pread out like a map till they are lost in the mist and smoke. Seaward
lies the vast, the tremendous stretch of the sea, the wrinkled, the
crinkled, the far-away sea that stretches to touch the sky.

Now this soaring sky scraper is the work of men--of many, many men. Its
lofty lacy tower was first thought of by the architect. With closed eyes
he saw it, and with his well-trained fingers quickly he drew its
outline. Then at his office many men with T squares and with compasses,
sitting at high long tables, with green-shaded lamps, worked far into
the nights till all the plans were ready.

Then the sky scraper began to grow. The first men brought mighty steam
shovels. One hundred feet into the earth they burrowed. The gigantic
mouths of the steam shovels gnawed at the rock and the clay. Huge hulks
they clutched from this underworld, heaved up with enormous derricks and
crashed out on the upper land. Deep they dug, deep into the ground till
they found the firm bed-rock. With a network of steel they filled this
terrific hole. Into the rasping, revolving mixers they poured tons of
sand and cement and gravel which steadily flowed in a sluggish stream to
strengthen the steel supports.

At last,--and that was an exciting day,--the great beams began to rise.
Again the derricks ground, as slowly, steadily, accurately, they swung
each beam to its place. A thousand men swarmed over the steel bones,
some throwing red-hot rivets, others catching them in pails, all to the
song of the rivet driver.

[Illustration]

The riveter screamed and shrieked and shrilled. It pierced the air of
the narrow streets. On the nearby buildings it vibrated, echoed. The
sky scraper seemed alive and thrilled by the quivering, throbbing,
shrieking shrill,--by the song of the riveter. Story by story the sky
scraper grew, a monstrous outline against the sky. And ever and ever as
it grew, hissed the rivet and screamed the drill.

At length the sky scraper soared sixty dizzy stories high. Then swiftly
came the stone masons and encased the giant steel frame. Swiftly in its
center, men reared the plunging elevators. Swiftly worked the
electrician, the plumber, the carpenter. All workmen were called and
all workmen came. The world listened to the call of this sky scraper
standing in the heart of the great city. From the mines of Minnesota to
the swamps of Louisiana came goods to serve its need. Long, long ago, in
olden days, the churches grew slowly bit by