The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1891-08-15

irons those two important shires Of
tremendous industries, the eye rests on
u fair and pleasant English landscape.
The nearness OF great manufacturing
cities has crowded the pretty tarmstead-
ings closely together. The fields are
small and carefully titled. The roads
are narrow and often paved. Hedges
are trim; gates are well painted; farm
offices are ample and bright with fresh
whitewash; and fine old towers or neat
spires here and there show above
masses Of ancient trees through which
splatches Of color, from thatch, tile or
gable hint Of quiet village homes. To
the eve it is a winsome and pastoral
picture. Soon the horizon line is
pierced with chimney stacks like
mighty spears. Besides these, rs your
train speeds along, there shortly appear
little bunchings Of houses clustering
about higher grimy clumps OF buildings,
and surmounting these are huge wheels
OF steel. Seen across pretty Copses,
gentle hills or nesting homes anu out
buildings, these seem like mighty
spider-webs against the gray OF the far,
lower sky.
Scores of these weird, black, lace
like circles are visible. The meadows
and fields run green and fair close to
the edges of the huddled structures be-
meath them. They are the great wheels
above the thine pits. Over these run
The steel wire or chain which lifts or
lowers the "hoppet," or sends below
the "cage" with its half dozen empty
trucks to return them to the bank or
nit brow, each truck laden with its six
or eight hundred pounds Of coal.
Thousands more men dig beneath these
wheels and fields than labor in the
fields above, there are more miles OF
streets, galleries and ways below the
surface OF Lancashire than above,
counting all the countryside highways
md city streets. It is beneath these
mammoth wheels which lifts the coal
that warns the half OF Britain, and
drives more than half her Changing
machinery, that you viii IND nearly
ohe-third Of all the Pit-brow lasses OF
England at their toll.
Your first glimpse of the pit women
Mt work in their strange garb, with their
faces, arms and hands black as night
from the CRIME OF the coal dust, would
Ill you with feeling OF revulsion and
dread OF contact with such apparently
snturnine creatures, and thrill OF in
dignation that women are enslNved by
such seemingly degrading work. Ac-
ouaintatce with the work and the pit
brow iasses themselves will completely
change these first impression.
There are five kinds OF women's labor
mt the mines. To make this clear to
those unused to mine provincialisms,
the five classes may be called washers, :"
COOLERS" clippers" ''screenerst" and
"fIllers or Jewelers." The work Of the
former found to be at some mines to
wash the dirt from coal in a long shute.
under rough sheds. a rapid flow Of
water filled two parallel troughs. The
women raked the dirt together and got
rid of it through traps in the trough.
Most oil these women were singing
heartily as they toiled. They were
under shelter; seemed 10 take their
work easily; the sound OF the running
water was pleasant; and they told me
they would not like to exchange their
work for any other labor at the mines.
1t occurred to me there might be some
connection between the running water
and the songs; and found Ito be true.
These were the only lasses who sang
always at their work. The pnrling Of
the water through the shining coal et-
fected these prisoned humans Just rs a
tiny house fountain will bewitch con.
tinuous melody from the throats OF
canaries and hooking birds in your
window or conservatory. There WINS
the hint Of the wildwood in It; the
whispered voices OF the fields and
streams; the endless call OF natures
heart to all that was responsive in their
own.
THE coKE-DUREERs.
The "coblers" are the coke-burnors.
At many mines all the fine coal and re-
fuse OF the screens is transformed into
coke on their own premises. The women
here from the nature Of the work are
compelled to do considerable hard labor.
Armed with long-handled shovels they
scoop the small coal into arched door
ways OF the ovens with the same throw
and force as, and far more dizziness and
dexterity than the men. When the
ovens are finally Charged" the women
build up the doorway with bricks, which
are plastered over, and the ovens are
then left to themselves for several
hours. The coke is finally taken ont in
in the form of huge lump. which splits
easily in pieces, Here again the women
are employed in splitting the coke
"cobles,h or Jumps, and loading them
into trucks. The coke is apt to cut
their hands and the women are provid'
ed with stout leather hand guards
With the MD Of these they pile the coke
into the coke wagons or cars until filled
and then trim the loads neatly, 50
that none OF the coke is lost in its sub
sequent railway journey. At most
mines this work by women is out Of
doors in storm or shine; though several
owners have lately provided sheds.
The clippers" do the heaviest work
accomplished by women at the brows Of
English mines, The shafts are sur
rounded with high metal platform,
usually covered as protection to ina
chinery and workers, but open at the
sides for light and air. AS the cage
comes up from the depth below, with
its load OF six trucks these are re-
moved from opposite sides, the weight
of each truck chalked on 1t by the
wcighman below, shouted TO the tally
man who is boxed In q little glass en-
cnsed office at one side BY tally-boys
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