The Springdale news., 1889-10-04
MINING AT NIGHT.
Industrious Toiiers Working Beneath tho
 surfnce of the Earth.

Industrious Toiiers Working Beneath tho
 Surface of the Earth.
 A small doorway, made of upright logs and crossbeam, marks the en- trance to the leading mine in the heart of theqanthracite region. It is located on the mountain road just above Black Jeddo, in Luzerne County, a place made notorious during the Molly Mcguire reign. In company with an experienced guide with a small miners lamp suspended from hat-band, a sour- ist enters the dreary, cavernous deptas of night. As his eyes become accus- toned to the darkness, making his way over rivulets of running water and stumbling over shining pieces of anthracite, he reaches the railroad track which connects the tolers in this underground workshop with their brother workmen in the mammoth breaker perched on the mountain side In building of such magnitude that the ten-story structures on Chestnut street sink into insignifcance when compared with it.
 The sharp whistle of the little en- zine which winds its way through the dark recesses of the mine warns all corners to give it room to pass and the tourist hastily jumps into the ditch and presses close to the sides of the bank. The little engine, with it's train laden with coal, rushes by. Passing onward the tourist enters a roomy chamber where dusky men, by dlngy lights, with heavy drills, are tapping into the hard, black rock be- heath their feet and scooping up the powdered dust until sufficient depth Is reached, when the explosive materi- al is inserted, the fuse applied and the warning cry is given.
 All rush for shelter behind the pill lars or lie flat on the ground until the bursting rock has ceased to scatter. The mass thus detached is sufficient to fill small train of cars. but body of laborers with pick and shovel and sledge-hammers reduce it to con- venient slze for handling. The train is soon loaded and the little engine takes it to the bottom of the slope, where a mammoth wire cable is att taehed, and powerful engines at the mouth Of the slope draw the load to the outer air. The cars are then placed on the tracks of the breaker and powerful machinery carries them upwards to a great height. where the mass is shot down on an iron foored room, where brawny men break up the large Jumps and the mass is again started downward, passing though several chambers and being picked ovef and examined by numbers of old men and boys. who are considered fit for nothing else but to pick slate
 These mines are worked day and night, and there is no intermission. No daylight penetrates the gloom of the mine, but the flicker from the It. tie lamps suspended in front of the head-gear of the army of workmen somewhat dispels the gloom. With cans upon their back. one filled with oil, another with water and another with powder, the miners wend their way into the bowels of the earth
 Returning again to the earth's sur face, looming up in the darkness is the mammoth breaker. Electric lights shine from it's many windows. The tourist ascends the steps and now and then feels splash of spra from the water through which the coal passes until he approaches the upper chamber.
 Here, seated around a net work of shallow pans in which the coal is con- stantly in motion and pressed forward on it's journey to the car, is large body of people of all ages and nation- alities. As the streams of glittering coal pass in review before them, each piece of slate is removed and thrown into a box alongside of the busy work CTS. Thus every piece of coal which is brought to the market is handled by a number of people. Philadelphia Press.