Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1877-09-15

patch. If the miner
Sg to set prop he must
Il to load his car. During this
!al lie may be hurt or killed.
When miners begin to draw pillars,
some of which have stood for several
years, and the timbers having become
rotten, the officials, in frequent in
stances, decline spending a few dollars
in setting new timber, and the miners
justly feel that they cannot afford to
give their time and labor for the pur-
pose. Thus the pillar is drawn; the
only timber set is what the miners put
up to secure themselves. Sometimes,
however, when the roof is extremely
bad and likely to close up the road in
the room, the company may set an odd
prop. The proper way to do this is
to timber the room before the miner
is sent to it, else pay him for doing it.
1t will then be safe for man and beast.
The horses have to haul the cars up
these pillars; if arjumps the track,
which frequently occurs, and knocks
out ratten prop, the horse and dri
yer are in great danger of being killed.
Some-may think this setting Of new
timber would entail great expense up
on the company, but the truth is the
company is doubly compensated in the
end. After some of the pillars are
removed the roof and rock begin to
fall; the bad timber cannot check this
coming down, which extends down the
room and covers great amounts of coal
not yet removed. With new timber
supports, the fall would be arrested
when it reached the solid pillar and
these new props, and thousands of tons
Of coal would be saved. Any risks of
loss Of life and property for purposes
of temporary economy is penny wise
and pound foolish" and, in cases Of
disaster, doubly wrong.
1t is evident these evils should be
remedied at once wherever they exist
to the satisfaction of all concerned
and the public at large. In this mat
ter the public are vitality interested ;
loss of life or coal seriously affects all
popular interests. The miners have
fully enough to encounter without
specially mourning any of these great
liabilities.
For instance, when a man arrives
at his place of work in the morning
his first duty is to examine and see if
all is secure. Then he has to mine his
coal while thus employed he is to a
great extent unavoidably at the mercy
of sudden, crushing falls. He is COM
PEELED to work under the coal ; he may
at any moment encounter treacher-
Gus slip, completely hidden from view,
and it may fall and crush him. After
undermining,th coal must be sheared,
or cut free from the sides of the room
Thus engaged, he is exposed to the
same perils as before described he
may be crushed against the side of the
room, or knocked down and crushed
beneath the fall. If, haply, he gets
safely through all this arduous, pain
full, dangerous labor, he must get the
coal down, ready for loading. This is
the most delicate job of all it may fall
when he knocks out the little stumps
of coal he has left in the undermining
to protect him while he was preparing
the fall. But considerable sledging
and pick work are generally required
to bring it down. Engaged at this,
however, it may break away, DROP
suddenly and catch him before he can
escape out Of its way he is always
compelled to leap for his life. Then
the jar occasioned by the fall may
cause the roof directly over his head
to fall, especially if it is a little loose,
as timber does not always make the
roof safe.
These are stern facts and solemn
truths, worthy of the earnest contem,
plation of those whose feet areswift to
deliver judgment against the miners
claims for consideration corresponding
with the toilsome and perilous magni-
tude of his work. He has grievances
to be redressed, which will be when a
more just and enlightened public
opinion supersedes the existing self
lshness of the interested and Ignorance
of the relatively disinterested. Even
then the public will owe him much fol
hic volupto ry m m ,,ra,,,on IN tbo M,