The Hazel Green herald. [volume] (Hazel Green, Wolfe County, Ky.) 1885-19??, 1892-01-29
WOMEN TRAIN = JUMPERS.
Thoy Rob Coal Trains in Transit Along
the schuylkill valley.


Thoy Rob Coal Trains in Transit Along
the schuylkiii valley.
Mrs. Marie Santow is one OF the most
expert train-jumpers in the United
States. With the ease and dexterity OF
a veteran railroader Mrs Santow takes
a flying 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 train
and goes on her way rejoicing
Mrs. Santow is a buxom, cookbook
ing. black haired and black-eyed wom-
an, and thirty-fve years old, says n
Reading special. 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 this city are
some thirteen women coal-pickers who
nightly jump on and off moving coal
trains and think nothing of it. Mrs.
Santow Is "the queen of the gang"
and Is regarded as the most venture
some
II is a common custom for the women
TO go 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 out
skirts of the city. Three or four women
Jump on a loaded coal train at night and
scatter along the middle cars away from
the sight of the brakemen and conduc-
tor. In the space of three miles they
succeed in pushing off lot of coal from
the tops of the well-loadcd cars. Those
loaded with egg, furnace or steamboat
coal are not molcsted. The nut coal is
the most sought after. After the women
have gone down far enough, if not de-
tected they jump off the train, no mat
ter how fast il is moving; but they gen
orally take their time in selecting the
best place To make 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 rapidly, but the women, no
matter how dark the night, run swiftly
along with the train and jump on them
as gracefully and successfully 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 At
a l., i InF -,
bottoms by careless dumping at the
great piers at tIdcwatrr, and this
coal is n bonanza To the women.
who scoop it up into bags, com
plctely filling them by the time the
train reaches the outskirts of the city.
These filed 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 quite Il
lot of coal, which is deposited in the
back yard of the shanties they occupy.
Their husbands work in the neighbor-
ing mills, and are never known to buy
more than ton Of coal for winter use.
They buy this coal in order to have
receipted bill To show in case they are
arrested. The girls gather up the coal
in pans and old scrttlcs along the rail
road. They are frequently chased by
the railroad police, but are rarely
arrested 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 it. Occa-
sionally one is killed through her own
carelessness, but such an accident has
not happened recently. Some of the
more successful coal-picllers have
enough coal to spare to sell to their
neighbors
One of the railroad police says: ~
have tried number OF times to catch
one of these women train-iumpers.
They often have a small rake, and they
reach up on the end of the car and rake
down the coal, letting it fall to the
tracks The noise of the falling coal is
drowned in the clatter of the ears. II
il almost impossible To see these wom-
en- when they sit crouched on the
bumpers between the cars. They are
alert, and IL an officer appears they leap
from flying train and disappear un-
hurt in the woods. IN. Y. sun.