The record-union., 1891-08-15
Women.
Especial Correspondence of RECORD UNION
Copyright, 1S91.l

Approaching Wigan by the Lancashire
and Yorkshire Railway, which COM
pletely gridirons those two important
shires of tremendous industries, the eye
rests on a fair and pleasant English land
scape The nearness Of the great manu-
featuring cities has crowded the pretty
farmsteadings 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
eplatches of color, from thatch, tile or
gable, hint of quiet village homes. To
the eye it is winsome and pastoral
picture. Soon the horizon line is pierced
with chimney stacks like mighty spears
Beside these as your train speeds along,
there shortly appear little punches of
houses clustering about higher grimy
clumps of buildings, and surmounting
these are huge wheels of steel. Seen
across pretty cOpSes, gentle hills or nest
ling homes and outbuildings, these seem
like mighty spider-webs against the gray
Ofthc 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 structure beneath them.
They are the great wheels above the mine
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 pit brow, each truck laden with
ats six to 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 and city streets. 1t
is beneath these mammoth wheels which
Lift the coal that warns half Of Britain.
and drives more than half her changing
machinery, that you will find nearly one
third OF all the pit-brOw lasses of England
at their toll.
Your first glimpse of the pit-women at
work IN their strange garb. with their
faces, arms and hands black as night
from the CRIME OF the coal dust, would
til you with feeling of revulsion and
dread of contact with such apparently
saturnlne creatures, and thrill of indig-
nation that women were enslaved by
such seemingly degrading work. Ac-
qualntance with the work and the pit
brow lasses themselves viii completely
change these first impressions.
There are five kinds of women's labor
at the mines. To make this clear to those
unused to mine provlncialisms, the five
ciassess may be called washers" "cob-
Iers," t" uppers, ''Screeners" and "fllers''
or Jewelers." The work of the former /
found to be at some mines to wash the
dirt from coal in a long chute 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 women
were singing heartily as they toiled
llnfx- l,,l4,
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. 1t
occurred 10 me there might be some con-
nectiOn between the running water and
the songs; and l found it to be true.
These were the only lasses who sang al
ways at their work. The purling of the
water through the shining coal effected
these prisoned humans just as a tinv
house fountain will bewitch continuous
melody from the throats of canaries and
mocklng birds IN your window or con-
servatOry. 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 col<e-burners.
At many mines all the fine coal and refuse
of the screens is transformed to coke on
their own premises. The women here.
from the nature of the work, are COM
PEELED to do considerable hard labor.
Armed with longhandled shovels they
scoop the small coal into arched doorways
OF the ovens with the same force and
throw 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
a N la Of
lump, which splits easily in pieces. Here
again the women are employed in SDlit-
ting 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 d-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 its subsequent
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 ''uppers" do the heaviest work ac-
Complished by women at the brows of
English mines. The shafts are sur
rounded with high metal platform,
usually covered rs protection TO ma
chinery 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, challIed on it by the weighman
below, shouted 10 the tally-man, who is
boxed ln little giaSS-inCased office 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 unset
them. Each truck when empty must
weigh 200 pounds. Its load OF coal will
run from GOO TO 500 pounds. 1t is geared
on diminutive wide-tired wheels. Int M
best is cumbersome bulk to handle.
ct two of these strong pit brow lasses
viii catch this truck as though it were a
baby-carriage and send it living to tho
tip" dump IL upon the screens by tho
aid of a lever, and hurl it back 10 tho
cage for return into the mine in a way
that would electrify even an American
woman's rights promoter.
The work of the ''screeners." while tho
most trying on account of the endless
cloud of coal-dust in which they are en-
velOped, requires less muscle than dex-
terity. A SCREEN a kind of riddle of iron
bars, working on the principle of an end
less chain, Is constantly carving the
coal, which has been dumped upon II
from the ''tipn above down along an in
cline into the coal-cars or wagons as
they are called here standing upon ele-
waited tracks beneath AS the coal passes
along, the dust and fine coal used for
coke-making falls into a chute beneath
which carries the Screenings to STORAGE
bins below. But here and there are clods
OF dirt, bits of rock, pieces of shale and
huge faulty Jumps OF coal. All the
Shaie, rock and dirt are picked from the
screens by hand, and the way they fly
from these pit-brow womenis nimbie
fingers Is a wonder.
A byStander is in danger of a broken