The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-10-16

the other side is an "ungconer," with
"heps" or upper and under doors for stor-
ing furze faggots for fuel, The furniture
though scanty is honest and useful. At
the fireplace are the brands" TRAN
gular iron on legs, on which over furze,
fires, the kettles boil. the circular cast
iron baker" and cover are set, and the
fish or meat. when they can be luckily
had, ''scrowled' or grilled. There are
perhaps four chairs, singularly enough
with mahogany frames, but the seats are
OF painted pine and are waxed weekly.
These are for "best, and ali the best.
For every day use one or two firms or
rude benches are provided The single
table is OF pine, one top coming flush with
the sides, the other, detached, two inches
thick. one side implanted and secured
snowy white daily with "growder," rot
ten granite which fathers like soap, and
the other side painted for Sunday or
company" use, and drawer beneath for
the rude cutlery. The tableware is some
thing startling in cheap goods and each
member of the family is provided with
real "chany" cup and saucer with gor-
geous gilt band. Two or three rude en-
cravings, generally of scriptural subjects
in cheap oaken frames, such as the village
carpenter may make, with the beds and
bedding under the thatch, complete the
furniture of the miners cottage.
For his class and means he is a gener-
Gus liver. Soups and stews are consumed
by the gallon. For his breakfast. if he is
out of the mine, "mawther" the wife, will
provide the usually villainous "tay" con-
sumed by the English and Irish working
classes, infrequently an egg, perhaps bit
of satiron-cake, q Cornish favorite appar-
= n.
color, and, maybe, bread without butterl
and treacle. Sometimes this is varied
with 'butter-sops," stale bread scalded
and seasoned meagerly. At noon, or Tor
the mine "croust" or lunch, there are
"taty pastics," or potatoes and vagrant
meat scraps inclosed in a crescent
shaped crust, interchangeable with
"figgy pasties," the same as "taty
pasties" with few raisins added;
'hoggans" or round pork-pies, and,
"faggans, tough crust cakes so hard, at
least in Cornish renown, that they would
not break if hurled down 1000 fathom
mine shaft. For supper ''croust," that is,
lunch OF any sort left over from the days
provisions, or perhaps "a baker taties''
which means mashed potatoes fried in
grease, turned and Drowned, and cut in as
many segmentS as there are members of
the family, may be provided. The one big
Sunday meal, however, is seldom lacking
in a generous supply of boiling meat; and
as every cottage has its acre or halt-acre
garden, there is nothing to hinder an am
pie supply of vegetables.
But let US follow this Cornish miner for
one day. We will suppose him to be one
OF the forenoon core" whose shit is
from a. m. until p. m. He will prob
oil, lvr 1.-Two fro,, 70 81 v,,flau
the great Dalcoth mine here near Cam
borne, which / am visiting. He must rise
at o'clock. His cottage is cold, dark and
cherries. Having donned his clothing,
which comprises coarse wool stockings,
corduroy trousers, a gingham shirt,
a cheap ducking waistcoat with huge,
low, front-tlapped pockets and cam
brio sleeves, a "billy cooked" hat of
the ''slouch" variety, which lasts him
for ten years, If in winter rough
"oiled-coat," and tremendous hob-nailed
shoes-he eats his cold "croust" which
the wife the previous night has left on the
table; gets his ''foggan" or pastry.
which is always ready in 4 clean crib
bag in the cuphoard lights his short
pipe, like an Irish dudeen which is ex-
plosively sucked and pulled and ponder
Ously guarded by his whole huge hand I;
and then sets out on his rugged tramp.
Nine times out of ten his route is across
bowling mOors, over dangerous paths that
literally wind about pitfalls. or through
six-foot lanes where the thorn trees prod
and lance him savagelv. Dark and drear
this trip for any man. Pitch dark and wild
it always is Tor the Cornish miner, for it
nearly always rains in Cornwall and the
wind forever RACES over the rOck-streWn
l., -,
propped that the sign-posts OF the dead
may not be blown away When the NINE
is reached our miner goes directly to his
own locker in the ''drv-roOm" near the
great engine furnaces where he prepares
for his descent into the mine. He strips
TO the skin. and dons a complete coarse
ducking suit, wooden shirt, high boots as
stiff as sheet iron with hobs protruding
from the soles as big as the heads of
twenty-penny nails and his miners hat
hard as a board on the front of which he
slaps a chunk of putty-like ciay This
forms a socket for his candle, his only
light below. With this, his waterproof
box OF matches and his string of candles
tied, or ''skewered," 70 his shirt or but
toned coat, he seeks his ''core-pairners" at
the "man-engine-house" and is ready for
the descent, which for you or is an ex-
perience full of grewsorneness and peril.
The shafts of most Cornish mines are
now timbered in the center from top to
bottom. The IMAM engine" works with a
twenty-five-fOOt up-and-down stroke. a
perpendicular spliced timber at this mine.
5000 feet long. Every twenty-five feet
are landings called 'sOllars." The miner
stands upon a step attached to this gigant-
ic rod and is instantly dropped twenty-five
feet to the next ''solar," when he springs
aside upon the landing; for the reversal
of the motion is constantly bringing men
from below, and one mis-step costs him
his turn. or may cost him his life. "Thud :
thud" for twenty minutes and he has
descended 5000 feet into the bowels of the
earth, and is at once at work as only a
Cornish miner will work. But while hun
dreds of these human fire-fiies are ascend
ing and descending, another curious scene
is in progress. Mine bows. helpers. scores
of them from fifteen to eighteen years old
and the most recklessy daring cubs in all
| England, scorning 10 descend the "man
engine" have a wild and startling way of
their own. At the corner of each shaft is a
imam hole" with stationary ladder from
top to bottom. with smooth half round
sides and wrought iron 'rungs" Spring
ing upon these like monkeys the bows
slide from one ''soller" to another. their
hands just touching the slippery sides and
the toes of their hob-nailed shoes beating
the iron runes with horrible "whi-r-r-r %
thu numbprs anOaOad in tho E,btr;rS.