Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-16
along-handled. tiny but sharp and stout

1001.
along-handled, tiny but sharp and stout
| spade. One crack or prod of this, so de1-
| trous are they, will split into score OF
pieces the hughest lump of coal, which Is
done If it showns signs of inferior quality.
AS frequently mines discharge from 1,60o
to 5000 tons of coal per day over this double
set OF screens, and every particle OF 1t passes
under the inspection of eight women, four
at each screen, some knowledge of the won
derful quickness of eye and movement on
the part of these pit-brow women can be
formed. No ship stoker ever came from the
coal bunkers more ebony black than they
ell become after the first cage of the day
operation has been clipped"
The Jewellers" or "fillers" attend to tho
wagons or cars Though the coal is carried
into them direct from the screens, much
tumbles about 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 manner as the
coke-makers trim the coke wagons.
WHAT THE GIRLS DO.
This work is usually done by girls from
fourteen to eighteen years of age. The
scramble under between and over the Wag-
'ons with the agility of monkeys, and every
one has superb physical developement. 1
saw one place her hand upon the bumper
between the railway wagons, and with
light spring leap upon it, and from this, In
another motion, vault into the loaded car
i've feet above. Carrying a spade In her
left hand, she only had the use of her right
hand, and yet no professional athelete could
have accomplished the performance with
more grace and apparent ease.
e. Ia 70
upon the pit-brow lasses at various mines at
all hours of labor, in all departments and
conditions of their labor, at their hours for
meals and rest, on their way to the mines,
and to their homes, and again in their
homes, 1 can testify to their thoroughly
good nature, good heartedness and unusual
respectability. l confess that expected to
find the most forlorn creatures bearing the
image of women. All the illustrations 1
had ever seen portrayed them as hollow
checked, hollow-chested, scraggy, sodden
and beastly. They are nothing of the sort.
physically they are the finest formed women
in England
WILD AND AWFUL GRANDEUR
It is, of course, startling thing to come
suddenly upon the platform above a pit
mouth and-amid the deafening clamor of
the engines, the crashing of the "cage" as
it comes from the abyss below with terrific
speed, the laundering of the iron trucks
upon the metal floor as they are Clipped
and hurled back into the hollow
the coal along the screens" and into
the wagons, while lodging the flying rock
and shale-half discern these weird, swarthy
figures of women, half clad in mans and
half in woman's attire, plunging here and
there, as if engaged in some bedlamish sat
urnal1a. 1t is one Of the most picturesque
scenes of labor ever beheld, and has the
element of wild and awful grandeur in it.
But it has not the hopeless tragedy in it
of the certain wasting away of human life
furnished by the mill or the factory. En-
glish roses gloT from English cheeks and
fame through the pali of coal on the faces
of these pit-brow lassies. You cannot find
plumper figures, prettier forms, more
despite the ugly "clogs," in all of dreamful
Andalusia There is not harder, frmer,
finer flesh and muscle in any prize ring.
The sparkle of royal good health leaps
from their splendid hazel eyes. Their lips
are like the cockney's heart and spirits,
'tcherry ripe" And you never will find
more dazzlingly white or beautiful
teeth in the Azores, in Cuba, or with our
own colored people, the coal-dust perform
ing the work of a magnificent dentrifce.
BEST BLOOD OF ENGLAND.
They are most cleanly women and bath
is invariably taken when the brow or 'fbroo
gear is thrown aside for the day. Then
the pit-brow lassie is arrayed as becomingIy
as any of her class in England, and on the
village street or at church Of Sunday you
could not pick her out from among her
companions unless for her fine color, form
and a positively classic poise and grace of
carriage possessed by no other working
women Of England. 1 was in company
with Vicar Wood, of Pemberton, part Of
the time during my visit to the Pember.on
mine
"Well," he thoughtfully remarked, "it
was one Of the conditions made by the
Hon. Mrs. Blundell that no pit women
here at Pemberton should receive the annual
gift of suit of clothes who did not bear a
reproachless character. 1 have charge of
the distribution. There has not been but
one instance where a refusal of the gift has
been found necessary during the past ten
years.
In almost countless conversations with
the pit-brow women, have not found one
who did not seem happy and contented in
her labor. For this class any labor at any
wage is godsend in England. Altogether,
I should seriously regard the pit-brow
lasses as the handsomest, heathiest, hap
piest and most respectable working women
in England. EDGAR l. WAKEMAN.