Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1898-03-28
LIES PASSING SHOW.
LEADING FIGURES OF THE CENTRE
STREET PROMENADE.
On Days When the Coilieries Are Idle
Freeland's Principal Street Can Show
Varied Stages of the Miners Life-The
Hopes, Fears. Doubts and Despair.

Centre street, every pleasant after
noon, takes on the appearance of
promenade avenue in large city. The
number Of people who pass their time
on this thoroushfare gives the town an
active and business-like air, an aspect,
however, which is not warranted by the
facts. The promenaders are the idle
men of town and the surrounding vii
lagos, who find Centre street the most
pleasant place to spend their enforced
leisure. These toilers are not idling of
their own free will, and every man of
them would prefer to be at work, but
such is life in this particular section of
the world that they must cease their
labors when commanded, regardless of
any desire they may have to earn more.
the output of coal, must be carried out,
and it matters not to the coal barons
whether the miners larder be full or
empty.
The Centre street promenade gives
to the student of life countless opportu-
mites to study his subject from many
points of view. In the groups which
move up and down the street, or bask in
the sun alongside some large business
block, the story Of the miners life can
be read with ease bya who pause and
look beneath the exterior for those
secrets which man could safely lock in
his breast were it not that the counten-
ance reflects his every hope and fear.
Take the older men one by one as
they pass along-behind the forced
cheerfulness, which is assumed for many
reasons, there is feeling of utter hope
lessness that their condition will never be
any better. The truth of ''hope deferred
maketh tho heart sick" has long ago
been learned by them. For years they
hoped and hoped; by organization, legis-
lation and agitation they tried to i'm
prove the condition of themselves and
fellow-workers, only to see their rosiest
dreams come to naught; again they
hoped that operators might take com
passion on mineworkers and give them
an opportunity to earn a living, again
they were disappointed.
Now, at the age when he should be
preparing to retire from active labors
and spend his declining years in ease,
the old miner finds that to save himself
and aged wife from becoming public
charge he must exc out an existence on
the breaker. His disappointment in life
is Visihlp tn tho paStta1 nhsarvar nf
the passing show, as the old man moves
along with harmless joke or a witty
answer thrown to his friends, but the
careworn lines on his face tell their own
story.
Next come the midde-aged workers,
the great mass in which is contained the
actual miners of this vicinity, those who
have come to that stage in life when
their future course should have been
fully outlined and the sphere in life
which they should ill ought to be known.
They speak encouragngly of the days
to come, they have theories of how to
right the wrongs of their class and make
the coal fields blossom us in days of yore,
and the topics of the day are discussed
with their comrades with a degree of
intelligence that few would expect from
coal miners.
But what uneXpressed uncertainties
and doubts fill their breasts? viii their
predictions, and plans for higher ideals,
come true, or will they in turn fall VIC
tins to present conditions and take the
places of their tottering fathers, become
crippled or physical wrecks and meet
old age with poverty staring them in
the face? Their inability to truthfully
pierce the gloom OF the future causes
many spectre of want and misery to
loom up as probability, If not already
fact, Notwithstanding that outwardly
they profess to regard the existing state
of affairs merely as temporary nconve-
nience. From his loved ones he hides
his secret fears as best he can, but ma
ture, true to itself, places the imprint of
his perplexity in position which re-
quires him to wear a mask of cheerful
ness. individuals of this class may be
found grave or gay, according as the
promise of the future appears dark or
bright.
Then the young men, the bright spots
of the community, pass in review.
Their amusements and pleasures for the
present cost them more thought than
future troubles. Buoyed up by the knowl-
edge that they possess strong arms and
good constitutions and that the country
is broad and long, they give but min
imum heed to what may come tomorrow
They, with all the others mentioned,
would rather labor than be idle, but
unless widowed mother or some such
dependent has thrown the cares of life
upon his shoulders before his years the
young man of the mines believes himself
independent and able to escape becom-
ing enslaved to the operators.
Among the Centre street promenaders