Morning journal and courier., 1891-08-15

at their toll.
 Your first glimpse of the pit women st work in their strange garb, with their faces, arms and hands black as night from the grime of the coal dust, would fill you with feeling of revulsion and dread of contact. with such apparently saturnine creatures, and a thrill of indignation that women were enslsyed by such seemingly degrading work. Acquaintance with the work and the pit-brow lasses themselves will completely change these first impres- sions.
 There are five kinds of women's labor at the mines. To make this clear to those unused to mine provincialisms, the five classes may be called "washers," "cob- lers, |" clippers" ''screeners" and "fillers" or Jewellers" The work of the former found to be at some mines to wash the dirt from coal in 8 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 of these wo- men were singing heartily as they toiled. They were under shelter; seemed to take their work easily; the sound of the run ming water was pleasant; and they told me they would not like to exchange their work for any other labor at the mines. It oc- cured to me there might be some connec- ton between the running water and the songs; and found it to be true. These were the only lasses who sang always at their work. The purling of the water through the shining coal effected these prisoned humans just ss tiny house fountain will bewitch continuous melody from the throats of canaries and mocking birds in your window or conservatory. There was 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 "coblers" are the coke-burners At many mines all the fine coal and refuse of the screens is transformed into coke on their own premises. The women here from the nature of the work are com pelled to do considerable hard labor. Armed with long-handled shovels they scoop the small coal into arched doorways of the ovens with the same throw and force as, and far more deftness and dex- terity than, the men. When the ovens are finally "charged" the women build up the doorway with bricks, which are plas- tered over, and the ovens are then left to themselves for several hours. The coke is finally taken out in the form of huge lump, which splits easily in pieces. Here again the women are employed in splitting the coke "cobles" or Jumps and loading them into trucks. The coke is apt to cut their hands and the women are provided | with stout leather hand guards With the aid of these they pile the coke into the coke wagons or cars until filled, and then ''trim" the loads neatly, so that none of the coke is lost in it's subsequent railway journey. At most mines this work by wo- men is out of doors in storm or shine; though several owners have lately provi- ded sheds.
 . E,, IL complished by women at the brows of English mines. The shafts are surround ed with high metal platform, usually covered as protection to machinery and workers, but open at the sides for light and air. As the "cage" comes up from the depths below, with its load of six trucks, these are removed from opposite sides, the weight of each truck, chalked on it by the weighman below, shouted to the tallyman who is boxed in little glass encssed office at one side, by tally-boys, and as the trucks are pulled from the cage | by powerful men, they are caught by the pit-brow women, who shove them to the ''tip," where the coal is conveyed to the screens, and upset them. Each truck when empty must weigh two hundred pounds. Its load of coal will run from six to eight hundred pounds. It is geared | on diminutive wide-tired wheels; but st | best is a cumbersome bulk to handle. Yet | two of these strong pit-brow lasses will catch this truck as though it were a baby
 crrriage and send it flying to the ''tip, " dump 1t upon the screens by the ald of 6 | lever, and hurl it back to the cage for re- turn into the mine, in way that would | electrify even an American woman's rights | "promoter."
 The work of the "screeners," while the most trying on account of the endless | cloud of coal dust in which they are en- | veloped, requires less muscle than dexteri- | ty. A screen, a kind of riddle of iron bars, working on the principle of an end
 less chain, is constantly carrying the coal, | which has been dumped upon it from the | "tip" above, down along an incline into | the coal cars, or wagons" as they are
 called here, standing upon elevated tracks | beneath. As the coal passes along the | dust and fine coal used for coke making | falls into shute beneath, which carries | the "screenings" to storage bins below. But here and there are clogs of dirt, bits | of rock, pieces of shale, and huge "fsul | ty" Jumps of coal. All the shale, rock | and dirt are picked from the screens by
 hand, and the way they fly from these pii- | brow women's nimbie fingers is A wonder.
 A bystsnder is in danger of broken
 head; and one cannot help thinking what
 a marvellous contingent these women | would make in a Belfast riot. They also have in their left hand a long-handled, tiny but sharp and stout spade. One
 crack or prod of this, so dextrous are they, will split into score of pieces the
 hughest lump of coal, which is done if it
 shows signs of inferior quality. AS ire | quently mines discharge from fifteen hun
 dred to three thousand tons of coal per day over this double set of screens, and I of in
 spection of eight women, four st each | screen, some knowledge of the wonderful
 quickness of eye and movement on the | part of these pit-brow women can be
 formed. No ship stoker every came up
 from the coal bunkers more ebony black
 than they all become after the first cage of
 the days operation has been tipped"
 The Jewellers" or ''fllers" attend to the
 wagons or cars. Though the coal is car
 ried into them direct from the screens,
 much tumbles about on the tracks. This
 is thrown into the wagons, and when they
 are filled, the women climb into or upon
 them and adjust the coal in the same man
 ner as the coke-makers trim the coke wag
 ons. This work is usually done by girls
 from fourteen to eighteen years of age
 They scramble under, between and over the
 wagons with the agility of monkeys, and
 every one has superb physical develop
 ment. saw one place her hand upon the
 bumper between the railway wagons, and
 with a light spring leap on it, and from
 this, in another motion, vault into ths
 loaded wagon five feet above. Carrying (
 spade in her left hand, she only had ths
 use of her right hand; and yet no profes
 sional athlete could have accomplished tn, performance with more grace or sppsren
 ease.
 Having been fortunate enough to conn
 upon the pit-brow lasses at various mine
 st all hours of labor, in all department
 and conditions of their labor, at thei
 hours for meals and rest, on their way t
 the mines and to their homes, and again il
 their homes, can testify to their thor
 oughly good nature, good heartedness snS
 unusual responsibility. I confess that
 expected to find the most forlorn creature
 bearing the image of women. All the il lustrations had ever seen portrayed then
 as hollow checked, hollow chested, scrag
 gy, sodden and beastly. They are nothing of the sort. Physically they are the fines formed women in England. It is of eours startling thing to come suddenly upoI the platform above a pit-mouth and | sl laa n1u 1E .la