National opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1865-1874, 1873-03-07
Interior OF an English COaI.Flt.

Has the reader any idea Of what {
coal-pit, viewed from the earth rs surface
is like ? IL has not very imposing ap
pcarance. Ii il simply n round black
hole about twice the size of m ordinar,
"loo' table, and straddling over it is Il
sort OF gallows, wire rope ms thick ms
ones wrist hanging down over wheel
and lost in the depths below. BY and
by the action is reversed, II clicking and
n wheeling is heard in the adjoining
engineshed and up comes the tub Ga
square box holding twenty-five hundred
weight filed with coal. II came up SO
while our little party Of six q being the
only novice presently was waiting to go
down. viewed the coarse, strong tub
with appreciation, making sure that as
soon as it was emptied we should all
get into it but in this ] was disap-
pointed. 1t was not in the tub, but
standing on the grating on which the
tub had stood, that we had to descend ;
or the naked grating with nothing to
" hold on to but a cross-chain over
head. But the pr was only six hundred
feet deep, and the coal smoke that arose
from tho enormous mine furnace was
not unbearable by the time it had be-
numbed ones senses bit.
Six hundred feet down, and half
mile this way or that under low-arched
roofs, from which depended frequent
feeces of fungus, snowy white, and
looking like lambs wool, and making
the black floor and the black walls--lit
by feeble tallow dips stuck there in
a. a. Il Il II
all carried tallow dips stuck in balls of
clay, and III Indian file followed the
"Buttey" and his foreman through the
turnings and windings that led to the
chambers" from which coal was being
hewn. Chambers as wide us an ordin-
airy street and as high as the top of the
three STORED houses; and on every side, |
whenever the tiny light of the red-nosed |
dip was shifted, was revealed human
creature naked to the waist ard blacker
than any sweep, with savage, cleaning
eyes and savage glitterinp tech, and |
with weapon in his hand that in the
uncertain light looked like tomahawk,
grinning at you, or making dash with
his weapon apparently in the direction
Of your visage, but which alights harm
Iessly on the face of the coal wall.
Heavers, packers, tubbers, filters,
these are all men, and hard rs the work
is they earn good wages, and if they
dislike the labor they are at liberty to
cave it. But they don't dislike the
abor, and they are Jolly enough-all ex-
,ept the boys. 1t was these boys that
so perpetually haunted my coal-scuttle
when | returned from Staffordshire.
It is villainously cruel to serve the poor
title chaps SO. The matter stands this
way. The newer is the man whose
business it is to " break III" at the foot
If coal wall. He lies on his sides or
IN his stomach, and he breaks in with
lis peck right along for length, say of
twenty feet. Naturally in the process
If pecking he makes deal of "slack,"
md the boy in question is called the
slack boy. Regarded rs boy, as a
human creature, he is slack indeed. He
s not much like boy. He is more
ike largesized monkey. All fours is
lis perpetual posture, and he wears a
Gather girdle about his waist from
which an iron chain depends, the other
nd of it being attached to an iron cart.
The slack boy has an iron shovel as
veil, and the business of his wretched
ife is to crawl in at the hole the newer
makes, to fill his cart with chips and
lust, and then to crawl ont again with
is load, always on his hands and knees,
nd with his poor limbs hung about
nth a few rags of which nakedness
hight be Standardization Society. |