Subj : Leaden spade
To   : All
From : Alexander Koryagin
Date : Tue Oct 29 2019 08:32:28

Hi, all!

From "The Great Catsby", by F.Scott Fitzerald, again:

-----Beginning of the citation-----
About half way between West Egg and New York the motor road hastily
joins the railroad and runs beside it for a quarter of a mile, so as to
shrink away from a certain desolate area of land. This is a valley of
ashes-a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills
and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys
and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who
move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air. Occasionally a
line of gray cars crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly
creak, and comes to rest, and immediately the ash-gray men swarm up with
leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud, which screens their
obscure operations from your sight.
----- The end of the citation -----

Although all the text is very vivid and difficult, I'd like ask why the workers 
use "leaden spades"? IMHO lead is not a metal for spades? ;)

Bye, all!
Alexander Koryagin

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 * Origin: nntps://fidonews.mine.nu - Lake Ylo - Finland (2:221/360.0)

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