| Show adventurers CLUB HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF Fl 1 death from aloft H HELLO ELLO EVERYBODY I 1 guess call this a success story because its about a young lad of eighteen who made the grade on the other hand you can call it an adventure story too because its one of those yarns where success and adventure are all mixed up together its from john R mills of new york city and while I 1 dont claim it was the adventure that made a man out of jack mills I 1 do think it convinced a lot of other fellows that he was one jacks new job was plenty tough this story starts in the fall of 1927 when jack was hired by a structural iron working firm as a rivet jack and jack sums up that job of his very neatly in two sentences my dutle duties says he were to supply low four or five riveting gangs with rivets and with coal for their forges the duties of the riveting gangs were to supply skyscrapers tor for new york city but it that easy structural iron work is one of the hardest trades in the world to break in on youve got to get accustomed to walking like a cat along narrow steel girders only a few inches wide and hundreds of feet above the ground the only way to do that is to get up there and walk those girders there are no schools that teach a JI EE E CF EF turf like a flash jack swung and caught him man to keep his head in a tight or dangerous spot you cant acquire a steeplejacks steeple jacks courage out of a book or learn it in some safe place on the ground in the ironworkers iron workers trade jack says you have to develop those iron nerves you hear about even the bravest man is nervous at first walking along those narrow beams with arms and back loaded and not even a semblance of a hand or foot grip to catch hold of if you lose your balance my debut in the business was on a building that was an extra hazardous job because there was a double shift of ironworkers iron workers arid that created a lot of confusion the ironworkers iron workers canup ran up a framework of steel that was far in advance eight stories at lepastat lea stat all times of the concrete I 1 floor layers who worked below i x y jack was on the night shift but somehow he feel that he was one of the gang it that he was afraid it that he do his work but somehow or other the veterans on the job made him feel like an outsider to them he was just another r bokie they unfriendly to him but they friendly either things went haywire after payday jack let that bother him he went right on doing his wark and then came a night when everything went le haywire 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 that stuff out of the little brown b awn jug had been imbibed and those boys were not quite up to par the raising gang was having trouble holding onto the great iron beams they were lifting and the riveters ri were dropping red hot rivets right and left A couple of beams had been allowed to fall 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 was no place for a man i with a case of nerves and I 1 still had some although a few weeks of work and a few narrow escapes had hardened my nervous system considerably it seemed to me that the quietest of the lot were my fellow apprentices the rivet jacks jack was just a little bit nervous as he wept about his bis work to get coal for the ri 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 hoist and were hauling their coal up by means of ropes jack sees doom dropping from above at that moment jack reached the beams of the third story below the top and stood waiting while two other ironworkers iron workers climbed up the next ladder another ironworker was following him up the ladder he had just left and jack watched him coming for a moment and then turned his attention back to the rivet jacks who were hoisting bags of coal he had just turned his gaze in that direction when he saw the bag of coal slip its noose and come hurtling toward him jack was right under that descending bag he fie dropped to a sitting position and wrapped his legs around the beam he knew he was going to be hit but with luck he might keep his hold gripping the beam he waited then CRASH the bag hit him on the shoulder tore off his shirt hirt sleeve and ripped a big patch of skin from his right arm I 1 he was numbed bewildered but fais eye took in everything that happened at that moment the ironworker who had followed him up the ladder had bad almost reached the top his head bead was about even with jacks waist and the bag of 0 coal glancing off jacks shoulder bit the other fellow on the head like a flash jack swung out and caught him with hit injured arm and none too soon either that fellow was out cold his eyes 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 with the fingertips of a 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 and that leg was holding me on the beam I 1 grew dizzy from the strain and began to feel seasick sea sick alean meanwhile while another ironworker coming up the ladder began maneuvering himself into a position to straddle the injured mar and hold him but all that took time and when at last other help arrived and many hands were assisting the fhe man on the ladder jack was so far gone with dizziness and that he had bad to be helped himself before he could get back on the beam both jack and the other fellow were back on he job the following night and that same night other ironworkers iron workers began to speak to jack they say much mur h just a remark or two about the weather but it was enough to let jack know that he had made the grade copyright service |
