The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1874-06-18
Letter from Nelsonville.

NELsoNvILLE, June II, 1874.
To the Editor of the Standard:
1 arrived here at O'Clock this morning and
at once repaired to the camp of the colored
men who arrived yesterday. Ifound the camp
surrounded by guards but was allowed to pass
in and out at pleasure. found about $50 col
ored men who had been brought here from
Richmond, Va, Memphis, Tenn, and few of
them came from Kentucky. On arriving here
arms were placed in their hands which con-
sisted of rifled muskets and Colts revolvers.
There were about fifty miners among them.
After conversing with the operators of the
mines, the negroes and the strikers, found
that each had a different story to relate, and so
give the story of each and leave the public to
digest them.
The operators say they had been paying the
miners 215 cents per busheI during four months
of the year, cents during four months and 81
cents the remaining four months of the year.
The 219 cents was paid during the summer
months. Last fall when the panic came upon
the country the demand for coal was not as
good as it had been and they could not give the
miners steady work, the winter just passed was
very mild and the demand for coal was limited.
They had sold houses and lots to many of the
miners and they had partly paid for them, and
when the strike commenced they proposed to
pay back the money which had been paid to
them by the miners and a few of them took the
money, but Thomas Pirt, President of the
Miners Union stopped them from doing this.
They had been paying them by what is called
"bank measure that is, measuring the cavity
made in the bank, and they say it was to the
interest of the miner to have as large cavity
as possible, regardless of the amount of coal
turned out, and that much of the coal was
buried under the slate in the bank, so that
when they came to measure the bank at the
end of the month and calculate the number of
bushels of coal they had shipped, the coal
would fall far short of the amount that should
have been turned out of the cavity made.
They say they will not hire any of the miners
except those who have been willing to work all
the time, but did not dare through fear of bod
lily injury at the hands of members of the
Union,
The miners say they have been abused and
imposed on for years and all they ask is to be
treated fairly. They say they have been work.
ing for the prices before mentioned and that
during the summer months when they Were
getting but % cents per bushel, if a man xas
idle day he would be threatened witt dis
charge if he could not work steady, thst when
the time came for them to get and 81 cents
they could not get steady work shat all the
yards were filled with coal and tEey had to lie
idle. They say many of therl have bonght
houses and lots from the operators and have
them partly paid for. The operators want
them to dig for go cents per ton of screened coal
and allow them nothing for the nut coal, and
they say the coal is of sYo kind that it will
not hold out by weight tlso that the parties
who haul the cars and paid for picking up
the coal that may dropfm, and that they will
drop off Jumps on purpise,
The negroes say they did not know there was
strike here or they would not have come.
They asked why SO many hands were wanted
up here all at once, ane inquired If there was
not strike, and were tsld that new mines had
been opened about four ,niles from Nelsonville
They say they did not come to fight and did
not know they were to re armed until they got
OF the cars here and muskets were placed in
their hands.
When arrived here this morning saw the
Stars and Stripes floating IN the breeze at the
mines At ga O'Clock the brass band came to
the mines and played some ane musici about