Two rows of furnaces on each side were fired up; the effect was not unlike the description of Vulcan's forge, except that the Cyclopes were animated with a divine spark, whereas the dusky servants of the English furnaces were joyless, silent and benumbed... The foreman told me that stokers were selected from among the strongest, but that nevertheless they all became consumptive after seven or eight years of toil and died of pulmonary consumption. That explained the sadness and apathy in the faces and every movement of the hapless men.