The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-02-13
SLAVES OF THE PIT.
Pennsylvania Miners Who Live
on Ten Cents a Day.
NEW ERUPTION or THE HUNS.
Foreigners who Are as Undesirable N
the Chinese-The Americans Are
Rapidly Disappearing.
wilkesbarre Letter in Philadelphia Press

wilkesbarre Letter in Philadelphia Press.
When the correspondent of the Press
was working IN the mine he noticed two
men labbering in a foreign language,
slolching hurriedly down a gangwav
with sledge hammers in their hands.
ihey stopped at a point where
two heavy tinibers stood, support
ing the roof of solid rock of
worked-out chamber. They knocked these
props away, shouldered them, and went
back toward that part of the colliery
whence they came.
WHO were those menu" the reporter
asked miner.
Iney're company men," was the an
swer. They're timbering up weak place
IN the roof somewhere down the new
gangwayn
T" Are they foreigners?''
Foreigners, No; they're just Hunks.
We never call them foreigners answered
the miner. contemptuously.
In reality the men were not Hungariaus.
but Polanders, as was afterward learned.
How much do they make a day2' was
the next question.
somewheres between dollar and a
dollar and seventy, suppose. They're
Hunks, but you bet they earn their money.
They put in mighty long day of it some
timesn
And who did this work before thew
came here?''
haven't kept track OF them two fell
lows" answered the miner. "but YOU NAV
depend on it that they took the place of
two men who We're born and raised around
the parts. Some of these days you will
ind that they viii he miners. Ii they are
contract miners, they may freeze me out.
Ii they become company miners, then
they viii get the job of somebody else. l
don't like the Hunks, but some of them
make good miners for all that"
This foreign element that has been
swarming up the Wyoming valley, work
ing their way into the collieries OF Panther
creek, making Hazleton town as varied
in population as New York, almost chang
ing the class of residents in some quarters
OF shenandoah, and now running Shafno-
kin and Ashland, present many astonish-
ing phases of character. They seem TO be
little higher than the animal. They are
OF the very lowest class of European pea
santry. Drive along any road and you are
sure to see evidences of this. You will
meet one of these men trudging along the
road with his hands in his pockets Half
mile further on you will meet woman,
clad much more poorly than the man,
maybe carrying child in her arms and a
heavy bundle on her back She is his
wife. The woman is the beast of burden.
II reminds one of the stories that come
from Alaska of the female slavery there.
The Press the other day contained dis
patch from the bituminous coal regions,
relating how Polish woman, whose hus-
band had been killed, but who had left her
81 800, refused to bury the body, saying:
Him dead. Him no good now" Here
Is another instance: Two brothers, who
had come from Europe, worked side by side
IN coal stripping. They shared their
earnings dollar for dollar. One day bank
OF dirt fell and killed one of them. The
other got the dead mans money and then
refused TO recognize him as his brother
He said he had never seen him before,
fearing that he would have to pay the flu
neral expenses, and the body was buried
by the county.
BY many people il is asserted that these
people are peaceable, and that their CON-
ing has not increased lawlessness An ex-
tefsive employer of this kind of labor said
to the writer not long ago, that 400 of them
would cause less trouble than twenty
American laborers. This view is not
borne out by facts in the anthracite region.
fore. There have been many daring
crimes like the murder of the paymaster
near here by Red Nose Mike and his pals,
directly traceable TO these foreigners
They have frequent quarrels among them
selves, which frequently end in murder,
and the county is put to the expense of
prosecution.
There is man in one the big anthracite
towns who is known as the liking of the
Huns" He was first called "king of the
Huns" loculariy, but many people regard
him seriously as king. He is big man
among them. Better educated than the
most of his race who came to America 10
seek livelihood, and smart to degree,
he has become rich. In this town he
keeps store, saloon, a clearinghouse,
butchery and bank.
He appears on the street erect and well
dressed, and he is often followed by a
string of admiring or favor-seeking eoun-
trymen. He is good citizen and will
make his home in America, and if he ran
countrymen were naturalized he would
probably be elected by a fair majority, for
they outnumber the Americans. Most
likely he would fill the Office well.
Yet il is just such men as this wide
awake foreigner who have had as much to
do as coal operators with the great influx
of foreigners who must be educated TO be-
can iaborers, protected against
everything else. He came to America
to make money, but not TO make
it with the pickaxe. He could make
money if he had his own race and border
ing races around him. The opportunity
was there, but it was unmade-he pro-
ceeded to make it, Soon Hungarian Ia
borers and Polish miners began 20 appear.
They somehow knew him. They wanted
work. Work was easily found for them.
Before long they wanted to bring friends
over These. too, came Each one meant
money for the man who had preceded
them and seen an opportunity. lie
boarded many, .he sold many of them
goods, and his saloon till ciinked with
coin.
Those foreigners who labor in and about
the mines work very cheaply and live in
squalor and on the coarsest fare. The
other night one of their boarding-houses
caught fire near Stockton. TWAS frame,
having two rooms and an attic, yet twenty
tive of this people tumbled ont of that
place into the night air. Half dozen of
them will bunk together in 4 shaniy, and
will live by each man paying his share.
a cost of less than IS q head, and 10 grow
fat on il. The writer, near Milesville the
other day. saw two young foreigners hit
ting up their house. Ii had
been used as stable for
calf, vet the floor measurement was
much less than half of ''dinkey" car on
Passyunk avenue. The floor was bare
ground. The bunk took mp half the room,
the musty stove took up the rest. leaving
enough to enter and turn around IN. They
had slept in the place one night and the
air was fetid. These men were new for
eign laborers in Pennsylvania. Beginning
work, they would probably make 80 cents