Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1876-09-23
WHOLE NUMBER, s61.'

ed tools when they cut beth ways.
The peculiar surroundings ofthe mines
are at the foundation Of many along
and disastrous strike. A plant de-
prived of the light Of DAY, though
carefully nourished with all the other
elements of growth and life, is never
as vigorous as one which basks in Gods
sunlight. So it is with man; depriva-
ton of solar light the awful gloom of
the mine, and the noxious air which
turks there, have their influence on
both the body and mind of the miner.
Constant labor in a badly aired mine
breaks down the constitution and
clouds the intellect. The lungs be-
comes clogged up from inhaling coal
dust, and from breathing the noxious
airs of the mine; the body and limbs
become stiff and sore, and the mind
loses the power of vigorous thought.
After six years labor in badly ventil-
ated mine-that is mine where a
man with a good constitution may
from habit be able to work every
day for several years, the lungs
begin to change to a blueish color.
after twelve years they are black, and
after twenty years they are densely
black, not a vestige of natural color re-
naming and are little better than car
bon itself. The miner dies at thirty
five years of coal miners consumption.
In mine where the circulation is con-
stantly renewed, and pure current
made to sweep the faces of the work.
ings where the people are employed,
little or no injury to health results
from underground coal mining, but
the blighting influence of want of go
lar light remains. Six to eight hours
immersion in coal mine in a work.
ing day is as long as nature can stand,
as mines are generally operated, with
out injury at an early age to the con-
stitution and vigor of the mind.
When business men, literary men,
and in short men of every profession,
who have means, overtax their minds
and undermine their health by too
close application to study and duty,
they seek rest and recuperation by
few weeks or months travel in the
country, or they take a trip to Europe,
etc., and in this course they are en-
couraged and advised by physicians.
Human nature is the same in the
miner cottage as in the mansion of the
rich and great; and, hence, when the
miner becomes worked down in ex-
hausting subterranean regions to
which there is no parallel on ear tn,
and nature demands rest and recu-
peration he finds it in strike. The
miners lives are prolonged many years
by reason of their numerous strikes.
That the better policy would be for
the miner, when he finds his health
and physical energies giving way, to
change his occupation, or seek recu-
peration by resting singly, but men
whose intellects have become clouded,
whose tempers have become soured
and whose bones have become stiff and
sore by breathing the foul and no1i-
GUS air of the mine cannot reason.
The best remedy for the prevention
of strikes and consequent lawlessness,
is not in cursing the folly and fatuity
of miners; nor in urging the enactment
Of conspiracy laws, but in applying
thorough and vigorous and never
ceasing ventilation in the mines.
Jules Verne, one of the ablest writ
ers of our times has drawn a picture
of peaceful village whose inhabitants
had lived for centuries in harmony
and contentment. By peculiar pro-
cess DR.. Ok extracted from the air its
due proportion of oxygen. The sim
pie villagers who had lived for centur-
les in peace at once became fretful and
quarrelsome, fanciful wrongs which
formerly were passed by without con-
cern, assumed large proportions.
Neighbors who had been life long
friends became enemies, and the
whole village came to daggers points.
The quarrel did not end here but ex-
tended to all the surrounding villages
whose people were regarded as ene-
mics, war ensued and there was no
end to the quarrel until the doctor
was discovered at his nefarious work
and got rid Of.
This picture, like Macbeth's dag
ger, presents itself every year in many
mining villages of the United States,
and it will not be clutched until the
nefarious practice of bad ventilation
has been got rid OF. Mines in which
the atmosphere has been deprived Of
its due proportion of oxygen by the
formation Of carbonic acid gas will
continue to possess restless and un-
reasonable population, at daggers
points with their employers and
others. Until thorough searching,
never ceasing ventilating currents Of
pure air are made to sweep the places
where miners are employed under.