS VOCATION IN THE WCRLD it , . PORTLAND LINEMAN " MIKm ' , ATTENDED BY W Ml DANGERS PlWv'-' ' i 'V TO THE average Individual the term "electric lineman" carries no sig nificance beyond the fact that he Is a man who climbs poles and "flics things." The electrical lineman Is all this and more. From morning until night ho Is surrounded by a thousand deaths, each mere certain and more horrible than the sting of the Rocky Mountain rattler or the prick of his southern brother, the cobra de capello, sometimes called "the veiled death" of India. To be an electric lineman in Portland is to court death every minute of the work ing hours. It is the most hazardous oc cupation in the world and only men of Iron nerve may follow It. Have you ever watched a man climb a poleT Then you must have noted the out ward ease and carelessness with' which ht goes about it. But it Is all on the sur face, for that man Is a bundle of quiver ing nerves, kept under control by that roost powerful of human driving powers necessity The term "hot wire" carries no signifi cance to the mind of the layman, but to the electrical worker it is pregnant with meaning, and that meaning is death, hor rible, torturing and dlefigurlng. Portland has been comparatively free from such tragedies, yet they are possible at any and all times. IVhat Constitutes a Hot Wire? With the constant Improvement In elec trical appliances haa come a corresponding increase in the tension or voltage. In Portland some of the companies employ a current running as high ao 23.00) volts, while others go as low as 10,000. Only a few years ago a current at 1000 volts was coneldered a remarkable accomplishment In electrical engineering. Today linemen understand that a "nor wire" may mean a voltage ranging from 2000 to SOOO, nnd there may be two or three or perhaps four of these "hot" wires on one pole. It Is no wonder therefore that an elec tric lineman views with Inward dread the handling of a "hot" wire. It has not been very great while since a telephone line man in Portland met the death he had been so long courting. There was a wire "crossed" somewhere In South Portland and he was nt to look for It. He fount it and also death, sudden, horrible. Fel low workmen found him sitting on one of the cross arms, apparently engaged in repairing the line. They called to him, but there came no answer; then one look at the face, full of en agony that cannot be pictured, told tht awful story. The man was dead; he had handled a "hot" wire carrying 3000 volts Strange to say there was not a mark upon the man's person, yet every nerve In his body had been literally burned out. ' It is not easy to say whether death to a lineman is due to his own carelessness or that of the company. Technically the lat ter certainly cannot be "held responsible for such casualties, yet the linemen work LITTLE STORIES OF NE day when the market was at its worst, a certain St. Louis gentleman. prominent In finance and politics, walked into the office of Harris, Gates & Co., at 10 Wall street. He looked hard at the board for a minute or two. He saw that his pet stock. Northwest, was 40 points below the price at which he had bought the 500 shares he was carrying. He walked over to Mr. Pulslfer, the manager. "What can I do for you?" asked the latter. They were curt In their speech those days, the men of Gates' surround ings. "Have you a wire to Providence? "Yea. we have." "Well, I wish ycu'd ask Providence why the devil it doesn't look after me a little better," said the man from St. Louis. Ho turned and walked out of the office without a smile.. "Bubbles in his think-tank for sure!' commented the manager. It is a common saying that Russell Sage owns more ready cash than any other man In America. Few people know the reason. Conservative bankers estimate that be has loaned out on collaterlal at most times cash to tho extent of $23,000,000, while in times when rates are tempting he adds from $2,000,000 to J5.000.009 to this interest drawing -principal. His income on this alone amounts to over $1,250,000 per annum. His income from gilt-edged Investments Is at least as great. His one luxury Is a team of fast horses. He pays $12,000 ground rent for the real estate on which his Fifth-avenue house is built, and his annual expenses outside of that amount to about $13,000. It will readily be seen that he Is not likely to die poor. Few banks have more actual cash outstanding .than ,has Russell Sage. His total fortune is put t $80,000,000. The reason he holds few stocks of any kind is not hard to find. It lies in the fact ing under high pressure, with Just so much labor to perform In a limited time, must needs take greater chances than he should. True, the lineman. Is fitted out with rubber gloves and rubber boots, but then they are .cumbersome, and If It is raining so much moisture accumulates as to render these non-conductors practically worthless. But the lineman must do his wbrk, so oft come the gloves and then? that he is ono of tho very few financiers in. Wall street who docs not believe In the extensive consolidation of Industries. He believes that most of the Industrial en terprlses of the recent past are founded on unsound business principles. He is one of the few people who have refused to become a member of the Morgan syndi cate. He gavo as .his reason his belief that the pace was too fast and that some one would bo hurt. Mr. Sage says that he sold Missouri Pa cific last Spring at 11S. The reason he sold it was that he thought it was too high. Ho bought his stock at S, so be frankly confessed that ho didn't see any better thing to do with It at 11S than to sell It. So he sold. That Is one of the reasons he Is able to lend out huge sums of money. He sells at boom times the stocks he buys In receiverships. Sir William Van Home, chairman of the Canadian Pacific, and president of the Cuba Company, began his business career selling oranges on the Illinois Central. After that he sold books on Alton. Yet he is one of tho most accomplished of the blgmen of this continent. He Is a con noisseur on art and all things that pertain to It, He Is himself a painter of rare ability, and he has fitted up In his housa at Montreal a studio where he may be found at work on colors when he is not too busy In "the world of affairs." He has also the most complcto collection of orchids In the country. Six months ago he heard, through his South American agent, of a new variety that grew in the forests of the La Plata. He has at present two botanists after that orchid. When he gets it he will be happy for a month. Mrs. Hetty Green Is a lady who knows' her own mind and makes a good guess at the minds of others. When a rebrganlw zatlon committee was appointed for Hous I, ........ . I , . . i To tan one of the feeders with a view I To the casual observer, the act of ex- I To tap one of the feeders with a view of running a line Into a residence Is the least hazardous part of a lineman's de tail. The most serious work comes In ex tending a system Into new territory, or taking out an overcharged wire and re placing it with a heavier conductor. In either case it is a question of "cutting in" on a "live" or "hot" wire, that may be carrying SOOO or even 10,000 volts. BIG MEM ton & Texas Central, some years ago, the aforesaid committee found out these char acteristics of Mrs. Hetty Gicen. Tho com mittee sent out notices to the bondholder outlining the plan for a reorganization. Now it happened that Mrs. Green had come into possession of a very consider able amount of those bonds. The committee was holding a meeting. A boy came In aifd announced that a lady wanted to sea the committee, a lady who would not be refused and who would not go away. After a moment's hesitation the committee told the boy to send her In. She came in The members or the com mittee saw the woman In the door. They looked at I:er and she looked at them, and she looked not sa kindly. She shortly an nounced that aha owned most of the bonds they were dolivr the talking about, and she wanted to. know what right they had to muke.a settlement of the fate of those bonds for her. "If there are to be terms," said Mrs. Green. "I think I should make them, being tho holder of the bonds." The committee looked at her acaln. The committee straightway surrendered at dis cretion. Mrs. Green gained a place on the reorganization committee of Houston & Texas Central. When J. P. Morgan comes back from Europe he Is generally met by 20 or 30 re porters from the various local papers. The last time he came 'back thero were more than usual. Mr- Morgan had made himself a very conspicuous figure. He had dlocd with two Kings, worn knee trecches, created the International Mer cantile Marine, and done various other things that made him dear to the hearts of the editors. So there was a goodly crowd of reporters waiting for him, among them about 20 "camera artists." Now Mr. Morgan Is a particularly hard man to interview, and a harder man to To the casual observer, the act of ex tending a line seems simple In the ex treme, yet every movement Is fraught with danger so dire that even the oldest lineman would fain pass the Job up. Avoiding the touch of more than one wire, though hands and feet are incised In rubber, the lineman slowly mounts the pole, reaching at last th: object line. With a care 'purchased by long experi THINGS SEEN AND HEARD IN WALL STREET ABOUT SEVERAL MILLIONAIRES photograph. He was talking, this time, with some of his business associates, and was therefore almost Impossible of ap proach. However, since, as Kipling says. It would take threeJlyddlte b.Uterloj to stop one New York reporter, they swooped down In a body on Mr. Morgan. One of the artists opened the ball: "Excuse me, Mr. Morgan," said lie, "but would you mind If I took your picture?" Tho financier swung around, facing tho mob. "What take my picture! I'd rather lose a million dollars!" Whereupon a certain youth of the Jour nal (lately rechrlstened American), spoke up and said: "You've lost fifteen million already, Mr. Morgan, for wc have about fifteen pic tures." There was a laugh, and it was on the man who had dined with the Kings. He Joined In it, and thereafter he consented to bo Interviewed, probably considering that the gang that could get ahead of him for fifteen million In fifteen seconds was worth talking to. Little drops of water. Little grains of sand. Make up Morgan's ocean. Also Morgan's land. . There Is a 20-story building on the cor ner of Wall and William streets that has only 19 stories. It belongs to- the Atlantic 1 Trust Company. Ex-Governor Francis, of j Missouri, discovered this curious fact on ! his last visit to New York. He went ! Into the building under the supposition ; that he had found the Broad Exchange. He was looking for President Yoakum, of Frisco, whose office is on the 13th floor of the Broad Exchange. Governor Fran cis got Into the elevator and started for the top. "Thirteen," he said. "Thirteen? Thero ain't any thirteen in ence and narrow escapes, he loosens the old wire from the terminal insulator, dnwlng the new one slowly toward him. With splicing tools he laps the "live" wire some six Inches over the "dead" one, twisting them Into a simple knot. If it Is raining he must not allow the "hot" wire to touch the cross arm, for It would burn off; neither must he allow It to sag or come In contact with another wire on this building, sir," said the elevator boy. Mr. Francis stood back, saying nothing. The elevator went on. "Fourteen," said another passenger. The elevator passed number 12 and stopped at H. Sure enough, there was no number 13. The elevator went on .up to 20. On the way down the boy explained. "They were scared to have any thir teen In this building. They think It's un lucky. What do you think about It?" And as Mr. Francis wandered on down Wall street he thought It was a mighty oupfr nlnri tn flnfl n. rhlMtfh mlnr rstitlnn- j Yet there It Is, and there It la likely to stay. A youthful reporter made a very bad mistake the other day. He went over to the ticker In the office of Charles Head & Co., Mills Building, to look at the tape. An old man rtcod there watching It run through. They got to talking, as men will whose thoughts arc" running on much the same things. The old man asked ques. Hons. They pertained to things market wise. He wanted to know what the. re- I porter though of certain stocks. The re porter laiKeu Knowingly as ne rou?s being a reporter in the Wall street dis trict. Tho stranger was Teceptlve. The reporter grew confident. He talked of the market as though he owned It, and let outsiders play with it occasionally. Just for fun. The old man let him run on. At last the reporter asked him i question prompted by the apparent inability of the stranger to tell him anything he did not know. "How long have you been down here?" "Oh about forty years," said the old man. quietly. That should have warned the reporter, but it didn't. 'What's vour name mav I ask?" h j said. "It's Darius O. Mills." said the old man. "You may have heard It before." And nbout a minute later a young re porter slipped quietly out of the door to escape bearing the manager of the office telling tho story to two or three other reporters. the same pole. If this should happen and his elbow touch one of the fast wires and his leg another, death would be In stantaneous. Use the Same Pole. In this city telephone and electric wires are placed upon the same poles, but on different crossarms. One constant source of danger to the lineman 's the breaking of glass Insulators by malicious boys. In a high-tension current a leakage fre quently occurs, forming a "ground," so that if the lineman accidentally touches the iron braces supporting the crossarm, his life pays the penalty. In any line work the Junction pole Is greatly dreaded, because the crossarms are at right an gles, thus doubling tho chances of a sudden death, Valne of a Lineman' Life. I asked a prominent local superintend ent the other day what was the percent age of deaths among linemen. The an swer rather appalled me. for usually men's lives are not figured on a basis of dollars and cents. "I can't answer thatln the way you mean," he said, "because we don't cal culate It that way. I should say that tho percentage of deaths was about one to every $123,000 outlay." Rather a unique way of getting around a dangerous -subject, wasn't It? The cost of copper wire materially Increases the lineman's hazard. For In stance, the present cost of copper Is IS cents a pound. If, therefore, a plant Is supplied with the latest electrical appli ances, the dally cost of a high-tension service, say 20,000 volts. Is not materially greater than a tension of 5000 volts, and greater results are accomplished. But lives count for little If they stand In tho way of science and progress. If the line man docs not like his job he can quit It. Truly the electric lineman Is a public benefactor. It Is he who enables U3 to enjoy rapid transit: talk to our friends over long wires; lights our homes and our offices; keeps us cool in the Summer and gives us a hundred other conveni ences, each one of which we fondly think Is essential to our perfect peace and com fort. But the lineman Is a hero as well, for ho faces death every working hour of the year, and as compensation therefore re ceives the princely sum of $3 per diem. Long live the linemen! May mechanical science so Improve the hazard of his oc cupation that, awake or asleep, the "Grim Reaper" will not bo ever by his side. P. SLOPE. f