The daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Ind. Ter. [Okla.]) 1898-1902, 1899-05-17
M A SULPHUR NINE.
Terrible Hardships OF the Boys Employed
Therein. sa

Terrible Hardships OF the Boys Empioyeo
Therein.
"There are but few who admire
the collection of beautiful sulphur
crystals in the National museum"
remarked the gentleman who col
lected them from the famed sulphur
mines in Sicily to a Washington
Star reporter, who have any idea
in relation to the same except their
beauty. I don't think" he said,
"there is another spot on earth
where such abominable treatment,
such fiendish cruelty, is inflicted on
the laborer as in the sulphur mines
of Sicily. They are paid barely
enough to provide themselves with
scant supply of the coarsest,
cheapest food, and good portion OF
the time they are in state OF
chronic starvation. When was
last there, many of the mines were
closed, and sSicilian paper stated
that $4,000 people were starving at
4 the mines. The work is of the hard
est and most axhausting character.
FL Very few of the mines have hosting
apparatus, and the sulphur ore (sul-
phur and limestone combined) is
brought up from the depths below
on the backs of men and boys.
Long, sloping, narrow tunnels lead
from the surface down to the sui
phur beds 200 to 800 feet or more
below. Miners dig the stuff out,
and it is carried up in stout sacks or
fiat baskets. Many of the laborers,
especially the boys, work naked.
I On their backs they wear piece OF
mating, or something of the sort,
held by a string around the neck.
This is to protect the flesh from be-
ing torn from their bodies by the
Jagged corners of the ore they carry.
No one can imagine more heart
rending sight than to see the wretch
ed creatures rolling up the long,
steep slopes in the mine with their
enormous loads. Every step they
take wrings groan from their tor
tured frames. Most pitiful to me
was the sight of the poor, bent,
broken and emaciated old men, mere
battered wrecks, and the young lads
of 10 and 12 years who have just
begun this life of cruel toll.
staggering along under loads
full as heavy as a strong man
ought to carry, the dreadful process
, sion winds upward through the mar
row drifts and tunnels to the sur
face, where the ore is piled up in
rectangular heaps and paid for by
, the cubic meter.
"As evidence of the awful severity
of the labor is the fact that a very
large percentage of these lads are sc
badly crippled by the time they
reach the age for military service
. that the conscript officers are forced
, TO reject them, and assure you
, that the Italian government Is moi
overcritical as to the physical con
dition of the men she sends by the
shipload to Massana to be butch
t cred by the Abyssinians. When the
f miserable creatures leave the in
, ferno underground and reach the
surface, they find themselves in
veritable corner of hades. The sui
: phur is extracted at the mine by
: roasting it in immense heaps slight
b ly covered with earth, not unlike II
I form to a charcoal pit. The air Ii
SO filled with sulphurous vapors ant
dust as to almost suffocate one. No
green thing is in sight, for the
+ poisonous vapors kill all vegetation
n The fierce sun beats down upon ont
q in those verdureless valleys witt
great fury. On every side there arr
the hot rocks, acres of impalpable
sitting dust, and the yapors from
y the calcining can only be compared
a to blasts from the internal region.
d THE ENGLISH BARNARD.