The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1885-10-09
cOLLIERY BOYS.
Hardy Young Lads - Mule DrINsys and Slate.
Plckers,

Hardy Young Lads as Mule DrI.sys and Slate
| Plckers.
Those who have ut any time visitec
any of the mines or coal-breakers O
the anthracite regions of Pennsylvania
writes Scranton. Pa, correspondent,
of Ihe NeU York Times, could not fai
to be f0rclbly impressed by the large
number of boys, many of them of q
very tender age, employed in tho col.
l,erfes as drivers Of mules and door
tenders, and IN the screen room as
slate pickers. Many Of those little
men, who, with their grimy faces and
hardened hands, look like a strange
race OF human beings, are under the
age OF IL years, but they perform q
most important task in the great work
of preparing the dusky anthracite for
the market. In the mines as mule.
drivers these hardy lads are invalua-
bic. They sing and whistle and laugh
and play amid their gloomy surround
ings. and they can manage the crratic
mule better than most mon. They
drive the loaded cars from tho work
ing chambers to the foot of the shaft
up which the coal is hoisted to the
tower Of tho breaker, and they take
tho ''emptles," back to tho men who
blast down the coal from tho s.breast. "
AS a general thing the boys employ
ed as mule-drivers are older and
stronger than those who work IN the
screen-rooms of the breakers The
duties of the latter consist in sorting
the slate from the broken coal, which
flows in black streams down mum.
Der OF chutes from the ponderous ma
chinery in which tho cleaning anthra-
cite bowlders are broken into the re-
quisite sizes. The slate. pickers sit in
rows astride these cllutes, their eyes
fixed steadily on tho broken coal that
brushes past them down the steep in
cline. and their fingers nimbly ut work
picking out the black. dull pieces of
slate that are mixed with the glistcn.
ing anthracite. During this iiow of
coal down the chutcs no shrinking is
tolerated. The boys must keep their
eyes continually on the chutes and SEQ
to it that all the bits of slate are taken
out.
In order to secure strict attention
on the part of these little workers a
superintendent stands ON guard. This
individual, who by the nature of his
occupation is usually dislikcd by the
slate pickers, is known as ''cracker
boss" the breaker being sometimes
called a coal cracker. Tic ..craoker
boss" must be strict. therefore he is
considered severe. Sometimes he is
tho victim of various mlscheivous
pranks. His whip is hidden, his chew
ing tobacco is lost, his hat is mislaid,
or some other accident" of an embar-
RAISING sort occurs whenever the op-
pOrtunity presents itself. If by any
chance the ''crackcr boss" is absent for
few minutes the screen room sudden
ly undergOos a transformation, and
tho rows Of little fellows who usually
sit at their work with bowed heads
give a fOrcible illustration of the max
i'm that "boys will be boys"
Some of the saddest accidents con-
nected with coal mining have occurred
in the breakers among children who
pick slate. Little fellows have boon
ground to death in the massive ma
chinery, and many of their comrades
have lost their lives in tho effort to
save them. The unselfish hcroism of
tho men who work in tho mine has
had its counterpart among the lads in
the coal-breaker, and instances could
be mentioned of this child hcroism of
the screen room. When the little fcl-
lows first go to work at slate picking
they find the task severe and painful.
Sitting in a STOPPING position amid
clouds of coal dust is painful. and tiny
fingers are cruelty cut and bled by
contact with the pieces of coal, which
arc as sharp rs bits of broken glass.
In time the hands become hardened,
and SO do the boys, so that what was
at first regarded as slavery seems
comparatively easy.
In tho coai-breakers especially many
hundreds of children are employed
under the age of II years. There are
instances of being sent to pick slate
even at 6 years oi ago. aud any num-
bar may be found in tho scroon room
between 6 and 8. Some of those arc
probably the solo support of mother
and younger children, the father of
the family having been suddenly kill.
cd at his work in the mine. 1t seems
cruel to send such boys to work, but
it seems equally cruel to prevent them
from earning the needed crust for the
stricken families to which they be.
long. The question has consumed
much attention for several years
throughout the coal-iields, and at the
last session of the legislature of Penu-
sylvania section was embodied in
the general mine law prohibiting child
labor i4 and about the mines.