Show u e ADVENTURERS' ADVENTURERS CLUB HEADLINES H E A D L I N E S FROM FRO M THE LIVES L rv E S OF PEOPLE LIKE Death From Aloft ELLO EVERYBODY HELLO H I guess you'd call calf this a success story because its it's about a young lad of eighteen who made the grade On the theother theother theother other hand you can call it an adventure story too Because its it's one of those yarns where success and adventure are all mixed up together Its It's from John R. R Mills of New York City and while I dont don't claim it was has the adventure that made aman a aman aman man out of Jack Mills I do think it convinced a lot of other fellows that he was one Jacks Jack's New v Job Was Plenty Tough This story starts in the fall of 1927 when Jack was hired by a structural tural iron working firm as a rivet Jack And Jack sums up that Job of his very neatly in two sentences My duties says he were to supply four tour or five riveting g gangs with rivets and with coal for tor their forges torges The duties of the riveting gangs were to supply skyscrapers for New York city But it wasn't that easy Structural iron work is one of the hardest trades in the world to break in on Youve You've got to get accustomed to t walking like a cat along narrow steel girders only a few inches wide wid and hundreds of feet above the ground The only way to do that is 11 to get getup getup getup up there and walk those girders There are no schools that teach a aman aman aman man to keep his head in a tight or dangerous spot You cant can't acquire a steeplejacks steeplejack's courage out of a book or learn it in some safe place ce on the ground gro nd In the Ironworker trade Jack says yon you have to develop those iron nerves you hear Even the bravest man Is nerve nerv nervous ous at first test walking along those narrow beams with arms and back loaded and not even a semblance of or a hand or foot grip to catch hold of ot If U you lose your balance My lily debut In the business was on oh a building that was an extra hazardous job because bec uso there was a double shift shUt of Ironworkers and that created ed a lot hot of con con- fusion The Th Ironworkers ran up op a framework of steel that was far tar farin tarIn farin in advance advance tight tight stories at least least least-at at all times tunes of the tho concrete who worked below Jack was on the night shift shUt but somehow he couldn't feel that he was one of the gang It wasn't that he ha was afraid It wasn't that he didn't do his work But somehow or other the veterans on the Job made him feel like an outsider To them he was Just another rookie They weren't unfriendly to him him but but they weren't friendly either Things Went Vent Haywire After Payday Jack didn't let that bother him He went right on doing his hla work work- and then came a night when everything went haywire 1 It was the night after payday and the men on the Job with hardly an exception had been celebrating their fat pay envelopes A lot of o that at stuff out of the little brown Jug had been Imbibed and those boys were l h a rl R 1 art r Like a flash Jack swung and caught him not quite up to par The raising gang was having trouble holding onto i the great iron beams they were lifting and the riveters were dropping red hot rivets right and left A couple of ot beams had been allowed to fall tall and a couple of men had had narrow squeaks A 4 by 12 beam missed me by inches says Jack and with the deafening chatter of innumerable riveting guns the clang of beams against beams and the banging of hammers on steel the scene was akin to pandemonium It wan w no place for a man with a case of nerves and I still had some although a few weeks of work and a few narrow escapes had hardened my nervous system considerably It seemed to mo me that the quietest of the lot were my fellow apprentices the rivet Jacks Jack was just a little bit nervous as he went about his work To get coal for tor the riveters' riveters forges he had to climb down through eight stories of open steel work He was on his way back to the top with a bag of coal on his shoulder and as he struggled up the ladder with his load he began envying a couple other rivet jacks who had rigged up a makeshift make make- makeshift makeshift shift hoist and were hauling their coal up by means of ropes Jack Sees Secs Doom Dropping From Above At that moment Jack reached the beams of atthe at the third story below the top and stood waiting while two other Ironworkers climbed up the next ladder Another Ironworker was following him up the ladder he had hac just jus left lett and Jack watched him coming for a moment and then turned his attention atte tion back to the rivet jacks who were hoisting bags of coaL He had Just tamed finned his gaze in that direction when he saw the bag of coal slip its noose and come hurtling toward him I Jack was right under that descending bag He dropped to a sitting position and wrapped his legs around the beam He knew he was going I to be hit but with luck he might keep his hold Gripping the beam he waited Then Then CRASH CRASH I The bag hit him on the shoulder tore of off his shirt sleeve and ripped a big patch of skin from his right arm fHe He was numbed numbed bewildered But his bis eye took In everything f that that th t happened At that moment the ironworker who had followed him up op the ladder had almost reached tho the top Ills His head was about even with Jacks Jack's waist And the bag of coal glancing off Jacks Jack's shoulder hit the other fellow square on the head bead Like a flash Jack swung out and caught him with his injured arm And none nono too soon loon either That fellow was out cold His eyes eye were closed and he had let go his hold on the ladder He was a dead weight and Jack hanging from the beam by one leg now was holding him Mm with the fingertips of a Q numb and bleeding arm Five Stories Aloft and Concrete Below Says Jack We were five stories above the nearest floor and that was nice hard concrete The weight was causing my left leg to slip lIp and that leg was holding me on the beam I grew dizzy from the strain train and began to feel sea sen sea sick Meanwhile another ironworker coming up the ladder began maneuvering himself Into a position to straddle the Injured man and hold him But Dut all that took time And when at last other help arrived and many bands hands were assisting the man on the lad lad- ladder ladder e der Jack was so far fa gone with dizziness and fatigue that he had I to be helped himself before he could get back on the beam 1 Both Jack and the other fellow were back on the job the following r night and that same night other ironworkers began to speak to Jack I They didn't say much much just just a remark or two about the weather But it ite e was enough to let Jack know that he had made the grade I Copyright Service |