At four o'clock I put on my paint-spattered pants, the coat with a
conspicuous hole near one of the buttons, and my green hat. I climbed
the little hill before the gate, among leisurely first arrivals, and
found myself attracting no attention whatsoever. I felt for the brass
check in my shirt pocket, found it, and rebuttoned the pocket. The guard
peered into my face, as if he were going to ask for a pass, but didn't.
I walked the four hundred yards to the open-hearth, and noticed clearly
for the first time the yard of the blooming-mill. Here varied shapes of
steel, looking as if they weighed several thousand pounds each, were
issuing from the mill on continuous treads, and moving about the yard in
a most orderly, but complex manner. Electric cranes were sweeping over
the quarter-acre of yard-space, and lifting and piling the steel swiftly
and precisely on flat cars.
I entered the open-hearth mill by the tracks that ran close to the
furnaces. The mill noises broke on me: a moan and rattle of cranes
overhead, fifty-ton ones; the jarring of the train-loads of charge-boxes
stopping suddenly in front of Number 4; and minor sounds like chains
jangling on being dropped, or gravel swishing out of a box. I was
conscious of muscles growing tense, in the face of this violent
environment, a somewhat artificial and eager calm. I walked with
excessive firmness, and felt my personality contracting itself into the
mere sense of sight and sound.