The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-06-12
DOWN IN THE COAL MINES.
WHAT THE MINERS AT BRAZIL ENDURE
How the Men Are Forced To Do Much
Work For Sothing-Short Weights and
the Workings of the screen-An Old
Miner Tells His Story.

do, although at first it seemed rather dismal
down there in the dirt and darkness. And, you
see, / had only been at it about week when
the man who worked in the room next to me
was crushed to a jelly, by big rock falling on
him. tell you, it made me feel rather blue
but I stuck at it, for l did not know what else
TO do if l did quit. And since then / have
helped dig cut many men killed or mangled
crippled-some of them for life-and had a
couple of bad hurts myself, that am kind of
used to such things now. And have worked
so long by lamp light that anything else seems
unnatural. Why. sir, in the winter time often
/ have not seen the sun from one Sunday to
another
How do we work? Well, by the day, and
by the piece. The day men keep the roads in
repair clean up falls of stone in the entries,
drive mules and push the full cars of coal on
the cage at the bottom of the shaft. Do we
have mules? you say. Yes, indeed and fine
ones, too, though generally small. They are
used to pull the coal out of the workings in
small cars, like railroad cars, that hold all the
way from one-half to three tons. No. coal is
dug by the day. in hand mines, mine where
they do not run machines. Do they have ma
chimes to dig coal? Yes, sir; here, hundreds OF
feet under the ground, the rattle of machinery
uIONns the CTltS OF Starving WOMEN anu CIll-
| dren.
"The miner works by the ton or yard. II in
a room twelve to thirty feet wide. he works by
the ton; for all that goes over the screen into
the FATS These screens are made OF iron bars,
set on edge, from and half 10 two and
| three-fourths inches apart and from sixteen to
thirty feet long; one end elevated sufficient for
coal to slide when then the pit car is dumped
on the upper end. The coal slides slowly down
this decline so that all the small pieces sift out,
and they often have what is called breaker
stretched across the screen. This is a heavy
piece of timber, and when the coal goes up
against it a great many chunks are broken and
go through the screen; and for all that goes
through the screen we Get no pay; nay, more,
if we want a bushel of it 20 burn we have TO
pay for it. This, OF course, looks little one
sided, but the operators say must take re-
duction, for they are not clearing expenses,
| and of course, they are telling MS nothing but
the truth.
Last winter when the legislature met they.
as iaw-givers for the state OF Indiana, passed
law by which this grieyous wrong would have
been righted. But our coal barons OF Indiana
prevailed upon some modern Judas 10 be their
tool and mutilate the bill till il became worth
less. This tool being to whom blasphemy,
theft or murder must be but pastime, a crea-
ture so devoid of honor that Judas of old must
be adiudged righteous man by comparison,
for he betrayed but man, this one thou
sands. And now these barons, having manipu-
lated legislation till it is dead letter, feeling
secure in the belief that their guilt can never
be conclusively proven TO verdict for punish
ment and, by their long immunity from the
opprobrium of public opinion or punishment
! by our courts, rendered more and more
Unsuitable and tyrannical, have the brazen
efirontery, the devlish malignity and defiance Of
the expressed wish and will of the people of
Indiana as vocalized by the vote of our legisla-
ture, to demand that instead Of being paid for
all our work we take a still further reduction
on that portion of our work which their infa-
nous screens and highwaymanlike methods of
dumping and weighing leave for our subsist-
ence.
at seems to me that farmer could, with as
much propriety, demand that thrash and haul
his grain to market for nothing, because he
paid me TO help him plant, raise and harvest
his crop. We all know that a law without
penalty forts infringement is no law at all--or
worse than none. Why didn't the legislature,
instead of fooling with municipal affairs, pass a
short clause TO the effect that when a miner
worked in q wet place that the company, at its
own expense, keep the water out or pay that
man for time he is forced to lose by its neglect
ing to get the water out? How would you like
TO go to work i'm the morning. needing your
days work. and the first thing have to do an
hour or two of hard work balling water for
nothing before you could start at your days
work? At present there is no law touching
this point at all.
ne laws ItSdthluN fNuAAAoAAoh IL lhh4ohu
are very imperfect and inadequate. The law
allows seventy-five feet from one air hole TO an
other. Imagine street boxed in, air tight, you
in that box shoveling dusty dirt into a wagon
between you and the air, and this street only
from five and a half to eight feet wide and
from two 10 six and half feet high; your lamp
on your head, smoking all the time, your body
bathed in sweat and the air going down the
alley across this street only seventy.ive feet
away. Don't you think you would find seventy
five feet tride too far? especially if the sides
of your street are little moist, Just enough 70
generate black damp. Would you not think
fifty-five or sixty feet plenty, and would you
not wish the law TO provide for you TO have this
air? Or do you wonder that nine out OF ten
miners have dyspepsia and trouble with the
nose and throat? AS it is, "a miner must dig
out this seventy-five feet then turn square
corner and drive the alley from two to eight
yards to make the hole through to the next
man. If he complains he can quit or be dis
charged, and either way his work in that sec.
ton of the country is generally done.
"But the worst of all is the weight system.
If the men at a mine believe the scales out
Of order they can call the mine inspector TO
test the scales, for which they must pay him
So per day. If they are wrong, all he can do is
to balance them and administer a reprimand.
But he is powerless to punish, and II is q nOto-
rious fact that the scales at one mine in this
state were found TO be from 400 to 700 pounds
to the ton in favor of the company at three diff
ferent tests in about q year. About four years
ago in Illinois had car of coal come up the
shaft one morning. 1t was the first ear hoisted
that day. There was a teamster on the pit
head, whom had hired to haul me a load of
coal. Ny car was dumped in his wagon and
got paid for mining $50 pounds of coal; but
payday, my envelope was charged with 1870
bounds and the pay therefor was kept out of
my wages. Didn't those weights tally well?
raised a row about it and was discharged, and
for five months after that when got work at a
place, as soon as the boss knew my name | cot
the sack.
Conspiracy? oh, no! business But, if we
come out on strike and demand our rights, that
is conspiracy. Then in come the soldiers and
some one is bayoneted or shot, and the next
day the papers are full of the gallant conduct
OF the soldiers in shooting an unarmed laborer
or two, or more, likely some poor woman
or other-as that uniformed murderous wretch
did in Lamonte, Ill., four years ago. A labor
ers wife, clinging to her husbands arm with a
child four years old at her skirts, and a babe
at breast with the nipple in its mouthl was
stepping from the crossing to the curb-stone
when this fend in human shape passed a
bayOnet not only through her body, but
through the babe also, killing both. And, sir,
had it been my wife and child, so help me. that
man on the next chilly night should have
toasted his shins at the CRATES of hell. Well
the coroner's jury returned verdict of willful
murder. Gov. Oglesby, however refused to
give him up, saying that soldier was not
amenable TO civil law. Soldier, indeed.
soldiered about five years in my younger days
with a soldier for a commander, and had one
of us done such deed, Black Jack would have
swung him to the nearest tree.
stop moment young man; let US reason