The age-herald., 1898-11-24
DEEP DOWN IN
 EARTH'S BOSOM
Where Some People Will Spend
 Thanksgiving.
WHAT MEN DO TO ESCAPE
Noteworthy Feats Accomplished by Convict Miners at Pratt City President Cunningham Reso-
 lution Agitating all Classes.

Over in Pratt City they will celebrate Thanksgiving, not by feast nor yet by turkey, but by work. For work is the final attainment in Pratt City. Not that the denizens there do not long, as do most men, for the day when they shall be as the lilies; but such ambitions are nebulous and weak because of their exceeding remote- ness of fulfllment. All they want is oppor- tunity to work-which means food and sub- sistence and the punishment of the wolf. And when your life has been spent digging deep down in the bowels of the earth all but the most material of ideas are lost to you.
 They have unusual amount of work just now and so will be duly thankful. Everyone from the superintendents to the water boys so expresses himself.
 "Observe Thanksgiving" said a grimy old male with the peculiar blink of his kind. "We don't know what Thanksgiving is-not so fur as holidays is concerned. We thank God we're alive and can get work" The coal supply is being used and shipped faster than it is dug. The Tennessee Coal and Iron Company, according to their of ic:als has only sufficient coke on hand to run them two days were work in the mines to cease.
 Pratt City is divided into two parts-"free miners" and convict miners. The former are as all good Americans, sturdy, toil.ng and industrious. Let every free miner and free man give thanks today that he is not one of the second class. For instance they Will work today when according to law, they should rest. A small thing but it goes to show that the law of might is about all the big holes with their sweating hun dreds know. There are men there who are as clever as the man you eat luncheon with every day-many gently born. For the line of demarkation between the caught cr.mi- nal and the uncaught vioator Is ofttimes a question of circumstance. But they must do their task and do it well and to the last jot and little or
 Suppose man comes there-say forger or burglar or a bankwrecker. He Is inspect ed by the boss miner purely as a physical being. He judges of his capacity for work. He is required to dig two three, four tons per diem, according to his apparent strength. Some day he falls by half ton or so. Excuses avail naught. Nothing is said to him; but in the morning, if he Is wise, he puts on an extra coat or whatever he can secure to protect his back. For when he goes to be assigned to work he gets what the unruly galley slaves of France once received.
  brought to bear the part of the convict toilers to sever. their relations with coa1 They make unusual efforts. along about Thanksgiving and Christmas times-per- haps the memories of happier days spur. Some remarkable escapes are recorded. Two men once climbed the steam pipe In No. 1, hand over hand. to the astonishing height of 39S feet and escaped. Another went up one and one-half inch steel rope for 360 feet and escaped. This far exceeds the professional rope-cimbing record and would be incredible were it not known and testified to by scores of ners But the usual method of escape is by means of digging. A miner has his task. He is fol- lowing a lead toward the surface and en- counters cave or a vein of very soft shale or earth through which he can readi- ly dig. He sezes his opportunity and digs to the surface. And here also many almost superuhman feats of digging are knowp to have occurred.
 President Cunnngham's bill, just intro- duced into the senate, has created great stir in Pratt City. He lives there and knows conditions He is influential and may succeed in having it passed. The free miners are greatly interested as 1t will ma terially affect their wages and cond tion. The corporations and their dependences are of course vitally concerned. His bill very wisely follows the Gladstonian theory mitigate and compromise where you can do nothing else. Its essential features are: 1. All persons convicted of felony shall be sentenced to hard labor for the state. 2. All persons sentenced for msdemean- ors shall be sentenced to hard labor for the county.
 B. No misdemeanor convict shall work in mines Of the felony convcts, not more than sixty per cent. shall be worked in mines after the first of November 1900, to December 31, of the same year; not more than 50 per cent from January i, 1901. to December 31. same year, and on and after January 1902, not more than 40 per cent. shall work in mines.
 f. It appropr ates 50 per cent. of the net earnings of the state to be distributed among the several counties-in proportion to the number of felony convicts-for the protection of the fine and forfeiture fund.
 bitter struggle is inevitable. The out come Is uncertain, but this Thanksgiving morning many a convict miners heart would be atuned to the highest chord of praise and thanks could he but hope that the release it embodes for him were even remotely possible. ALFRED GRUBB. Holiday Goods
 We cordially invite the attention of our