The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1882-08-12
Life in the Pennsylvania Coal Breakers.

1t is almost impossible for any one
who has not been an eye witness to the
operations of the mines to conceive at
what tender years the child in the an
thracite region is put to work, or to
know, unless he has actually in his
younger days been placed in the same
condition as the thousands of boys in the
mining districts, to what pernicious in
tluences they are subjected and what evil
consequences ensue. Though it may
appear incredible, it is nevertheless a
fact that children of all ages from six
years upward find work in the coal
breakers, and toll in dirt in an atmos-
phere thick with carbon dust from dawn
till dark of every day in the week, Sun
days excepted. These little fellows
earn from thirty to forty-five cents per
day, their labor consisting in picking the
slate rock, etc, but of the coal pre-
viously crushed to small pieces in
breaker and screened through huge re-
volving screens that separate the various
sizes of coal. From this occupation, as
they advance in years, they are pro-
NOTED to mule-driying, and afterward,
when they arrive at mans estate, to
est pinnacle that can be reached by the
toiler, whose only companions through
life are men made rough like himself by
their rough surroundings, and whose
only education is that which he CLEANS
from the noisOme breaker and gloomy
mine. Here is wrong crying for re-
dress Here is an evil that cannot be
remedied too soon, and here is chance
for some Garrison to point out the fet-
tiers that enslave portion of humanity,
and for some Lincoln to strike from off
their limbs those chains of servitude and
make them free.
Out of this community in the northern
portion of Luzerne County, which num-
bers about twenty-five thousand people,
upward of three thousand bows, whose
ages vary from six to fifteen wears. are
engaged about the mines. Having gone
to work before they should have been
sent to school in most instances, they
grow up in utter ignorance, as it is well
known that when they advance in years
and their labor correspondingly increases
in value, they get but little chance to
become educated Thus, in this en-
lightened age, when the tendency of hui
manity is upward and onward, and the
benefits of education penetrating every
where are extended to all, society is
hampered and the progressive wheels of
civilization are clogged by culpable igno-
rance. The citizen is rendered incapable
of intelligently discharging his duty as a
citizen, and the fact that there is a con-
tinuous supply of material for the dem
agogue to prey upon is a constant men
ace to our free institutions. | have
alluded to the pernicious influences to
which these little boys are subjected.
There are no schools in the world where
more evil is learned, or more innocence
| destroyed than in the coal breakers. 1t
is absolutely shocking to watch the vile
practices INDUCED in by those children.
Hear the frlghtful oaths to which they
give expression, and note their total dis
regard for religion or morality! Hard
ened by exposure to terrible influencesit
is hardly to be wondered at that the
demon of Molly Maguireism and sys-
tematized, cold-blooded murder reared
its monstrous head from out the sinks
that surround the mines, and maintained
its reign of terror for years. -PittStOB
! Cor. Philadelphia Press.