The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1870-02-08
DAILY PRESS.
PORTLAND.
Tuesday Morning, February 8. 1870.
Coal Mining i'm Peunsylvania.
PORTLAND

| VISIT 10 IhE ANONOALL h1&NA-'
A newspaper correspondent, writing from
Whkesoarre, Pa, gives the following descrip-
uon oil 7isit to this now famous locality:
Inc poor miners" have had their full
| snare OF sympathy. True, their occunation is
laooflous, and attended with dancer thouob
the greater number OF accidents Is attrihnt3-
PIE 10 their own carelessness. They general
~ work about fifteen days in a month. ior
| WHICH, lucy receive, on an average, ten dollars
| a day, and then they go loafng around souan-
derng their money in gambling and all kinds
| OF low dissipation, until forced by necessity to
| work again. AS class, they are improvideDt
| and waStetul in the extreme; though some of
the Welsh and m1st of the Germans are ex-
| ceptions TO this rule. l was told of one hard
| working miner who sometimes saves three
hundred dollars month, after paying all ex-
| penses, and several have returned rour tbou-
sand dollars income ior the year. OF course.
| there are experienced miners, each miner
| having helper, who is not so well paid. TAX
| ing into account the wages of the workmep
| their sense:ess strikes and the railroad exto--
| tions, and it is matter of wonder that coal
| is afforded at the east at as low price as it
| now is.
The Avondae Mine. the scene of the great
| disaster, where one hundred and two men
| lost their lives, lies on the opposite bank of
/
this point. The track of the Lackawanna
and bloomsbury Railroad passes within a few
| feet OF the shaft, and having favorable op-
| portuDity last week, visited this famous To-
| cality. On every hand are seen traces Of the
| fire which wrought such terrible destruction.
Charred timbers and machinery, bent and
twistel out of all useful shape. ale being
| cleared away rapidly, and new coal breaker,
requiring about seven hundred thousand ieet
of ,har itc fprof fc
pIeted.
Having, with some difficulty, obtained per-
mission 10 visit the mine, and securing the
services of a competent guile, l was equipped
with miners lamp and suit, oiled cloth coat,
pants and hat and L would here remark that
L am sure one of the miners is not of a waist
iul habit. The engines are in working order,
and temporary carriage or plat form is at
tached, on which we stepped, and were speed
lily lowered to the regions of darkness, two
hundred and thirty-seven feet below; noting
in our descent where the intense heat of the
flames had calcined and scaled of tons of rock
from the sides of the shaft. Several men are
at work removing this accumulation, and
loOsening and removing the old pumps and
machinery at the bottom of the Shaft. The
mine is ventilated by large ian wheel, and
the temperature is pleasant and equable, sum
mer and winter, and the mine is reported to
work in, of any in this neighborhood.
Traversing the long, uneven passages by the |
uncertain glimmer OF miners lamp, and
walking by faith and sound rather than by
sight, we come occasionally to where the men |
had, in that dreadful day, suddenly dropped
Their mining tools and fled Tor safety from the
impending calamity. Here and there may be
seen stretcher, or some other token OF the |
sad disaster. At about one hundred end fifty
fnot from tho fa bar hoo of tba az,
passage is portion of barricade of coal, laid
up, as is supposed, swith the vain hope. of
checking the approach of the fatal gas, but
finding the gas gaining upon them, they Ie-
treated to within seventy-tive feet Of the end
of the gallery, where they made another bar
ricade around car partly filed with coal and
in this fatal chamber, about seventy-five feet |
long, ten feet wide and five feet high, they
awaited the fate which so speedily came up |
on them. In this space were found the bod |
les OF sixty-three men, but the sad details are |
too fresh in all our minds. The time,y chari-
ty bestowed on the suffering survivors, has
amply provided for their wants, but the fact |
seems forgotten, that, in this region, on an |
average, three or four lives are lost each week |
from accidents of one kind or another, and |
for the families of these persons no provision |
is made. Their case Is hard indeed.
This vein OF coal is twenty-eight feet thick,
and in making new galleries or avenues, a
small space is cut with the pick at the bottom
of the vein and the opening enlarged until it
is about ten feet wide and five feet and half
high; this is continued Tor long distances,
sometimes, many hundred feet, and alter the
galleries are cut, then what is called the stop
coal" from the roof of the galleries is taken
down, this is of superior quality and is easily |
removed, single blast sometimes bringing |
dowd thirty or forty tons OF coal. 1t has |
been remarked that while the mines are ac-
lively worked, scarcely any scaling of the top |
or sides is perceptibp, but When the mines |
are closed for time this is constantly taking |
place.
The company who work this mine have
control also of the Dundee mine, about three
miles distant. This has the deepest shaft in
the country, it being eight hundred feet deep.
The engine house at this mine was burned
few days ago; several lives were lost and there
was narrow escape from a more serious dis
aster. 1t is maintained by some that these
fires were not the result of accident, but of
incenGiaIism, though it requires much faith
in "total depIavlty" to believe men guilty Of |
such hideous crimes. |
The scenery in the valley is wild and pic
turesque; in some places exceedingly beautl-
ful. Numberless columns oil white steam ln-
dicate the location of coal shafts; and hun
dreds of millions of dollars have been expend-
ed in the production and taking to market of
this precious commodity,