Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1870-06-14
1ailg Atnutbrt somnal.
MINING LIFE.

The life of workers in the coal mines is
not one that is desirable. A correspondent
of the Cincinnati Gazette. writing from
''among the hills. vinton county, Ohio.
gives the following sketch of miners:
''The denizens of cities, as they sit around
their cheerful fires, little know the vast
amount of time and labor that is necessary to
get out of the bowels of the earth the black
diamonds for their comfort The miners life
10 one Of severe labor and peril. The damps
and noxious vapors of the mines have contin-
ually to be commended with; and If these men
are inclined to dissipation, it is hardly TO DC
wondered at. To work in caverns, often part.
ly nude and in darkness save the feeble anu
uncertain light emitted by The tiny, smoking
lamp; TO feel that the caving of the roof above
or the collection of gas below may end life al
most at any time; are not calculated 10 ele-
vate or refine humanity .4sgs. s..,s-a.
ssTheir pay is perhaps greater than that of
laborers in other ayocations, but even this is
not enough to compensate very many men for
the toll and privations of life in the mines.
That miners have generally the reputation of
being extravagant, dissolute and bad men, has
been generally conceded, but we are too often
ready to make this charge simply from here
say. Admit that many of them are improvi-
dent and dissipatcd, still it is unfair to make
the charge a sweeping one. 1t is nothing I'M
common TO find many of these searchers for
treasures pure and good men, with the fear OF
God continually before their eyes, and who,
when seen at their rough but comfortable log
cabins, are men of considerable intelligence
and agreeable companions. &-ass&sssu6-z
every many of the miners are devout Chris
tian men, and the bright Sunday morning
finds them seated in the homely little churches,
listening to words of hope and wisdom from
the Book of books
s'Some of these men are rare singers, whose
voices, If cultv ated, would put to shame some
of the German or Italian singers, who delight
a metropolitan public at two dollars per head.
zone of the grandest rehearsals it was ever
my good fortune to listen to, was the singing
Of Coronation by the miners, a mile under
ground. 1t is impossible to describe the effect
of this hymn. The pure, sweet tones of these
diamonds in the rough, rose and swelled into
a great volume Of sweet sounds, and as it
rolled and was echoed back by the numerous
chambers and passages of the mine, produced
an effect SO wild and grand that it was impos
sible not to be affected by it. 8+4N
'sBut few weeks since, the leader of a
concert troupe, while on visit to a mine in
jackson county, discovered a young man pos
sessed of such a voice that he engaged him at
once as a second tenor singer, and to-day this
young man is delighting hundreds Of music
loving people by his rendition of the wild and
beautiful songs of his old WEIGH home.
''Until within few years this work of min
ing was in the hands of the Welch and Eng
fish, but now most Of the foreign elements are
represented. Comparatively few Americans
are to be found in the mines as diggers, they
preferring to labor on the farms, in cities, or
at least where an abundance of light and air
is afforded AS