The Providence News

BEGINS AT THE BOTTOM.

Rich Society Man Becomes an Apprentice in a Steel Making Plant.

St. Louis, June 4.—Arthur Lee Cabanne, tired of society at the age of twenty-five years, college man, athlete and social favorite, scion of one of the most prominent and wealthy families of St. Louis; son of J. Charles Cabanne, of No. 4344 Westminster place, is wheeling pig iron, shoveling coal into scorching furnaces and performing other tasks of hard physical labor for $1.50 a day to acquire a knowledge of the manufacture of steel.

He has entered a five years' apprenticeship and for that period will be literally dead to the world and a recluse from the haunts in fashionable West End circles.

In the parlance of the plant he is a third molder's helper, the most humble and unremunerative position on the pay-roll. In the event of faithful service he will be promoted to second molder's helper, then molder's helper and finally molder, with a salary of $4 a day.

He works shoulder to shoulder for twelve hours each day with hundreds of negroes and grimy-faced men. His dash and polish are not discernible in his vulcanie surroundings.

He eats with his fellow-laborers and is a good fellow with them. He tried to enter the place incog., but a former footman in his family service employed at the plant recognized him, and, before night, the 1600 employees were whispering about the new comer.

Cabanne hopes to learn the business from the bottom up and go to the top as he becomes proficient in each department.

He is a graduate of the Western Military Academy at Alton, Ill., and served as first lieutenant in the Forty-eighth Infantry. He saw service in Cuba and the Philippines. But in none of his battles was he in so hot a position as he occupies at present. To shovel in coal he must go within three feet of the great furnaces which seem scorching hot to the casual visitor at the distance of a dozen rods.