Lineman

SLIM--William Wister Haines--Little, Brown ($2.50).

This is the story of a hillbilly boy from the South who makes good as an electrical worker during the boom years. His domain was the wide world outside any Pullman window--a world across which marches mile on mile of high-tension wire, sagging between skeleton towers.

Author Haines knows whereof he is writing. Though only 25, he has spent seven years as a lineman on power highways and electrical railroads. But in celebrating his craft and the men who pursue it, he has not overlooked the fact that novel writing is also a craft in itself. He has mastered the new calling as thoroughly as his hero. Slim, mastered the job of wire stringing. The tale is by turns hardboiled, sentimental, tragic, humorous. But the toughness, the sentiment, the tragedy and the humor all belong to a man's world. Pride of work comes first, play second, true love a lame third.

When he gets his start Slim is only a kid "grunt" (fetch & carrier for the linemen). He wins the respect of his Boss and the protection and affection of Red Blayd, crack lineman, known the country over as an almost legendary figure. Their first job finished, Red takes the Kid along to Chicago where, with the help of Cally and Grace and a big roll, he gives Slim the time of his young life. Then they go on to a new job of rearing towers and stringing wires over the Rocky Mountains, winding up in San Francisco.

Back East once more with another job, Slim, now a seasoned lineman, finds his toughest assignment while Red meets the fate of many another good lineman while working with "hot" wire. Brokenhearted, Slim shelves construction for work on an electric railroad. The depression comes. Construction ceases and maintenance is cut to the minimum. Slim, during one of his periodic spells in the hospital, has fallen in love with his nurse. But when she tries to get him to take a softer job, he rebels. Even out of work Slim remains the heroic lineman. They would need him, he figures, even during the revolution.

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