The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1867-09-05
in the world, the fy-wheel of which is

No less than 500 buildings were built
here last year, while it is said that there
are now In course of construction no less
, than two thousand, with the people living
two or three families together where there
is hardly room for one. Three passenger
trains leave daily for New York and
Philadelphia, and two for Harrisburg and
Pittsburg. Those caverns or vast artifi-
cial caves which have been excavated by
the patient industry of man, and which
undermines the country for miles around,
contain the lever which has shaken the
world as if by convulsion : that lever,
anthracite coal; the fulcrum, capital the
motive power, man. The Importance
anthracite has attracted to itself as one
of the great commercial interests of the
country, is every where felt. In this sec
| ton, where the wood is needed for build
ing purposes, for the locomotives, for the ties
for the innumerable railroads that are be-
ing built here, aud for the mines, coal is
certainly God-send, and being very
cheap is within the reach of all The
miners buy no coal; their wives and chill
dren to 60 the vast colin heaps with YES
sells to gather and carry away all they
need. In the time of war, when wages
were much higher than they are now, the
miners literally coined money. l know of
ne man who, with his boy, made 10000
When [ say the miner, | refer to class
of men who are comparatively as high
above the laborer as the merchant is
above the mechanic or farmer. They go
into the mines early in the day and work
till noon, for which they get so much
per ton, making from five to six dollars
per day, while the laborer works all day
and earns only from Sl.50 to 50 per day.
If person wishes to explore the mines
he has only to so to some of the numer-
Gus ones which are scattered through the
valley, and to engage an old hand to act
as guide = one who can explain the sys-
TEN. thoroughly. H& lis furnished with
an old tarpaulin and India-rubber coat to
keep off the wet which you are sure to
find. He is also furnished with little
lamp which holds about pint, and which
is the most necessary thing. He then
steps upon a sort of scaffold and is ready
for his journey Of some two hundred feet
into the bowels of the earth. 1t would
seem as if he was going to hold court
with his Satanic Majesty; and the i'm
preston is rather deepened when the
scores of dark beings cluster around him
at the bottom, anxious for news from the
outer world. As he walks along he sees
nothing but blackness; black coal and
still blacker darkness, relieved by the
faint glow of the lamp for short distance
around, while the shadows seem to clus-
- IL. IL
miner is compelled to get in all sorts of
positions to get at the coal, which by |
former explosions has become cracked |
and scanned with fsures large enough to |
contain dozen men. The coal is de-
tached from the main body by the use of |
blasting powder, which some times de-
taches masses weighing from twenty to |
thirty tons. These blasts some times |
jar the earth SO as to cause the falling in
of the roof of the mines; they also fall oc-
casionally from not being supported |
enough by artificial means, when, if there !
are any miners in the mines, great suffer |
ing ensues from hunger and thirst, and if |
not secured soon they perish from the
combined effects of suffocatien and star
walton. These instances are very rare in |
this country but about twenty years ago |
the mines under Carbondale, a city |
fourteen miles north of Scranton, fell in,
burying some one hundred and fifty men.
A person known to your correspondent,
together with boy, made their exit
through an air hole on their hands and
knees, which they had no sooner done,
when it caved in also. One man after
remaining there three days dug out with
his hands through the loose dirt, wearing
his finger nails completely off. There
are white rats in the mine, which, it is
said, always leave parts of the mines
where there is any danger of " cave in"
this sign is accepted by the miners as a
warning that that place is no longer safe,
and they leave Immediately. 1t is related
of miner that had made a sort of pet of
one of them, that one noon as the men
were eating their dinner in one of the
chambers, it was observed that all the |
rats left very suddenly. the men went
away Immediately with the exception of
one who said he did not believe in such
signs" this rat returned and jumped on
his knees and then ran away AID then re-
turned and jumped on the miner again
this SO impressed him that he went out
of the chamber, which he had no sooner |
done when the roof fell in with a crash
The most dangerous enemy of the mi
ner is the fire damp, which is the most
prevalent in very wet or very dry wealth
er, and has caused the loss of innumera-
BILE lives, and yet nothing has been found
to render it totally harmless, while Sir
Humphrey Daviss safety lamp is only a
partial preventive. This fire damp ap-
pears like very fine mist; if man were
to stay in chamber filled with it, he
would feel the same as if affected with
chloroform and finally die, while if he
went in it with lamp he would be blown
to atoms An Instance of this kind hap