The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-28 00:00:00

The Coal-Pitman Abovd Ground.

The pitman never feels hungry while at work, hut en
Many of the. fore-shift men (the night
coming out he feels ravenous and takes food as soon a.!4 he
which is a compound of oatmeal, hot
enters his cottage.
others take coffee or tea, with bread and
water,
and take
butter;
tt crowds,ero
dinner when they come home. This
butter, and some take dinner. The back-shift men (day
otafkreoast beef or mutton and potatoes, whh
?lcor Pudding. They eat their pudding
after..
wusoultalelryii)coanlwsiasytss
fiarbsotilaenddsbueeetfdourminpulitut
They take animal food once
a day only, and, considering the great muscular exertion
necessary in hewing., the amount of mutton they eat is very
moderate.
and then they wash. This washing
process is done very tfEctually. A large wooden tub of hot
blest
smoke T
a heypj seldom or never drink beer at dinner.
r c,
water is set down before the fire; the man then sits down
on a small stool. with a leg on each side of the tub, and,
being supplied with a piece of soap, he begins by washing
his hands, arms, and chest—head, neck, and face follow,
and the ends with the lower extremities, the one after the
other. This finished, if
in the fore-shift, he goes to bed,
his wife brings him his pipe lighted, and in a few seconds
he is fast asleep. The back-shift men dress after dinner
and employ themselves as their fancy leads them. Quoits,
bowling, and ball playing are their out-door games; cricket,
wrestling,
4unithpeiinrggreat gambling game. Their home
g
are seldom practised. A species of
pitch
are toss is
whist, draughts, and dominoes. -Whatever
amusement
usenient or subject they take up is stuck to perseveringly.
They are very matter-of-fact, and have considerable power
of concentration.
Every available piece of ground near the
sa ud and
villages is converted into a garden, and almost every cottage
has one attached to it. Some keep poultry, and most feed a
pig; they cure their own bacon with great success. Their
bread is home made; two kinds are used by them—white
and brown. "- s Piced wigs" prevail on Sundays, and the
"singing hinny" still makes its appearance on grand occa-
sions. Great excesses are still prevalent on pay Friday and
Saturday nights ; ale is the liquor chit fly drunk ; but no
matter what excesses a man may commit on the pay week
end he must be at his post on the Monday following, or
run the risk of being turned off; so that the habitual
drunkard is certain to lose his employment. In all my ex-
perience among them I have never known a case of dipso-
mania, nor yet have I been called upon to treat a single case
of delirium tremens; and this is more than I can say for
many other callings,—weeug Journal.

[ADVERTISEMENT],—Holloway's Ointment—Agonising
Pains.—lt is gratifying
to hear sufferers recount the ease
they derived when first they applied this ointment to their
ulcers, sores, or abscesses, with which they had been afflicted
for years. Soon after its application to a bad leg or inflam-
matory ulcer, it restrains the excitement of blood vessels
and nerves, which at once brings coolness and comfort, and
furthers the gradual deposits of healthy materials to fill up
the ravages caused by violence, debility, or disease. It
expels all noxious matters, and heals all sores soundly. It
gives ease to varicose veins, bad legs, swellings of the feet
and joints, when the agony is almost unremitting and the
pain too mush for a giant's strongth.