Document text
.ebert :caudotte
30 Larre -t.
-ent7:elicr2 Vt.
RETIRED IRIS11 KTD ovirn
The cray of the arid chaam above flaunted tLo hillside
through vhich the dust7 road round its narrow course to the
sunmit. Here and there stolid patches of green stood in
silent resplendent charm reflecting the tints of a late
afternoon sun. The glandular ficure of Old Jim 17e1117 was
presented in full relief against the eastern sky which over-
looked the ragged network of mountains extending from Quarry
Hill. The jagged lodges of the cragged defile unfolded a
vista of life before the reminiscent eye of Old Jim. 4
life of men against granite, where men thrilled to its
perils and hazards, laughed, fought, drank, and loved vith
its money, where men gored the lifeless slabs with their
blood, with their lives....
The rugged sincere old Irishman had witnessed, had
worked, bad lived, the sequential stages of a stone from
the time it was quarried till the time it lay in the shed,
out, polidhed, and carved, ready for the cemetery' For
Jim, the one remaining stage was net far distant.
The words frontal, deep-threatmd voles came thick
through his Irish breve and disturbed the intense still
nose of the air emanating from the cessation of the constant
rubble of compressors,
"I worked every part of it. I bet that I koow more
granite than any one man ifi the whale of Washington County.
When I first began I worked for the Votmere and Morse Granite
19834
rries. to vorked the 1=cr end of the quarry and there
were some boautiful shoots granite there. y job was
to examine than for any defocts. I remember one day that
vie hauled this beautiful stone out of the quarry. I looked
at it once and I told the old super that it had sono iron
in it. Well, the old super says, 'Tin, if you say so there
nust be. But we better lot it stay out overnigat ane make
sure,' it rained that night and sure enough there were
iron rusts all over the stone so we just threw it out, Of
course you had to have exceptional good eyes. I don't
think that I could do it now.
"My next job was drilling I bandied the dynamite and
the powder. I could toll just the way a stone was Going
to break by the rift in it. I don't care what land of a
stone it is, it's just like a stick of wood, it will always
follow the rift. Co day the old super told me to break
this certain stone. I could see that it was bad business
and didn't want to do it. Of eourse I didn't want to tell
him that so 2 told him that I didn't have enough powder.
'Well,' says he, 'give it to me., And break it he did*
Say, that Charge ripped his face into 1400dy etreaks and
god -awful holes and his arms and logo were ripped and al-
most torn off* Let me tell you that poor devil was dam
lucky to live*
"But I bad the narrowest escape that any one over did
have. We were breaking stone one day and I had dug a three
foot hole to put the powder in. Well, I tamped it extra
3
-11 'hat day because I wantod to 3ot a ,3ood Mon
I lichtod the faso and we all in bacl: into the woods to
wait for the charge. o vaitod for about ten inutos and
it diOn't f„!le off. The aupor says to moo 'Jim, it must
have boon a =ass but don't ta7zo any chances right away.,
So 1 waltod till I thought that ovorything was safo. Then
wont down into the bolo and sat right an the stone and
began to dig for the poodor. Well, that powder blew up
and the stone went right out
sv
in under no out sideways.
Yes, sir, there I was. Flush on the stone. I don't think
that a stone would have blown like that again in a hundred
years.
"That same week Mike Mahoney was so badly hurt when
he was caught in a Chkrce that be was never able to work
again. Mike Slifer took bis place the next day and before
the week was out be was blown dead when a drill struck his
neck and blow his head pludb off his shoulders. We were
pinking up parts of hima year later. Such a bloody mess..
"After that I went to Colorado to work* Real nice
place. Top of the Rocky Mountains. did the dynamiting
out there for a Scotch and Irish concern* lben I worked
there we quarried the stone to build the Denver State
Capitol with. I got good pay and the fellows mere good
to work: for but I didn't have any education so I figured
that I would be better off if I came back*
"ben I °ado back, I served my time in the shed work'.
ins for Ryle and MCCormink. I learned cutting, carving.
-,1raix,ry work, letter carvilm polishAnG and a lot onings
tlaat a younc follow of teda;1 would tako oars to learn. I
UO3 that tho hardest piece of work that I did was the
7lece called The 7oly Oity in ?mills. It was a job 'watch
represented the Hay City in ruins and clouds of dust. I
forget just bou long I workod an it but there wort tines
when thought that I would have to quit. 1.111 just then
they raised my wages. Then winter began to set in and
was frozen half of the time. Tly back ached liko a tooth
fram the continual bending anel I got rheumatism in mu
shoulder. They raised my wages again* I worked another
=than it and I got damn good and sick of it and vas
ready to give it up* My eyes were tired. My 'whole body
von tired* So they raised my wages again, I finished
it finally. They say that itm the only nun mho got his
gages raised three times on the same Job. Oh my, oh
ubon I thank of it,. That vas the worst dang thing I ever
did 1
°Than I thought that I mould go into business for my:
self„ I built a. little abed. It was the smallest shed in
Montpelier and it had the biggest income, A few years of
this and rheumatism began to set in pretty bad and I was
a long time in bed: Thought it would be best to get rid
of it so sold all the equipment to different sheds.
still be at it if I could,_ It never bothered me too mudh
and I enjoyed it very much. This rheumatism is the only
thing that I got and everybody has to get something When
3.
ney :et zu ace,
n7a .7, married wten I taa younc, Clad
it. 7!aybo
would have turned out wild. :lost of 1,4v friends were
?maw drinkers but I mantrod to drink without boinc a f7.1ut-
ton althouch you wouldn't think so from this pod.
most of these felloas aro dead or ready to die. I raised
a pretty fair family. Four cirls and one boy. They're
all away fraahame xxl. married except one girl.
"Well, I'll toll you about the strike of '21. Boutwoll
and Corry got together and they gave notice to the quarry
workers that they were going to work under new conditions
beginning the following April. This vas along in the fall.
V011, along about the middle of January they thought that
they would give the workers a long rest. So they laid
them off* These poor dogs couldn't find any work so they
loafed all that time, Cone April and the quarries were
going to open up again and no men* Frank Corry had about
t75,000 tied up in work to got out and Boutwell was all
loaded up too* The only men that they could get were a
few old fellows who weren't, mat good wavihOw. So they
got watch -makers, shoemakers, tailors, takers, all up
from now York* The first three or taw months that they
vitro working there they did more damsge than they did good
And they know it and everyone else know it, Frank Corry
lost upwards to $260,000 and I guess that he vtitild have
gone on the rocks if he di -4 not own the beat tod in the
world right up there an the bill* And than they got these
3.
:reneh otio reaLtera .1.1 ram Canada. After t2,at Corry
and Loutuell refused to recognize the :Ilion and thcy otuck
to it too becauso they have never had anything to do 'with
it after that,
91 think that 3outuell„ Corry, and the Roolz of Ages
mere the throe great evils of the granite business. The
Rock of ,iges have tried to get a monopoly on sheds and
quarries so that ther gill be able to rule their prices
and employ a certain sot of non. Naturally a lot of good
nen are gradually losing their jobs. Old Corry tried to
got a corner on all the light granite. its bought up about
every light granite quarry in the state. Boutwell did the
sane thirg with all the dark granite. Of course they
weren't satisfied to get a decent paw for their stock.
The prices vent up so blgh that it was foolish for anyone
to buy Barre granite. To make the picture complete, a few
fellows went out west and opened up a business and goon
they were.taking the business away* from Barre" And they're
doing tbs. same thing down in Georgia right now. It's too
bad. But you can't blame the people for ming less" And
the stone is almost as good
POranitel.en't what it use to be Greedy and marrow
nen ate the core right out of its But there's still some-
thing left if ;you know how to go about it. I guess I'd al-
ways say that anyhow'''.
Granite is in my blood,"