Middletown transcript., 1877-08-11
srARvAT1or N rHR mIrns.
What the Men have been Earning and
Living On-Dry Bread, Mush and
POtatoes-BIeat an Unlknavvn


Living On-Dry Bread. HTush and
Potatoes-RIeat an Unknawn
luxury.
ItEA My. Sun reporter last week Wis
tied the mining regions around Scran-
ton, Pa, and writes that a certain prom
inent capitalist, the representative of a
leading company of coal producers,
said at capitalists meeting not long
since: My policy in managing labor
ing men is to keep them so poor that
they cannot strike. That's the way to
prevent strikes" From the present
condition Of the laboring population, it
would seem that this policy has been
very thoroughly tested, but it does not
appear to have resulted as its origina-
tor expected it to. The men in sheer
desperation have struck. They say ::
"H we must starve, we will at least do
so above ground and in idleness.' The
reporter visited great number of the
men who have quit work-engineers,
miners, and laborers; entered their
squalid homes, inspected their monthly
statements of accounts with their EN-
ployers, and learned by personal con
tact the actual misery of their exist
ence. In the representative cases fol-
lowing, the reporter vouches for the
absolute truth of all the averments
made.
No. 1 is "halfplace mar" in the
employ Of the Delaware, Lackawanna
and Western Company. [Customari-
ly miner and a laborer work together,
the former making two-thirds of their
joint earnings and out of his share pay
ing for powder, oil, cotton, soap, and
paper, mining necessities. Sometimes
however, two miners work together,
sharing expenses and receipts equally. /
In the month preceding the strike he
earned S19-whieh he deemed a fair
average after paying 81 80 for three
kegs Of powder, 81 go for two gallons
Of oil, 20 cents for paper, and 10 cents
for soap. 1.-THE soap and paper are
used for making cartridges for blast
ing.] Out of his $40 he had to pay
81 80 for rent and 81 for coal, and on
the remaining $13 10 had to maintain
for month himself, wife, three chill
dren, and his father, who Is IA years
old. Their food was simply corn meal
mush, with a few potatoes. Some months
he has, on pay day, INDUCED in the
riOtous extravaganza of buying two
pounds of fat pork, but beef he has not
tasted for half year. Occasionally a
kind neighbor would give them little
milk, and an extra good month might
tempt the family to indulge in the lux
lry Of some wheat -four and pint Of
molasses. There are, he says, eighty
families on Continental Hill, none of
whom is any better off than he, and
some Of whom are in even greater dis
iress.
No. 2 is a miner in the Pine shaft,
worked by the same company, and
las to support a wife, six children, and
IN aged mother on earnings averaging
rom $17 to $18 per month. His eldest
,hild is a girl, 8 years Of age. They
lave had to live almost entirely upon
nush. His MONDAY meal in the mine
las habitually been slice of bread, or
much otener some cold mush. He
only knows there is meat in the land
rom hearing folks talk of il"
The reporter gives a dozen other
uch cases, and the number might be
indefinitely. In the houses
e visited there was not one that was {
lot ghastly in Its squalid poverty. A
oxen poor mothers in attempting to
ell of their destitution and struggles,
1oked about upon their children, and,
by their misery, lost their
oices in sobs and incoherent appeals !
} God for pity.
Doctors refuse attendance to miners
lmilies, druggists refuse medicines to
lem without "cash in advance" for
ley know the poor wretches can scarce
: hope to pay them, however honest il
ley may be. As for clothing never S
as there such a rag fair anywhere as
/ these mining districts. With nearly
D, the rule is that they have but two
and off. If their condi-
on is not bettered before winter comes
gain, hundreds Of them must inevita- \
" freeze to death.