Griggs courier. (Cooperstown, Griggs Co., Dak. [N.D.]) 1885-1902, 1899-03-09
Down in a Coal Mine Under,
meath the Ground.

Down in q Coal Mine Under.
meath the Ground.
When sitting by your glowing coal
stove, while the blizzard raves out
side, did you ever stop to think of the
work, sweat and danger encountered
in making such comfort possible?
When the political orator, for ends
of his own, endeavors to convince you
that the country is going to the dem
milton. bow-wows he generally gets in a
few touching remarks about 'sthe good
old days" Now it is our individual
opinion that in the good old days.
comforts and Injuries were few and
far between. That what they did have
they obtained themselves by the sweat
of their brow. That SO much of their
life and efforts went into obtaining
their Injuries that they fully appreci-
ated and made much of them. That
in this day and generation however,
we take such things for granted and
as a matter of course, giving little
thought as to how they were obtained
and often caring less.
The farmers of this portion of
Kansas have good many things to
be thankful for. They have a good
climate, rich soil, generally plenty of
water, proximity to as good markets
as the country affords and plenty of
fuel at at their door yards. At a
depth varying from so to 100 feet un-
der the ground. runs broad belt of
soft coal, which, while not as good as
that we get from Ohio, yet is of a
good heating and steaming quality.
How it is mined we will endeavor to
give you some idea, and if we impress
the discomfOrts and hardships of a
miners life as wildly on your mind
as thev are on ours, then after read
ing this you will hereafter put your
feet in the oven or on the fender with
thanks to the good Lord that you are
not such as they.
The mines here are of two kinds:
One where the coal is hoisted out of
vertical shaft, and those where the
shaft is on an incline. It was one of
the latter that we explored. The pro-
prietor told us that the windows were
not very good in his house, so we took
a lantern and started down the drift
which was on an incline of about 30
degrees, feet wide and for about so
feet, high enough to walk upright in.
Then the roof suddenly lowered SO
that we had to walk in an exceedingly
meek and lowly attitude. It was
further rendered interesting by the
fact that the footing was in places
muddy and in others dry. Arriving
at the foot of the slope we again
found the drift high enough so that
we could again elongate our spinal
column. Here the cable line ended,
the motive power for the rest of the
way being furnished by a diminutive
donkey, whom we found snugly en-.
sconced in stable 3x4 feet, cut out of
the sand stone. Following the main
track we came to the end of the dom
key line where the drift was only 3
feet high and whether or no we had to
take to our hands and knees for further
progress. One-half mile from day.
light, dark as Egypt, silent as the
grave, a smell indiscribable, with
sharp places in the roof that OCCASION
ally took off pieces of our scalp, our
journey wasn't as pleasant as it might
be, but like every thing else it had an
end, and brought us to where work
was going on.
The vein of coal is from Is to 30
inches thick, and lies between two layer
of sandstone. The first thing to be
done in getting out the coalisto turn q
drift. A ''drift'' is about feet wide,
as high on the sioes rs the coal is
and running up to about 3 feet in the
center. Along this runs the car line,
and all coal has to be brought to it to
be loaded. The coal is taken out
about 20 feet each side of the drift.
These are called chambers and are
just as high as the vein is deep, and
as 18 inches doesn't give man much
standing room the miner laws down
on his side, rests his head on nothing
and with light pick begins picking
out the sandstone under the coal. He
takes out an inch or so of it, back Is
inches and in strip 10 feet long,
throwing the dirt back of him when
there is enough to bother. Generally
he breaks the coal down in two layers.
TO do this he picks small holes half
way up the vein puts in wedges and
then crawls or bitches back and forth
drawing them in little further each
time, until it falls. If he is working
next the drift it isn't quite so bad load
ing his coal, but if he is 20 feet away
then he must push his chunks weigh
ing often $50 pounds and his broken