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Mari Tassel
IN THE SOLI
Recorded in
Writers' Section files
Peres said, *Sometimes a friend asks, rirhatore you doing
nowt pores?* I bear, myself say, up on the Bill. In the
Hole.' And the words surprise as as much they surprise the
friend.'
Peres was a great strapping youth of about twenty-five.
He passed his big hand over his hair in a boyish, helpless gee.
ture. 'If anyone told as five years ago that I'd be a quarry-
man today, I'd have told him he was waxy. It's the last thing
I ever thought of doing.
"I've lived here all my life. My people we deed, all ex-
cept a younger sister. My mother was Scotch. My father was
Spanish, came over here from Spain. From Santander, that's
where most of the Barre Spanish come from. And most of them
are granite workers. But my father wasn't. He had a small
meat shop. Raised his own cattle and did his own butchering.
That may he made a bigcor profit. It was a good business. MY
sister and I always had the best of everything. Then when I
was a sophomore in High School my father died. Bed gone on
a fishing trip with two friends of his. At the pond they sep-
arated. Well, When it came time to start for home again, my
father was missing. They had to dreg the pond with a net before
they found his body.
'It was an awful shock to my mother. She died three months
afterwards. My sister was too young to keep house so she went
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to live with an aunt. I closed up the house and took a room
with a family that lived nearby. My sister and I each re-
ceived an equal share of my father's money. I had a guardian,
but I managed to squander a lot of it, in spite of him. I felt
pretty big with all that money in the bank, In the winter I'd
take in all the basketball games in Barre, Montpelier, llorth-
field and Burlington. I was going to dances then, too, and I
couldn't seem to buy enough suits to satisfy me.
"After graduation I thought some of going to college. Of
studying law. But the way I'd been going through my money there
was just enough left for three years of school. And they'd have
to be three careful years, too. I'd been living so well I couldn't
see myself settling down to four or five years of studying and
skimping. About this time a men's clothing store in town went
out of business. A friend of mine who claimed he knew the bus-
iness but had no capital talked me into buying the store and
running it with him as partner. My aunt tried to talk me out
of it, said I knew nothing of that business, and that my partner
and I were too young. But I wouldn't listen to her. It seemed
a good thing to have a store full of new clothes. Well,. I went
ahead and bought the place. Invested almost every cent I owned.
"Two weeks went by and I felt confident enough of the bus-
iness to visit my aunt and brag about all the customers we'd
been having. I even laughed at her and kidded her for worrying
so much about my investment," Perez grinned. "I'm not joking
when I say I was confident of that business. I thought it was
a gold mine, I had a lot of Vriends. Especially the young
crowd. I stocked the store with clothing they'd go for. And
they certainly went for it. I guess every young fellow in town
blossomed out in a new suit or overcoat. Everything went fine
for a month or two, then we had to stook up again. We sent bills
to our customers, most of them had bought things on the cuff*
We couldn't get much out of them. They were all young fellows
like ourselves earning just a little, or not having any lob at
all. I realized then that if I wanted to re -stock I'd have to
use the last of my own money* I didn't want to admit myself
beaten, so I drew the money from the bank and put every cent
of it in new stock.
"This time I wasn't eager to see a suit leave the store
until it was paid for, or half paid for. I didn't have to worry
much about that. Customers didn't come. The young fellows who
still owed us money were ashamed to trade with us for little
things they could pay for --like ties, handkerchiefs, or socks.
They'd bring their cash to some other clothing store."
Perez said, "Well, I had to go out of business within a
year. Lost every cent I had. On top of that I had a wife to
support. During those first few weeks when business looked
rosy I decided I was making enough to get married. Our baby
was born the week I lost the store. I didn't even have enongh
Loney to pay the hospital bill. I felt pretty cheap when my
aunt went ahead and settled the bill. Cho didn't pull any of
that I -told -you -so stuff, 5:4 didn't have to, she knew I was
ashamed.
nUe named the baby after my grandfather. I've never seen
my father's folks. They're still alive, in Spain. My sister
and I are the only granddhildren they have. They keep writing
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and begging us to go over and see them. I don't read Spanish.
I take them to my aunt, the translates them for us. At Christ-
mas I get her to write a letter forme, then I copy it over.
This last Christmas I sent Mem a picture of the boy. iie's al-
most six now. They *rote back and said they'd made a will leav-
ing half of their belongings to him.
aunt has never asked for the money she spent on my
wife and boy. But I've managed to pay her back a little at a
time, Two *hole months after the baby was born I couldn't find
any work. I was desperate and willing to take any kind of a
job. An old friend of my father had a good job in one of the
big quarries. I finally got work through him. I started off
working on the grout piles. It was hard work and didn't pay
much, but it meant a living. It was slow working up to a decent
job. I'm a quarryman now. Can't say I like the work, I'm not
satisfied, but at least it's hard, honest work, and I've learned
to appreciate money. I've learned to live well on a little.
Last week I bought half a pig. Paid only nine cents a pound.
leal froze the pork and used the fresh meat every day. The ham
and bacon we had smoked for four cents a pound. Co the meat
cost us thirteen cents a pound. Not bad, is it?
"In our quarry three -fourths of the workers are French.
The rest are Italian, Spanish, Irish and Scotch. For some
reason, the French are favored in our quarry. Maybe it's be-
cause they were strike breakers back in 121, and breaking the
strike meant a lot to the quarry owners.
"Work in the hole is about the same every day. You have
to learn to stand sun, rain, snow or wind. If it's too bad we
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don't works But there's no staying abed for us. We have to
report at eight, it's up to the boss to decide if the weather's
too bad for work. I've seen it so foggy in that hole that I
couldn't see the bottom* We put in 7 hours a day. If we work
overtime, we're paid time and a hale.
"At eight o'clock we climb down the hole. .The longest
ladders are made of logs, witL two-by-fours for rungs. They're
built to hold plenty of weight. First of all the boss chalks
off the block' that's to be quarried* That's his job, along
with seeing that everyone's supplied with work. No quarryman
starts on a. block until the boss has marked it off.
"low the channel bar operators get busy, and drill holes
on the chalk lines. The holes are 2 3/4 inches in diameter,
and each one 3/4 of an inch apart. 4uarrymen prepare the block
for blasting by drilling extra holes with pneumatic jack hammers.
"A powder man does the blasting. If it's good stone we're
quarrying, black powder is used. This has only a lifting effect.
It pushes the stone six or eight inches from the bed. If we're
blasting grout or warAe granite, dynamite is used. This smashes
and crumbles the stone. When the stone is ready for blasting
a whistle is blown --two long whistles --to warn the workmen to
stay clear.
"After a good block is blasted, the atone is cut into smaller
blocks with plug drills. If the quarry has an order for blocks
of a certain size the boss directs the yard men to cut them to
this size. Otherwise they're cut to the most popular sizes,"
Perez continued, "Eaybe you've noticed at the quarries
that the stone lies in beds and has seams running through it.
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If blocks are quarried near these seams, the size of them will
depend on the way the seam runs --the seam is useless. The stone
must be broken at the seam. If a block measures 5 feet by 2i
foot thick, it is mIlled a saliblock.. Sawblocks are carried up
to the yard and piled there, on sale for whoever wants to buy
them
"To get the stone from the hole to the top, the blocks are
first roped. Whoever does the roping signals to a man at the
top of the quarry. The head derriekman. Fe relays the message
or signal to the engine room, to the hoist engineer who operates
the derrick. A whistle blows. The workmen get out of the way.
No stone is carried over the workmene heads. The derrick hoists
the stone fast. A good sized block -say a 30 ton piece -is carried
to the top in about four minutes. There used to be a tine when
a quarryman'd ride the block, but you don't see that now. It's
against insurance company rules.
"Well, that's the usual way to get stone out. But almost
every day we get stone that the derrick can't reach. The derrick
reaches out into the hole only the length of the boom, so stone
in awkward corners has to be handled by blounding, this puts
the stone within reach of the derrick.
"Bloundings are steel cables stretched across the hole..
Over these is a saddle that rides back and forth within reach
of the 1..errick and any part of the quarry wall. Double steel
ropes equipped with hooks hang from these saddles. They pick
up the blocks and carry them to the derrick; the derrick carries
them to the top.
"We don't do much talking in the hole. You can't hear with
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all those pneumatic tools working away at the same time. We
talk by 'signals. For instance, if the boss wants me to help
a channel bar operator, he points out the man and then taps one
hand on the other —like this." Perez tapped the fingers of one
hand acainat the outstretched palm of the other.
"If I need a 14 inch rope, I pass my hand across my stomach..
"If I want a l inch rope, I pass my hand across my throat,
like this." Perez made a cutting motion at his throat.
If it's a 7/8 inch rope I an, I grab the thumb of one
and ani wrigLle the other four fingers.
"If I need a I inch chain, I make a slicing motion of my
hands, like this palms facing each other.
"We try to keep water out of the hole, but we never get
the bed really dry. In our quarry an electric pump draws water
out night and day. It pumps it up to a pond further up the
It's a good quarry. Vielve had no fatal accident for
three years. Of course, minor accidents happen. A crushed foot,
or finger. Injuries to the eyes are fewer than ever. A law
went into effect about a year ago ordering the wearing of thick
goggles by workmen atriking steel on stone, or stone on stool.
It's hard to collect insurance on an eye injury if you haven't
adhered to this law.
"In case of an accident, the accident rope is pulled.
This rope is always in a handy position in the hole. It blows
a whistle. A big metal grout box, used ordinarily to haul away
wate granite, is lowered by the derrick. The injured man is
put inside and carried to the top. To the office. A doctor is
called immediately. While he Is on his way, first aid is ad-.
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ministered.
ntlost accidents happen in the hole. The outside workers
such as derrick men, engineers, machine shop employees, and
riggers have few accidents. ninrArs are the fellows who keep
the hoists and derricks in ship-sliape condition. They have to
crease them every day.
"L'ach one of us has a certain type of work to do. We're
kept busy all the time."