The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1863-06-05
NEW SERIES-NO. 496

ANLVv OLIO1LO-INO 100
irritable pride. As soon as the charter master
was out OF sight he got up in . rage and
kaocked down the prop, and in few minutes
alter was crushed by a fall of rock.
| BRAVE MAN. IL L9HGl1
In Shropshire pit, not long ago, an acci-
I dent occurred which occasioned very general
sorrow. Three men, who were working with
Ouk the usual precautions, were struck down
by . mass OF earth and stone Their fellow
workmen rushed up to them. and in the first
to need help. He Was lying beneath 4 huge
fragment Of rock. "No," he said. Heo 60
those other men first" They hesitated. "Go
to those other men first, say +; I am 'doggie'
foreman Of this pit: you must do as / tell
you. COL" The two men were liberated and
ultimately recovered The lacerated "dog-
gle" was with difficulty raised to the bank.
| The surgeon prepared to do what he could.
and tied up the femoral artery which was sew
cred, but it was too late. Suddenly change
came over the cOuntenance of the wounded
man. Let me turn on my face, lads" he
said. The surgeon paused, and raised his hand
with meaning which could not be misunder-
stood. The noble spirit had fed.
Here is the record of q sad case Of
The ties of kindred are strong among
the miners. The Edinburgh thus alludes
to the custom of
MUTUAL HRLP.
The inhabitants of the Black Country have
W 'rm feelings, and show great kindness for
each other in times of difficulty and distress.
In one poor-loOking cottage, perhaps may be
found an orphan child, adopted by a kind
neighbor, on whom it had no claim but its
heipiessness; in another poor woman, whose
sick husband is occupying their only bed, and
who has been taken in by q kind friend for her
approaching confinement. For the most part
they have had little intercourse with their su-
perlors; but their manners are plain rather
than rude. They have the substance of true
courtesy, if not its external forms. They have
quick sense of kindness. They have not,
like the inhabitants of an ornamental village in
the neighborhoOd of a great mansion, been
pampered into unthankfulness; for alas! it
needs not the example of Wordsworths Old
Huntsman to prove hat the experience of un-
kindness is the parent Of gratitude. They are
acutely alive to neglect and injustice.
great many years ago-we are happy to
think the incident would not occur noW-a
worn-out collier applied to neighboring land
owner for employment. The man was strong
ly advised to address himself to the iron-inas-
ter, whom he had served so many years. mo.
sir, shall not go to him." he doggedly re-
No, sir, he will give me nothing but the
boards" The boards! what do you mean
by that?" "Oh! sir, it is a saying we have"
:" But what does it mean?" ''WeIl, sir, if q
man is killed and carried home on a shutter
Mr.. -, gives the boards to the widow to help
to make the coffin; and that is all he ever
does" The mans tone Of voice and manner
expressed an acuteness of sensblity of which
1t would be difficult to convey an adequate inn
preston.
The female members of the miners familie
take an active part in tie work of the miness
PIT-wOMEN.
Of the groups engaged above ground the
most remarkable are composed of the young
women who are at work on the pit mounds:
they take charge of the ''skips," or baskets of
coal and ironstone, when they are landed on
the bank They load the coal i'm trucks to- be-
carried off to its destination. They separate
the ironstOne from the shale, which is wheeled
off to the extremity of the gradually increasing
mound, and they send off the ore to be stacked
in large quadrangular heaps, where it is left to
undergo for while, the cleansing influence of
the atmosphere. This is heavy and dirty work.
and the pit girls who are engaged in it. with
their shabby dresses tied grOtesquely about
them and their inverted bOnnetS stuck on the
top of their heads, seem not less sOrdid. But
before the philanthrOpist draws his conclusions
let him see them on Sunday 1--WE wish it were
an equivalent phrase to say at church), with
clean persons, bright compilations sparkling
eyes, and dressed out in the cheap finery which
now a-days levels all distinctions of costume
The labor of the pitmOund is severe, and is
not regularly undertaken by those who are
mOtheis; but the wOrkwOmen have an air of
robust health, and the beauty and number OF
the children IN the cottages prove that the con-
stitutlon OF the mothers has not been injured
by over work in early life Huge women"
are they. " "blOWsed with sun, and wind, and
rain and labor" But strange to say, there are
to be found among them forms of great refine
ment and delicacy. In spite of Lord Byron's
assertions i'll prose and verse, very pure pa
trician blood may circulate through ill-shaped
extremities; and we remember once to have
seen accidentally, in the magistrates office of
a mineral district, pair of hands for which it
would be hard to find, in London drawing
rooms, more than one match.
The amusements of the miners are few,
but here is an account of
CURIOUS CUSTOM
The pit-girls are rot less fond of HOLIDAYS
than their fathers, and much they enjoy two
days Of saturnalia when, by immemorial Gus
tom, the field of labor is turned into a scene of
generous riot. On Easter Monday the men
roam about the colliery in gangs and claim the
privilege of heaving, as they call it, every fe-
male whom they meet-that is to say, of lifting
her up as high as they can and saluting her iI3
her descent On Easter Tuesday the ladies
have their revenge-and in their hands this
strange horse-play acquires redoubled energy.
Neither rank nor age are respected; not even
the greatest of men, the manager himself.
would be secure from attack ;and those who
will not enter into the fun must purchase az.
emption by ransom proporionate to their Sta
ton. n8f
According to the official reports of the
British Inspectors of MiLes for 1860 and
1861, the annual aggregate of mining ac-
cidents, which used to be estimated at one
thousand, now averages about eight hum
dred. The causes Of death are classified
under five heads, and the mortality assion-
aoie 10 each is in round numbers as fol-
lows: Accidents in the shaft, one hundred
and fifty; explosions, seventy; falls Of the
roo1 or OF minerals, four hundred; piscel-
ianeous below ground, one hundaed and