The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-06-05
WORKING ron A DOLLAR A WEEK.
The Slaughter of Childhood that is Going at
the Coal Mines.


the Coal Mines.
New York Sun
''There are many melancholy features con
nected with the life of coal miner" said Nor
gan Jones' formerly mine boss in the Schuyl-
kill coal region, but now a resident OF this city,
''but the most painful is the employment of
bows in and about collieries. colliery boy is
never child. He has no games. He seldom
speaks He knows nothing of the world beyond
the line of bleak hills that environ the grimy 10
cality where he begins to earn his living almost
as soon as he is large enough to be put into his
trousers
II have in my mind now eolliery, where for
years | was one of the delivers. 1t is one of the
richest mines in the region. Ipassed upand down
its shaft every day when it was not IDLE Tor
more than twenty-five years. ] have helped carry
from its depths the mangled remains of many a
poor fellow workman, crushed beneath some fall
of coal, or mutilated by fire damp explosions.
have witnessed the agony of wives, and mothers.
and sisters as victim after victim to the perils
that constantly threaten the miner has been
raised from the deadly depths and my heart has
ached for them in their grief. The pognancy
Of that feeling time never failed to
Or more Of boys aged before their
;heir time bent, and stunted and worn, working
5heir lives away in the black, dusty breaker.
.sweltering and suffocating in the summer and
chilled to the bone in the winter, was something
that brought perpetual heartaehe The colllery
| refer to is only the counterpart of hundreds of
others. Its buildings are a high spur of the
Blue mountains and are visible for miles. The
entrance to the mines is at the top Of the HILL
which is covered with the accumulated coal-dust
of years, clouds of which are constantly rising
from the whirling, sharp -toothed machinery
within, and pouring from the open doors and
windows. The interior is dark and gloomy.
with coal -begrined men moving silently about,
appearing and disappearing in the dust coming
from invisible corners and suddenly swallowed
-1p in impenetrable depths.
In one room in one of these colliery build
'ngs-a room not more than fifteen feet square
4 have seen forty boys at work picking slate
from the coal that passes swiftly down the
chutes in an endless stream. They are seated
on rough hemlock boards stretched across the
room in rows The windows are always open in
winter and summer in order that the dust may
escape. In winter the wind whistles through
the apartment and the snow beats in at the
windows and doors. From Z o'clock in the
morning until darkness compels work
to cease these boys sit on their
benches, with backs bent almost double
over the running coal, separating the slate from
it. To do this requires great dexterity and skill
with the hands and quick eye. The slate pckers
range from seven to fifteen years OF age At ff-
teen or sixteen they are old enough to enter the
mines, and to reach that stage in their career is
their only ambition If any visitor to the colliery
will take the trouble to enter the miners grave
yard near by he will not need to be told how
many of these boys never reach the goal of their
ambition The tombstones in the graveyard are
numerous, but great majority bear the names
of boys under the age of hfteen-slate pckers,
who have succumbed to the overstrain of their
toil-toil that had made them old, deerepit, and
infirm before they had reached the freshness of
youth.
''The wages paid to these boys are from 81 to
50. 80 week, if they have the luck to be steadily
employed Some of them, in many instances
five long distances from the colleries where they
are employed frequently as far as five or six
miles. In such instances they are carried to
work in the morning and home again in the
evening in the coal cars of the eolliery com
pany. For this service they are charged some
times as much as ten cents a trip the money be-
ing deducted from their wages. 1t is no w
common thing for the boys to find, after reach
ing the eollery that the works will be idle for
some reason. In such cases they get no pay, and
have known il to happen that at the end of the
month it would require not only all of boys
wages to pay for his transportation, but that
2e would still be in debt to his EN-
ployer While 1 was in the coal regions
endeavored TO awaken an interest among the
miners on the subject of employing boys at
eollieres, with the idea Of making a change in
the system, but nine out of ten of them had
large families of boys, and they were willing to
run the risk Of their being equal to the hardship
of the life of a slate picker rather than lose the
pittanee each would contribute to the family in
come l got mp petition among people at
large asking the enacting of a law prohibiting
the employment of boys under sixteen at any
colliery and compelling miners to send their
children to school until they We're that age, but
nothing ever came of it. In the meantime the
grave yards Of the coal regions are rapidly filling
with boys whose surroundings might be made
such that they would grow up to be useful mem
bers of their communities and parents, employ
ers, society, and legislators look idly on at the
slaughter