Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1890-01-03
A MAID OF THE MINES.

o4i"r "' q N'iiN''i i"S4'''' '''' "NS' nun -
dustries of Wcstmnreland County were
still in their infancy
In those days there were few more lonely
and rugged localities east OF the Mississi p
pi, OF indeed, in the Whole world, than that
portion of the Alleghcnies lying almost mid
way between Pittsburg and the State Cap
ital Even to-day the human hiveSS of in
duStry which The mines and blast furnaces
have focused on those bleak hill-sides, can
not boast of much refinement; thirty years
ago one of the toughest of rough commun-
tiles was that which had been drawn
together for the purpose of operating the
Dent Scar mine.
At that time the Dent Scar Iron and
Coal Company, limited, had not so much
as dreamed of its later phenomenal success;
it was young and feeble enterprise en-
ploying not more than fifty or sixty men,
chiefly miners. BY far the larger number
were unmarried, or at any rate had left
their wives and families amid more civili2-
ed and congenial surroundings than Dent
d!
their hea dquarterS at frail bu. rather eX-
tensive structure known as the Miner :
Hotel. The men who INDUCED in such alb
surdly superauous luxuries as wives and
children, occupied little huts and shanties,
and for the most part dragged out check
cred existence i'll squalor and dirt. OF
womankind there were positively no inter
esting specimens at Dent Scar-Save one.
This was Jen Saxton, girl of 90, the
only child and acting housekeeper of an
old miner, whose wife had deserted him
and his child years before. Doubtless it
would have been letter for Jen if her pa
ternal parent had also left her to the ten
der mercics of the world, before &c took
her into such GOd-forsaken and utterly
outlandish locality. For the old man
(who was when sober, really one of the
best miners in the district) spent every
penny of his large earnings at the bar OF
the Miners Hotel and, in a community
where every full grown man went to bed
drunk at least twice n week, was marked
ndiyidual--bcaring as a peculiar distinc-
ton the sobriquet of ''Bugjuice Saxton,"
Physically, Jen Saxton at 20 was sim
ply perfection and a magnificent specimen
of grandly developed womanhood Intel
lectually she was more ignorant than a
street gamin, Tor she certainly could not
have distinguished between a newspaper
and railroad time schedule. Morally
well, morality was an article not in great
demand in the vicinity of the Dent Scar
mine. And yet, as morals went in West
moreland about that time, Jen had done
nothing decidedly bad; on the contrary, her
qucenly ply squc alone had forced 'fthe
boys into yielding her certain amount
of respect which few of the married wo-
men around her could command.
The fact that Jen was illterate mattered
very little at the mine, where none beside
the Superintendent and the mc-keepcr
were supposed to have any require
ments for, or interest in, pens, ink, and
paper-whether printed paper or other
wise. SO judged by men (and women,
too,) who passed Judgment on themselves
according to the quantity and quality of
sinew and mIscle-men who knew no
more Of soul and mind than they did of
Greek verbs and trigenometry-.Ien SaXton
was well nign rs perfect as goddesses are,
or should be.
Some people would undoubtedly have
called the girl coarse, but then one might
as well call n lion or a panther coarse.
Men do not measure the actions of wild
animals by the same standards which they
apply to rational human beings, and Jen
Saxton was of precisely the same nature
as wild animals. Always when there was
a fight or Il scutlle( (and they were frequently
Jcn could be found, an eager and intensely
interested spectator. The ficrcer the quarrel
the more she enjoyed the excitement. Itmat-
tered little to her whether game cocks, dogs,
boys, men or women fought; and, if human
beings, she was equally indifferent a. to the
mode Of warlare-though she perhaps pre-
k knives or picks, as tending to prolong the
battle. She would meyer interfere in a
Scrap" herself, and was invariably disap
p ointcd if anyone else undertook to part
the combatants. Womanlike, her sympa-
thies always went with the victor
Perhaps the individual most cordially
dislked by the miners at Dent Scar was n
hinge and powerful Englishman called the
Bullock, the nickname being shorter, more
and more euphonious than
that which appeared on the company's
pay roll-Elisha Evans.
The Bullock was an enormous two leg
ged brutc-a monster six feet three inches
in height. who carried about with him
nearly two hundred pounds avoirdupois of
IN astodon bone and cast-iron muscle. His
low forehead, knit eyebrows, and heavy
jaws, proclaimed him Mt once man of
brutal passions and bnlly. And this was
the only man at the mine whom Jcn Sax
ton admired to any degree; the only man
who could have made the handsome girl
his wife for the asking!
Why?
Simply because, in community which
was materialistic to such q degree that
sentiment and intellect counted for actual
ly nothing the Bullock stood head and
Sh ouldcrs above his fellows. Jcn Saxton
only comprehended that he was the grand
est specimen of man that had ever cross
ed her path; she could see and appreciate
his massive frame and gigantic strength,
and, for that he had once, like Hercules,
lellcd an OK with his fist and had thrashed
almost every miner in the county, he be-
came Jcns ideal man-her idol
Jen's admi ration for the Bullock was
fully reciprocated by that worthy, though
as yet he had never given the girl any as
surance Of the fact. 1t were libel on the
tender passion to assert that Evans loved
Jen Saxton. Yet he almost worshiped the
girl with a species Of slow, dogged affec-
ton that was none the less intense and
determined because it was not outspoken
He rather enjoyed the secret feeling of
which he cherished within him
self. He felt so sure of his prey and knew
so well that he could net his bird at any
time
Men outside the narrow world immedi-
ltely contiguous to the Dent Scar mine
were unknown quantities in the 8ullock's
and were possibilities which
never entered into Jen Saxton's day
lreams-it that Young woman ever indulg-
ed in such airy and intangible luxurics.