The inside history of the Carnegie Steel Company, a romance of millions . in thepicturesque, both horri-ble and attractive. Inhis approach to Home-stead Mr. Garland wasstruck by the desolateappearance of the dis-trict, and the wretched-ness of the town itself,he says, was streets were hor-rible; the buildingswere poor; the side-walks were sunken andfull of holes; and thecrossings were formedof sharp-edged stoneslike rocks in a river-bed. Everywhere theyellow mud of thestreets lay kneaded intosticky masses, throughwhich groups of pale,lean men slouched infaded garments, grimy wit
The inside history of the Carnegie Steel Company, a romance of millions . in thepicturesque, both horri-ble and attractive. Inhis approach to Home-stead Mr. Garland wasstruck by the desolateappearance of the dis-trict, and the wretched-ness of the town itself,he says, was streets were hor-rible; the buildingswere poor; the side-walks were sunken andfull of holes; and thecrossings were formedof sharp-edged stoneslike rocks in a river-bed. Everywhere theyellow mud of thestreets lay kneaded intosticky masses, throughwhich groups of pale,lean men slouched infaded garments, grimy with the soot and dirt of the town was as squalid as could well be imagined, and thepeople were mainly of the discouraged and sullen type to befound everywhere where labor passes into the brutalizing stageof severity. These depressing conditions are apparently inseparable froma newly established iron or steel mill in any locality, and thisis especially true where soft coal is used. Grime, heat, hard,exhausting labor, these are conditions that are to be found in. Looks like hard work. A DOGS LIFE 195 every steel-mill, and the works of the Carnegie Company differedlittle from other manufactories of the same kind except in ex-tent, but it may be truly said that the larger the mill the moredepressing the conditions. After commenting on the muggy, smoke-laden atmosphere,he [Garland] proceeds to describe the conditions inside themills, and the men engaged at their tasks, and tells us that theyworked with a sort of desperate attention and alertness. That looks like hard work, I said to one of them to whommy companion introduced me. He was breathing hard fromhis labor. Hard! I guess its hard. I lost forty pounds the firstthree months I came into the business. It sweats the life outof a man. I often drink two buckets of water in twelve hours;the sweat drips through my sleeves and runs down my legs andfills my shoes. But that isnt the worst of it, said my guide, a formeremployee.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookidinsidehistor, bookyear1903
