The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1869-10-05

oi variable size. abc falls from them
iuto another wide oogh or chute"
below. along which large number
o. boys, chiefly the as Of miners and
laborers, whose woi Il is TO pick out
the slate and other rik that hSs escap-
Ell rejection in the mes. The break
ers test the coal, an,reveal many i'm
purities not noticed fore; and coll
liery yielding from hec to Eve hund-
red tons a day win t'p from twenty TO
fifty boys hard at wk all day long
picking slate" at th breakers, The
atmosphere is stifin with dust the
noise OF the misunderstanding, so that
nothing else can be iaId, and the work
itself as dull, monotouus and dirty as
any that can easily be elevised. Yet IT
is no uncommon thingor miners who
are earning large surs who own their
homes aud save mong every year, to
keep their sons in thee places from in
fancy, for the sake ofhe forty or sixty
cents day they can hus earn, to the
utter neglect Of thr education and
morals; and with oily the hope and
ambition to find thei way at last, when
full grown, into tbenines, and to be-
come laborers and nners there.
PREPARATION OF THE5oAL ron MARKET.
From the breakerthe coal falls into
cylindrical sieves, pich are kept re-
yolying by the same machinery, These
are constructed in log sections,t to pass
successfully the diff, ent sizes Of coal.
The first throws dom only dust, the
next the fine black eayel known as the
pea coal, the next pe "chesnut size,
and SO on until thestoye, the egg, the
CRATE and the steanpoat coal hayo been
et tllaIhteu' but AZ piuo Va thS '"i4'N'
les the very best Of oal is never passed
through the breakeI at all, but is care
fully picked out beforehand and loaded
in cars to be sent tcmarket as "lump.
The sieyes which sparate the several
sizes throw them inc ''chutes," which
hold large amoAntspf coal on their in
clined surfaces, butbnd beloy in slides
or gates, directlyover the railroad
track. When Que 4 these is opened
the coal falls into tie cur until it is fill
1 ed, and the slide s.losed again. From
this car the coal is commonly delivered
! by dumping, at tie canal, or at Ho
boken, OF Roundou, or Jersey City, OF
Port Richmond, mo the boat in whicl
it finally reaches th retailer. 1t is by
loading tins cal at he breakers that thu
operator properly ycompletes his worl
and the coal passes into the hands o
the transporter or carrier.
In this region the total number o
| persons employed about the work o
mining, raising and preparing for mar
ket the coal, is abolt one for each 81:
hundred tons of the utmost annual ca
pacity Of the works but, for certain
reasons actual results fall deplorabl,
short OF this capacity, and on tho aver
age the number employed is fully on
for every three hundred and fifty ton
actually delivered in year. In tn
Schuylkill aud Lehigh districts th
number is still larger, the proportion Q
laborers and slate-Pckers being create
than here. 1t is safe to say that no les
than fifty thousand men and boys fin
employment in and about the works, G
whom perhaps eight thousand rank a
miners, although the actual amount {
coal now taken out in year would nc
fully employ more than four, or at mo.
FIVE thousand, skilled miners in blastin
IL