New-York tribune., 1902-12-10
WEEP At MINER'S STORY
Tells Of Dead Wife, Dying Mother
m-La7c, Injuries and Debt.
MORE WITNESSES AGAINST MARkLE.
TBY TELEGRAPH TO THE rRIBUSE.l

/ this afternoon finished with their witnesses
against G. B. Markle & 'Co. before the Strlke
| Commission, and marked their evidence with the
| most pathetic story yet told to the commission
ers, several OF whom had tears in their eyes
while Assistant Recorder Moseley wept openly.
The crowd of miners in the audience shifted and
shuffled their feet, and many hard, coal
marked hand wiped tears from cheeks as roush
and furrowed.
The story was told by Henry Coll, one of the
evicted miners who came fresh from the grave
of his wife and went back to the deathbed OF
| his mother-in-law. When he ended Judge Gray
who had been unabl to sit through all the re-
cital, said:
That's ALL and that's enough
Coll is an old miner, who has worked nineteen
years for the Markles. He told his story simply
and directly. His family was composed Oh MS
wife, her mother who is over hundred years
old two adopted children and one son, and they
lived in a rough four roomed house. he was
asked if he had ever been hurt in the mines.
Hurried il is" he said. It's well hurried L
was There is not sound bone in me body
Me skull was fractured, nineteen stitches was
took in me head. all my ribs was stove in' this
arm is crooked and all the fingers of me hands
was broken, and this leg is not as good as a
wooden one. Sure the only sound bone Is me
neck and that hurted once L lost an eye
in the mine and wear glass one. but can t
see through it..
For these injuries. he said the company gave
him nothing but once his comrades raised slI {
for him and Superintendent Smith gave him $50
for his injured leg. The company TOOK the
money and kept it to take out his rent. coal
and store bill he said, and they did this during
all the time he was hurt. There was 81 coming
to him when he recovered. He told OF the eVlc-
ton and said that the only reason he knew for
it was that he had served on relief committee
during the strike. He had never quarrelled
with Mr. Markle and had always been good
miner.
II thought it more of warning than
anything else when the notice come to me- he
said but eight days after the Sheriff come and
said l must get right out l begged him to let
me stay until morning. My woman was sick.
and the old mother of hers helpless. He
wouldn't give me no time. and my things was
put out. 1t was wet and bad weather. and we
had to go to Hazleton, ten miles, before We
could get a house. Then could not get
things in shape. The woman. she had throat
trouble and 1t got worse, she catching more
cold We had TO sleep that night without
fire. and next morning all sick.
The woman, she got worse and then 1 got
doctor I hadn't any money, so 1 hired him by
the month. He give her some medicine for her
throat She didn't improve. Last Friday night
before 1 could get the medicine to her she was
dead
You say she died?" asked Judge gray. much
affected.
Yes. sir. I-I-I-I buried her yesterday"
said Coll with a sigh
The mother is now pretty bad" he went on
to explain. She was took down hard when the
woman died and on Sunday night the last rites
was said for her. She's dying now"
There was no cross examination. The COM
missioners the lawyers and the spectators shook
themselves free from their emotions. there were
whispered expressions of sympathy. and the next
witness called.
Coll had early in his testimony explained
how he came TO adopt one OF the two children
We was after burying the mother. and
coming back from the funeral. when the father
died" he said. The baby didn't have no one
to care for her. so we took her"
hardly less distressful story was told by
Mrs. Kate Burns who. with the aid of her two
sons, has labored for thirteen years to pay off
q debt of 1896 owed to the company by her hus-
band when he was killed She never got any
thing for his death The Markles she declared
did not even contribute the usual $50 for the
funeral expenses, because the mine workers
had quit work when he killed. The workers,
however, raised money enough to pay them.
She moved from her four roomed house to a two
roomed one, for which the company made her
pay So % a month. She did any sort OF work
she could get. scrubbed and cleaned the COM
pany's office took in washing. and six years af-
ter her husbands death was able 70 put her
oldest boy TO work, and later her other boy
All three have worked ever since for rent and
coal and TO pay the debt, and last August they
managed to clear il. Until that time they got
pay from the COMPANY
Mike Baker, an eighteen -year-old breaker
boy, said that in the Jeddo breaker the boss had
often beaten, kicked and dubbed him. and that
when he returned to work after the strike. he
got, instead of the 50 cents a day received be-
fore il, 40 cents for the same work
P. D. Gallagher, who before the strike was
working as company miner for 81 q day
with all supplies given. told how. when the
strike ended, the company refused to allow
himself and others who had done similar work
to be company hands They had to take it on
contract and make only about % to 90 cents
a day. They were compelled, he said, to pay
35 cents a gallon for oil at the company store
when they could get 1t for IS cents gallon in
cost them 80 cents and elsewhere Is cents
But" he explained, I'VE wouldn't dare buy 1t
elsewhere"
James P Gallagher national board MEM
ber said that in the old days when docking
a great cause of complaint. II agreed, to
do away with it entirely by making each ton
of coal occupy forty-eight cubic feet instead of
forty cubic feet. which is the actual measure
ment, the eight feet extra being supposed TO
cover waste and slate This not only still pre-
vailed he asserted, but about twenty cubic
feet extra had been added to each car. and
there was docking well, sometimes amount
ing to as much as one-fourth of all that was
mined.
To get the 10 per cent increase granted in
1900 through the powder price adjustment, a
miner had to blow down twelve cars of coal
with one keg of powder, which was impossible
except in a few cases, in some places it being
possible to get only four cars.
Several of the Markle men who had been
evcted testified to that fact, and number of
Pennsylvania Coal Company and Delaware and
Hudson Company strikers TO whom positions