The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-12-10
Stories of Cruelty That Rend
the Heart.
MARKLE'S WHITE SLAVES
They Testify Many Cruelties- With Bitter Scbs
an Old Miner Tells How His Sick
Wife Was Thrust Forth
to Die.
(By the Associated Press.)

Scranton, Pa, Dec 9.-Tales of evic-
tions from houses owned by G.. B..
Markle, the narration of the death of a
wife as the result of an enorced removal
rom her home. and the story of another
whose husband was killed in the Markle
mines, Of how she and her two boys
struggled years to pay the Markle's the
back rent and coal bill she owed them,
were the principal features of today s
sessions of the Coal Strike Commission.
The testimony as presented by some of
the witnesses whose lives are given up
to the coal mining industry, was at times
pathetic and surprising to the commits
sioners, who listened to it with un-
divided attention.
After closing the Markle case, the
representatives of the miners called wit
nesses who had formerly been employed
in the mines of several companies to
show that a blacklist exists, and that
some of the companies had broken the
agreement which ended the strike and
resulted in the appointment of the arbi-
tration commission. 1t is the intention
of the lawyers for the miners to take up
tomorrow the conditions at the collieries
of the Lehigh Valley Company, and
others in the Hazelton region.
Henry McColl, a Markle miner, told
how his family, Including his mother-in-
law, who was a hundred years old. was
set out on the road with their house,
hold goods. He gave graphic descrip-
tion of how he was<injured many times
in the mines. The company gave him
nothing until as~6l the employees took up
a collection for him, then he was given
$50 after being on the injured list for
two years. The company took out of the
collection the rent he owed.
In answer to other questions he said
that he was one of the thirteen evicted
! by the Marklc Company. Then followed
the most pathetic story yet told the com
mission. The old miner. decrepit from
many injuries, told, under the eXamina-
ton, of how the eviction was carried
on. The wife was sick and her one
hundred -year-o mother was blind and
unable to walk. The day on which they
were thrown out" was rainy. He took
them as best he could to Hazclton, seven
miles away and placed them in a cold,
damp, empty house.
1--WE were greatly worried, because of
our having been turned out of our house,
and one night" the witness said, be-
tween sobs. "she died"
"She died?" exclaimed Judge Gray,
who was pacing to and fro across the
room, as he quickly turned when he
heard the mans last words.
"Yes, sir, she died and l buried her
yesterday"
No one cared to cross examine him,
l.. oil
Coll, and that's enough"
Mrs. Kate Burns of Jeddo, told a story
of how she and her two boys worked
thirteen years to pay off an accumu-
lated house rent and coal bill due to the
Markle Company, the narration Of which
deeply interested tho commissioners.
She was examined by Lawyer Darrow,
and in answer to his questions she said
her husband was an engineer inside the
Markle mines. The husband was killed
underground, leaving her with four chill
drcn, the eldest Of which was a boy of
eight years. The company never offered
her a penny, but the employees gave her
about $3.50 to defray the funeral ex-
penses. After her husband had been
killed, she moved from her four-room
house into one containing only two one
room above the other, and for the next
six years she struggled as best she could
to get along She took in washing,
scrubbed for the neighbors, and, once in
while she was given work cleaning the
offices OF the Markle Company. When
the eldest child was fourteen years old,
she sent him to the mines. At the end
of the first month, the lad brought home
his wage statement, showing that the
mother owed 1896 for back rent. The
boys wages for the month had been
taken off the bill and he came home
empty-handed In the course of time
her next boy was old enough to earn q
living and he, too, was sent to the col
liery. Like the older brother, the sec
ond boy received no pay, his earnings
being deducted for rent. The mother,
On the witness stand. was by this time
swelling up. and when she added that
the money she earned for cleaning the
Markle office never was given her, but
kept by the company for rent, the com
missioners looked at one another in sur
prise She said it took the three of them
thirteen years to make UP the debt.
A New Coal Company.