| Show A mouse HOUSE WHERE MEN neven how do you think you would like to live fearing every moment tobe to be blown biown u up not daring to speak loud to jar any thing for fear of starting an explosion that would send you in an instant to the other world you dont think it would be ver very y pleasant well it yet hundreds of men live just in that state work receive pay and live year after y year e ar in the very sight of death as it were all that the world may have gunpowder you can easily guess that those men go about quietly and never laugh you kenow that gunpowder is very dangerous in a gun or near a fire but perhaps you dont know that A it is equa ly dangerous all through the process of ma making jiing A powder mill is a fearful place to visit and strangers are very seldom allowed to enter one they are built far from any town in the woods and each branch of the work is done in a separate building these houses are quite a distance from each other so that if one blows up it blow up the rest then the lower parts of tho the building are made very strong while the roofs are very lightly set on so that thab if it explodes only the thereof roof will suffer but in spite of every care sometimes a whole settlement of the powder mills will go off almost in an instant and every vestige of the toll toil of years will be swept away in a few seconds but though you feel like holding your breath to look at it it is really a very interesting process to see it Is made penha perhaps s you know of charcoal anz anT saltpetre salt petre and brimstone each of those articles is prepared in a house by itself but the house where they premixed are mixed is the first terrible one in this building is an immense millstone mill stone rolling round and round in an iron bed and under aider the stone are put the three fearful jn redl redi ants of gunpowder the there re they them are thoroughly mixed and ground together this is a very verj dangerous operation because if the stone comes in in contact with its iron bed it is very apt to strike fire and the merest suspicion of a spark would set off the whole the materials are spread three or four inches thick in the bed the wheel which goes by water power Is started and every man leaves tile tiie place the door is shut and the machinery left to do its terrible work alone when it has run lo 10 long elou enough gh the mill is stopped and lu t the I 1 men come back this operation leaves the powder in hard lumps or cakes the next house is where the cakes are broken into grains and of course is quite as dangerous as the la stone but the men cant godaway go away from this they are obliged to attend to it every mo men tand you may be sure no laugh or joke is ever heard within its walls every one who goes in has to take off his boots and put on rubbers because one grain rain of the dangerous powder crushed ty by a boot would explode the whole in an instant the floor of this house is covered with leather ieather and is made perfectly black by the dust of gunpowder it contains a set of selves each one smaller than the last through which the powder is sifted and an immense laboring mill where it is ground up while men shovel it in with wooden shovels tile the machinery ner y makes a great deal of noise but the men are silent as in the other houses the reckless crashing of the machinery even seems to give greater horror and one one oue is very anxious to get out cf that house the house is the next on the list and there the gunpowder is heated on wooden trays it is very hot and no workmen stay there from there it goes to the paci paek ing house and it is put up in barrels kegs and canisters safely through all these lio ilo houses uses it goes at last jast to the storehouse one feels like drawing a long breath to see the fearful stuff safely packed away out of the hands of men in this curious house youve heard of things being as dry as a powder house but you wouldn t think this thia house very dry it is almo aimo almost A im bedded in water the roof is one big tank kept full of water did you ever hear of a water roof before instead of steps to go in their are sll sil shallow allow tanks talks 01 of water vater through which every one must walk to I 1 the he door in none of these powder houses is any light ever allowed except sunlight the wages a es are g good the days work is short shor t en ending ing alway always sat at 3 or 4 but the men an have ave a serious look that makes one think every moment of the danger and glad to getaway get away though curiosity may take a man once to visit a powder mill he has no desire to go the second time and he feels all ali the rest of his ilfe life that for once he has been very near death ex |
