The morning times., 1895-08-03
-STARNE AND BE DAMNED"
Reply of II Superintendent to Poverty
Stricken Miners.

Stricken Miners.
General Master Workman Sovereign, OF
The Knights Of Labor, writes to the K OF L.
Journal from the Illinois coal regions, as
follows:
opened a rickety gate before miners
house, Two blocks from the relief store
rs your father at home?" 1 asked OF a
little girl who opened the door
mo, sir; he is sixteen miles in the coun-
try digging out stumps on farm with
three other miners lie gets 90 cents per
day, and we expect to'1ire on that without
help from the relief committee; but, sir,
" VIII be very hard 10 DO so''
At the next house l found a woman
weeping over her sick children, who had
become very i'll from eating half natured
potatoes without salt.
My husband is looking for work
God only knows what is to become OF US
poor miners" was all she would say
Can you show me- twenty destitute
families in this neighborhood?" 1 asked
of a passing weshmau, as l returned to
the street
Yes, the first twenty you come to-" he
said, and passed on, as l asked another
II he knew anyone in need.
''All OF US he SAID: and q third volun-
teered To escort me to nine starving fami-
lies II distance of less than two blocks
from where we were at The time. / went
with HIM, and the scenes that met my
eyes were more horrible than my feeble
pen can describe In one house found
two families OF colored people Five lit
tie cOlored children huddled in a corner
of the room, as if TO hide their nakedneSs $,
when | entered, and a woman sat in a
rickety chair nursing a babe one year
old. thought OF "A Life for a Life be-
cause The babe was nursing from the breast
OF starving mother.
Did you go to the relief store this morn
ing?' | said to the woman with the babe,
as | scanned the shabby home
No" said She; II sent the boy, but he got
nothing 1t was all gone"
Then her grief was more than she could
bear, and, with tears streaming down her
face, she prayed God TO send her back into
chattel slavery
"Oh," said she, when was a slave
inthe Soutn never had TO beg for something
TO eat never suffered from hunger, and
no one ever saw me half naked, as you see
me now l wish to God l Were back in slav-
cry again.
Further conversation revealed the fact
that the Chicago, Wellington & Vermillion
Coal Company, through its hired agents,
had gone TO Virginia and lied to the colored
| ment, good wages and agreeable homes
fthey would come to BraidwoOd, and when
| they got them there used them to force a
reduction of wages and infIict both the white
| and colored miners with the conditions of
| starvation.
Having heard the walls of hunger as long
| as my patience could endure, my mind
naturally drifted into the consideration of
| a remedy With a few friends / visited
| the office of the coal company, and there
| attempted TO convince the superintendent
| that the miners did not deserve to be locked
out because they protested against fur
| ther reduction OF ten per cent in wagcs at a
! time when they We're receiving an averagqe
! of only Xty-Seven cents day, as shown by
| the statistics of Illinois | begged him, in
| the name of starving women and children,
| TO submit the matter to arbitration His
brow wrnkled and his fist Clinched as he
angrily replied, Starve and be Ganned!