The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-05-02
DOWN IN A COAL NINE.
Men Who Work in the Earth All Week
and Only See Daylight on sunday.

and Only See Daylight on sunday.
From, the Chicago Mail.
81 remember when a coal-miner was an
aristocrat among workingmen."
The speaker was an old, graybearded
man-one of a group discussing labor mat
tiers.
Everybody" he continued, ''has read or
heard that the men who mine the coal for
which we pay so much out here are miser-
ably paid, and it is a fact. Yet there was
a time when coal diggers, as they are called
down in Pennsylvania, were well paid.
was miner down there myself then, about
twenty years ago. When l hear this talk
about the tariff. and the protection of
American industries, and you don't hear
ANYTHING else in Presidential years down in
the old Keystone State, where l was born,
itmakes me think of those times. I have
seen the time when $50 month was poor
months work with me in Western Penn
svlvania mine, and have often drawn 1920
In month. 1t is wonderful what change
has taken place in that great branch of in
dustry. The coal miner now who can make
81 25 day is doing we'll, and that is above
the average wages. If he could make that
the year round he would he doing well, as
things are now but strikes and lock-outs,
and the shutting down of the mines to regu-
late the output and keep up the selling
price, cut into his small yearly income fear
fully. In the flush times, just after the
war, the coal-digger, when he was above
ground and had washed the black from is
face, held up his head. Now he is poor
devil, looked upon as serf by his neighbors.
Twenty years ago most OF the miners were
Americans, but that is not tue case now
They were intelligent and independent,
and that cannot be said of the coal dig
gers of the present day. What has brought
about the transition, or. more properly
speaking, the retrogression, shall not at
tempt to explain.
down i'll the coke regions, where the
best bituminous coal in the world is mined,
the miners live in little hamlets and vii
lagos near the pits as they are called. The
pits are the opening of the mines. These
villages belong to the companies operating
the mines. They are composed of rows of
shantieS, generally one room downstairs
and one above, with a hole cut through to
permit the passage of a stove-pipe. They
are considered aristocratic if there is any
hath or plaStering i'll them at all. The oc-
cupants pay rent to their employers, and in
case of strike evictions follow, as a matter
of course. The furniture in miners cabin
generally consists OF a stove, table, and
few chairs. Carpet is a luxury to which
few of them aspire. / have seen hundreds
of these houses in which there was no light
at night the year round, except that fur
nished by the smoky miners lamp used by
the father during the day at his work. The
children, III some instances, attend the pub
lie schools, but as soon as they are able to
work they 60 into the mines to help their
father support the family. Among them
are many good people, but, as rule the
standard of morality is not high, and after
pay-days there are hilarious dances and hoe
downs in the cabins, which often end in
terrible atfrays.
From time immemorial the miner has
been compelled to do all his trading at
truck stores owned by his employers. In
the coal-diggers' parlance, they are pluck
me stores. Year after year the Legislature
of Pennsylvania has passed truck bills as
they are called, to abolish these stores, and
a law Of that kind is in opera
ton now. THE truck store is a
place where the miner is compelled
TO buy all that he needs-food, cloth
ing, and everything else. A few years ago
even an unmarried miner was compelled to
spend a certain proportion of his wages at
his employers store. The prices charged
were always from 10 to 25 per cent. higher
than at other stores, and on some articles SO
per cent There were always two sets of
prices-one for the mine operative and en-
ploye and the other for the neighborine
farmers and the general public. If sign
hung in the store announcing that butter or
eggs were cheaper, or that flour could be
bought there at the lowest market price, it
had no meaning to the miner he knew he
would have to pay premium, to be taken
out of his wages, or quit. The miners wife
came in and stood beside the wife of a
farmer OF mechanic buying calico, and paid
20 per cent more than they and never
grumbled. l was in a store once where
there was group Of young fellows, and
one of them, looking up at a placard tackled
on the wall read: N. o. molasses, 90c a
gallon.
ut meant that New Orleans molasses
was selling at 90c., but he read it, No mo-
lasses for us fellows at 90c., gallon. His
Joke cost HIM his job the next day.
Few people know what laborious work
coal-mining is, to say nothing of the dangers
TO which the miner is subjected all the time
from foul air and the caving in of the
mountain of earth that is always about
him, supported on locust posts Theminers
work in pairs, and frequently man with a
large family takes two OF three of his little
boys to work with him, in lieu of a mate
who will share his earnings They start off
IN the main passageway or one of its
branches and work into the coal vein, and
as they advance day by day the hollow
which they cut out, varying in width from
10 to 30 feet is called room. In time this
room becomes long gallery, with ceiling
OF slate and a smooth floor of the same ma
terial. The first thing they do each day is
TO make a bearing in This is done by
digging into the coal with picks and max
Ing big hollow the whole width of the
room, if it is a narrow. one, and half the
width if it is 20 or 30-foot room. The
hollow thus picked out begins at the floor
Ind extends upward only Is inches and is
Z or 5feet deep. To do this requires several
hours, and the diggers are compelled to lie
on their sides or backs and swing their
picks. When the bearing in, is complete
the miner sees huge block Of coal sus-
pended from the room, and blast of pow
der causes it to drop, the mass giving way
downward in the direction of the hollow |
which he has cut out Then comes the |
work Of getting the coal out. 1t is loaded |
into wagon on four Hanged wheels made |
TO tit the tracks in the main passageway, |
and one of the miners straps big leathern |
belt around his waist, hooks it to the |
wagon, and goes about pulling, his COM
panion following pushing at the rear end.
w hen the track in the passage is reached III |
Is joined to a train of similar wagons, and |
hauled to the mouth of the mine To make |
bearing in shoot it, and haul out the |
coal Is g days work. Each miner furnishes
his own tools, picks, drills, and shovels, and
much Of his time is consumed In sharpen
ing the picks. Many of the miners go to
work before daylight and return after dark,