﻿T-BONE SLIM DISCUSSES DEAD AIR 
 
(Upper Skunks and Lower Skunks.) 
“Always room on the top.” 
That’s just the trouble. So many ‘make for the top’ there is no one left in the basement, and the fire is extinct . . . Yes, damn it, extinct . . . 

The top-bunks also are full— but for another reason . . . and the men sleeping in them soon will be as extinct as the manhood that “stands for it”. 

Man is a very poisonous animal. Even dogs hesitate at biting him. The pores of his skin continually are omitting gases, acids, etc. 

The upper-bunks, taking into con sideration, pores, (large and small) acids, gases and interrupted slumber, are the cause of much bolshevism on the part of those who recognize the dangers in that institution. Theoretically the upper bunk has the “best air” (insofar as “dead air” sinks to lower levels) but in “praetique” the warmed air, leaving the body of the “stinker” below, damn near smothers the man above. 

After doing all possible damage (as warmed air, above) it cools and sinks to lower levels, (where it came from) and surrounds the lower sleeper with an aroma of his own, and others. 

Regardless of where this air came from, upper or lower-berths, eventually it sinks to a lower level — but in a diluted form. 
It is not the active poison it was while ascending. It has been denatured somewhat by fresh air coming through crevices and chinks. But it is dead air, and dead air because: too many men sleep in one shanty! 
It is dangerous not because of the upper bunk, nor because of the lower-bunk; it is dangerous because of too many bunks in a limited air supply. It is dangerous because too much poison in the form of gases, is introduced into the sleeping quarters, and the remedy for it LESS BUNKS. High or low, less bunks. 

If it were possible to remove all the upper bunks and distribute them on the floor, that would not remedy this evil. It might kill you slower, but kill you it would—the same amount of dead air still would settle down, settle on your lungs and eventually settle you. 

The cause of all consumption (that isn’t caused by active fumes) is dead air. Each man contributes to his own death. And when many men sleep together the contribution takes on proportions that astonishes those thathave given the matter any thought. 

I have tried hard not to be blunt, and, as this is a very serious problem for the workers to solve, I hope the reader will be charitable with me. . . The scientistts say they do not know the cause of tuberculosis so, guess it is up to me: 
The inhaling of bodily vapors, gases, in active form, or inhaling there as dead air is the sole cause of consumptions. It makes no difference whether the vapors, gases or smells be your own, or somebody elses, it will kill you if you persist in inhaling them. 

Where one and two are gathered together the danger is not great. Where two and three gather the danger is greater. And where many gather the holy ghost will soon be there in the form of white plague. 

By all means agitate for the removal of top bunks—else keep them empty. Removing them gives you just that much more air-space, and a chance to survive. But in so far as the bunks are private property the removing them comes under the head of wage labor and must be done only for pay. 

The better way is to call a meeting and decide how many men you care to have in the camp you sleep in— and leave the upper-bunks remain a monument to the “lungers,” catting around the country looking for death. Leave them there to remind you that your employer is deliberately trying to undermine your health even as he profits from the work you do. 
Karl Marx has said, (they tell me) that, “The capitalist system contains the germs of its own destruction.” I’m inclined to support Karl, this, because it has come to my notice that each man contains within himself the agents of his own undoing and the undoing of his fellow mam 
Face the wind and live long. 
Safety third.