Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-11-21
EXPERT WOMEN TRAIN JUMPERS.
They Rob Coal Trains in Transit Along
the SchuylkiIl Valley.

the SchuylkiIl Valley.
Mrs. Marie Santow is one of the most
expert train jumpers in the United States.
With the ease and dexterity of veteran
railroader Mrs. Santow takes flying leap
on swift moving coal train and safely
lands on the bumper or on the axle end
above the wheel With the same ease and
success she jumps safely from a train and
goes on her way rejoicing.
Mrs. Santow is a buxom, good looking,
black haired and black eyed woman, and is
thirty-fve years old. She is coal picker,
and at the close of the night her face and
hands are begrimed and black. She is
what is known as professional coal picker;
that is, she picks coal along the railroad
for the use of her family. In the lower
section of Reading are some thirteen wom
en- coal pickers who nightly jump on and
of moving coal trains and think nothing
OF it. Mrs. Santow is ''the queen of the
gang" and is regarded as the most ven
turesome.
1t is a common custom for the women
to 90 down the road on loaded trains and
come back on empty trains. The trains
go at the rate of ten to fifteen miles an
hour beyond the lower outskirts of the
loaded coal train at night and scatter
along the middle cars away from the sight
of the brakemen and conductor. In the
space of three miles they succeed in push
ing of lot of coal from the tops of the
we'll loaded cars. Those loaded with egg.
furnace or steamboat coal are not molest-
ed. The nut coal is the most sought
after. After the women have gone down
20 ~, nd sc mr. Inrapto1 fhaU II m
of the train no matter how fast it is NOV
ing; but they generally take their time in
selecting the best place to make a safe
landing.
The coal that they push OFF the cars on
the down trip is gathered up at dawn by
girl coal pickers who have not yet become
proficient in train jumping. After the
women leave the loaded coal trains going
down they wait for an up coal train made
up of empty cars. These trains run rapid
ly, but the women, no matter how dark
the night, run swiftly along with the train
and jump on them as gracefully and sue
cessfully as any practical railroader. They
gather up their skirts in their left hand
and use their right in securing grip.
Once on an empty car, the women get
down into it and scrape the coal together.
aO OlulCo SOLoAeiCALblC SoSAA ID ASAS 49, VIZ
bottom by careless dumping at the great
piers at tidewater, and this coal is a bonan-
Ia to the women, who SCOOP it up into bags,
completely filing them by the time the
train reaches the outskirts Of the city.
These filled bags are then swung over
the sides of the car and dropped to the
ground, followed by the women them
selves. In this way they toll all night,
and succeed in getting together lot Of
coal, which is deposited in the back yards
of the shanties they occupy. Their hus-
bands work in the neighboring mills, and
are never known to buy more than a ton
of coal for winter use. They buy this coal
in order to have a receipted bill to show in
case they are arrested. The girls gather
up the coal in pans and old scuttles along
the railroad. They are frequently chased
by the railroad police, but are rarely ar
rested, because the girls are seen doing
nothing wrong, and the women train
jumpers work only at night and are smart
enough not to be caught at il.
Occasionally one is killed through her
own carlessness, but such an accident has
not happened recently. Some of the more
successful coal pickers have enough coal to
spare to sell to their neighbors.-Cor.
New York Sun.