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lass Lary Tomei
63 Barre St,
nontpelier, %t.
The Granite Workfr
French
„bide Savoie was a squat, stocky Frenchman. lie sucked
contentedly at a curved, worn pipe* "I've had almost twenty
years of the sheds," he said, "ever since 1021* Ando" he
aoded„ "I've boarded and roomed in this same house for ten
years."
it was a charaoterless house, one of three similar
structures set bask from Berlin Street with always a view
of a dismal line of sheds* The house was a three0.storied
wooden square, painted green. Mrs* 4aCrosse, a stonecutter's
widow, was the landlady,
came down from Iberville, C.nada, Savoie went on.
had no intention of coming to Barre or working in the shades.
I'd been out of a job for a few weeks, then I heard that cot-
tes were going up fast at Liallett's Bay an Lake Champlain*
knew a little about carpentering, I managed to get a job
the2e through the eummer until late fall* Well, I hated to
go back to Iberville, there was nothing there for me, so I
started looking Aiounc* About this time the shed owners in
the Barre district were co.:111aining about the hill wages
they had to pay skilled workere, Line it seems they were will,-
inr to break in new workers to save their pocketbooks* Good
cL.rvers were gettinc 204.4001 or mere a day, but I'll say they
deserved it. Their 1:ork meant everything to them. Anyway*
that's how I 3ot my clualce to go in the sheds. I °snot say
19825
I'm sorry net yet. I work bard, and I feel fine. I've
worked up to imit, that mania C8.60 a day, pretty good
pay these days.
My first year in Barre I roomed in a business bleak an
N. Bain Street. I wasn't lonesome. There were a lot of
Canadians earning in from just north of Vermont. same of us
got in the habit of baying our meals out together. We d
always take in the church suppers, it was good cooking
and a change from the restaurants.
That's bow I met mr landlady, at a supper the St. Anne's
Society was giving The society was just for married Frendh
women. i. Catholic Society. Mrs. LaCrosse did the cocking
that night and we all thought it was fine. Her husband had
died of stonecutter's T. D. the month before, she told us
she was going to invest her insurance money in a good, plain
house and take in boarders and roomers. Pour of us moved in
the next week. She made a pretty good living out of it. Ane
other granite worker's widow, she was rrenoh too, rented the
house next door the following year, and took in boarders.
The two women were friendly, but they knew we talked a lot
about the food and compared meals, so there got to be plenty
of competition. It suited us fine. Each one would plan the
best meals she could afford, and still make a profit. I'd
never eaten so well before, and I haven't since. It didn't
last more than a year. The French wean next door married
again, another stonecutter. Be said be had to work in the
sheds all day, he didn't want to be looking at them at night*
3
They moved to the other end of the town.
Meet of the roomers in this house are wortinc in the
sheds or quarries. The landlady treats us as it we were
her family. In SepteMber of 0&;„ the Commissioner of Im
due tires of Vermont issued the reeplation enforeing the use
of goggles bc, various quarry WOWS, and refusing compence•
tion unless the driller was wearing thee at the time his eye
was injured by either granite or steel ship. Before this,
Urs, LsCrosse used to keep after a sample of the quarry
workers and see that they had goggles. km the winter, when
they carried their lunch, she made sure that the masses were
packed in their boxes. 007 nen operating plug drills. Seek.
hammers, line drills, bullp.sets, bitwgrinders and emery iheels
are requested by the Commissioner to wear them. Owners of
the quarries ape ordered to provide the goggles, if they fall
they are subject to penalty. If am injury is weeeived by a
worker whose employer has failed to provide goggles, hems,.
collect compensation. Itto a good regulation, and most of
the fellows stick to it, even though it is bother to those
who aren't used to them. Sometimes I wear them in the sheds.
It's funny, it a man hurts his eye today the rest of the men
are sure to wear goggles for a week or two, then they discard
them until the next accident. But vs don't get as many eye
injuries in the sheds as they do in the quarries.