Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1895-08-14
MINERS OF DURHAM.
How the English Pitmen's Wives and
 Daughters Fare and Dress.


 The belief that women and girls
 work at the pithead in all coal get
 ting countries is generally prevalent
 in the south. The women of Dur ham would scorn such a suggestion. They arc quite as comfortable and we'll fed as the wives of well to do shopkeepers of the third and fourth rank, and unless in the time of a strike never feel the pinch of cold and hunger-too common in the fam lilies of agricultural laborers. They are distinct class, these Durham miners wives, with characteristics of their own. As O rule, they are plain featured, and their figures are such as NJ. Mars" could not even conceive, seeing that he gives an English nursemaid the waist of Parisian. Healthy, round faced, with tousy hair and much fringe, the pitman's lass is generally ready with her tongue. This indeed would seem to have been acquired by OCT tain selective process, for looks go nowhere with the average pitman. A positively ugly, bouncing girl with ready repartee will have a score of admirers, while the uncommonly pretty girl, especially if her beauty tends toward refinement, is left in the cold.
 An extreme love of brilliant col ors prevails with all ages. Puce, striking blue and magenta are the chief favorites, and Sundays the more adventurous spirits love to come out in @ turndown collar of | coarse lace and a string of huge imi- tation pearls, surmounted by hat | like flower garden. Good nature, as a rule, prevails. Lavish plenty | and general kindliness seem to be the rule in their homes. This does | not fit the girls for the discipline of l service.
 "Now ye can gang and troy ut, and if ye doesna like ut ye can ooom back in a week, is the general rec ommendation with which a girl is launched into domestic servantdom. In their homes the fire is always roaring up the chimney day and | night for the pitman gets his coals supplied free. The girls are thus generally ignorant of the most rudi- mentary principles of fire laying. They are exceedingly kind to chil- dren, but in other respects their training is an onerous task.
 When they come to be wives in their turn, and they marry very young, they seem to pick up the principles of cooking by instinct Go into any pitman's house about half past 4, the time the men gener- ally have their dinner, and you will meet a savory smell Meat always and plenty of it and great loaves of home baked bread, with jam for the children. Yet for all this a rosy face is the exception. The women look healthy enough, but have no color in their cheeks. They age rapidly, though of course there are excep- tions. 1 myself know blooming woman, who does not look Q day over 30, who is the mother of 14 all living at home. and when the eldest daughter married, and her husband died within the year, leaving her with one small baby, the grandmother opened her heart yet wider and said, "Let 'em coom and live wi us; there's plenty for all.
 The girls sometimes take in dress at home. They like this, as they are more independent than as servants and can keep what hours they like. They are frank and free spoken, not Intentionally rude, but themselves the equals of any lady on earth.-London Queen.