The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1875-11-24
Especial Cor espondence Of THE GLOBE. /
LETTER FROM PENNSYLVANIA.
Among tho Coal Minaa.


Editor Rutland Globe Last Wednes-
day, the several companies owning the
mines about Beaver Meadow and Auden-
ried having paid their men the first part Of
the week, your correspondent took lot of
bills and started out on collecting trip. |
soon got through with the village of Bea-
yer Meadow and walked a mile to Beaver
Meadow mines. Cutting across lots,
through the scrubby growth of stunted
oaks and yellow pines, l could see a tall
building rising far above the trees, and
knew there was mine, for that was q
"breaker." This mine | found to be not
very deep one. Ia fact, it lies so near
the surface that the company have under
taken to strip it, and short distance from
the breaker twenty or thirty carts were at
work hauling out the earth. About twenty
feet below the surface was the coal, and
already an opening had been made into the
mine here, 30 that what coal was re-
moved 10 the course of the stripping
was shoveled into spouts leading down
to the coal cars beneath. Perhaps
quarter of a mile from this opening the
cars when loaded reach the 'slope." where
/ the cars of coal are hauled up and empty
ones let down by steam power TIE loaded
cars after reaching daylight are hauled up
some $50 feet TO the top of the breaker
building. Ia this building the coal is
broken into the various sizes known in
market as lump, steamboat, stove, egg,
chestnut, pea, ETC., and loaded into cars
underneath ready for shipment to market.
Trains of 1875 coal cars, containing five and
six tons each are constantly passing over
the two railroads which lead down the
Lehigh, day and night, year in and year
out, except through strike, which once in
n while occurs to diminish the little pile of
the mines and make coal dearer to the con-
sumers of the outside world. How eXten-
sive this particular mine may be do not
know, bat some OF them have railroads
seven and eight miles in length under
ground TO my knowledge, and presume
longer.
The ears in the mine are hauled by
mules, and boys of twelve and fourteen
years of age have charge of them. These
boys get from six to twelve dollars per
per week. The miners are paid by the car
load, and make 50 so or $500 per day
When business is brisk he employs a h
borer 10 shovel the coal he has dug, paying
him So 10 per day. In former times oil
the mines were run on this plan, and when
miner had opened ''breast" it was his
property, he being paid by the ton for all
the coal he could get out, but of late some
of the companies have been adopting a dit
ferent plan, paying the miners by the yard.
To do this they had to buy the claims Of
the miners to their breasts, and in some in
stances as high as three hundred dollars has
been paid to miner for his "breast." Be
fore that such thing has been known as a
miner working away until there was fall
of coal in his ''breast," and then going to
Europe while his liborer loaded the coal at
50. 70 per day, and made money rapidly
for the miner.
But have not space to go into the de-
tails at length. From the pne made my
way to the "vllages" of Sensctown, Lewis
ton and Coleraine. The latter WIS the
most civilized looking of the three the
principal street comparing quite favoraby
with some Of the poorest back alleys in
such villages as Rutland or st. Adams
But if you want TO see poverty and dis
comfort go to such village as Ievisian
| have seen the miserable novels of the
habttans of Canada, but their villages are
princely in style compared to the mining
villages which abound all over the anthra-
cite coal regions and which are occupied
by miners. who make from $3.50 to 5000
year. The leading cause of this state OF
affairs is rum, but there are other reasons,
to which | will refer in another place.
Let US enter village-Leviston for in
stance. Across the barren field, if such it
can be called. covered with struggling
shrubs, which astonish one by their
existence among the rocks which
hide all semblancc of soil much
of the way, we come to the
village A few of the houses have
gardens fenced in from the common
wild, in which few potatoes, and cabbage
for the inevitable sauelkraut, have been
raised. The streets are barely wide
enough TO admit of single carriage, and
on one side of them is a row of small, low
stables where the hogs, goats and poultry
make their home when they are not in the
streets or in the houses on the other side.
Rocks from the size of a shaker-pai down
lie in the street. The houses arc one.story
with no chamber, and perhaps two rooms
below. stone fireplace on one side con-
tains an iron crate, in which may always be
found a glowing coal fire. And | noticed
in several of the houses which | entered
that the fire place and chimney were white
washed, and even directly over the fire they
were only slightly tinged with yellow by
the smoke. There is not a painted house |
in the village, nor clapboarded one. They |
are boarded with rough boards, and some |
of them are lathed and plaslered inside, |
others not. These houses are built by the |
coal companies, who own every foot of |
land for many miles, and who will not sell |
any, because underneath lies the coal of |
which they have a monopoly. AT Sense
town are two houses which have been built |
by the owners, they leasing the ground on
which to set them, and these two have
been clapboarded and one of them painted.
They are quite comfortable. The other
houses are rented by the company to their
employees at one dollar per month, and the
tenant of course will not do anything To |
improve house which does not and can
not belong to him, or to improve the looks
and comfort of village where he does not
and cannot own a foot of real estate. In