Life-shortening Occupations.

Evening Star, Issue 8771, 11 March 1892, Page 2

Life-shortening Occupations.

One of the curious features of modern life is the extent to which the most hazardous trades are overrun by applicants for work. The electric light companies never find any difficulty in obtaining all the linemen they need, notwithstanding the fact that the dangert of that kind of business have been demonstrated times without number. The men who work in factories where wallpaper is made frequently joke one another over the tradition that a man's life in this trade is shortened ten years. A similar belief is prevalent in factories where leather paper* are made, and among men who have to handle them, and whose lungs are said to become impeded by inhaling the dost arising from such papers. In certain other fac - tories, where brass ornaments and fitting* are made, the air is laden with very fine brazen particles, which are, when inhaled, especially irritating to the lungs. Bat one of the most singular advertised calls for employes that was ever printed appeared recently in a Connecticut newspaper, signed by a firm engaged in the business of building towers. It called for applicants onlv among those who are young, strong, asdl courageous, and closed by Baying: "We warn all seekers for this job that it it of the most dangerous nature, and that few men continue in it more than a few years. In fact, it is almost certain death to the workman who follows this occupation."— ' Journal of the American Medical Association.'