The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-10-19
THE LIFE OF A COAL MINER.
How He Begins and Ends His Caye'
as d Breaker "Boy." d.

How He Begins and Ends His Cayfeer
as d Breaker "Boy." ~
Rev. John Mcdowell. who was once a
coal miner gives the following s,xetch OF
miners life in The Worlds WORK for
October:
'Tm IL years old, goin' o. IL said
the boy to the boss of thel pieaker' ne
didn't look more than 10 ana ne was only
3 but the law said he mus, DC y 10 ger
job. He was one of a nuiutuue Oh the
1900 youngsters Of the ni , VINO, pc
cause miners families au u i' re- ana 'n .ho
pay comparatively sHnali; start in the
primary schooling FROM the time ne ne
enters the breaker Is sd lae Vi
progress that Is a 80 S ,Iao w.,
49, .,nx,,ara .ro 18th of boy to man, break
= 49, - .SaT, the descent from man.
800 :. Ia asge, from miner to breaker
Nv. mai !. the rule. So the 9-year-old
~, rsho ~ ~. goin' on 49, starts in
shs hreaksf. He gets from 50 to 20 cents
80 - ssiours' work. He rises at $50
-,,c,,.r II the morning puts on his work
~ c,ot hes. always soaked with dust, eats
NJ h,eakfast, and by o'clock he has
~s,,., ed the dark and dusty stairway to
a. s5creenroom, where he works He sits
- "a hard bench built across a long chute
Tough which passes steady stream of
Token coal. From the coal he must pick
ne pieces of slate or rock.
q It is not hard life, but 1t is combining
gand irksome. Sitting on his uncomfort-
able seat bending constantly over the
passing stream of coal. his hands soon
become cut and SCARED by the sharp
pieces of slate and coal, while his finger
nails are soon worn to the quick from
contact with the iron chute. The air he
breathes is saturated with coal dust
and as a rule the breaker Is fiercely hot
in summer and intensely cold in winter.
In many of the modern breakers. to be
sure. steam heating pipes have been in
troduced into the screenrooms. and fans
have been placed In some breakers to car
ry away. the dust But however favor
able the conditions. the boys life is a hard
one Yet 1t is a consistent introduction
to what is to follow.
The ambition Of every breaker boy is
to enter the mines, and at the first OPP
{ portunity he begins there as door boy
never over II years of age. and often I'M
der. The work of the door-boy is not so
laborious as that in the breaker, but is
more mOnotonous. He must be on hand
when the first trip of cars enters in the
morning, and remain until the last comes
out at night. His duty is to open and
shut the door as men and cars pass
through the door, which controls and
regulates the ventilation Of the mine. He
is alone in the darkness and silence all
day, save when other men and boys pass
through the door. Not many of these boys
care to read and IL they did it wuold be
impossible In the dim light of their small
lamp. whiting and whistling are the
boys chief recreations. The door-boy' 8
wages vary from 65 to Is cents day.
and from this he provides his own lamp,
cotton and oil.
Just as the breaker-boy wants to be a
door-boy. the door-boy wants to be a
driver. When the mules are kept in the
mires, as they usually are, the driver-boy
must 60 down the shaft In time to clean
and harness his mule, bring him to the
foot of the shaft and hitch him to a trip
OF empty care before o'clock. This trip
Of cars varies from four to seven. accord
ing to the number of miners. The driver
takes the empty cars to the working
places and returns them loaded to the
foot OF the shaft They are then hoisted
to the surface and conveyed to the break
err, where the coal Is cracked, sorted and
cleaned and made ready for the market
There are today 10000 drivers in the an
fhracite coal mines. These boys are in
constant danger. not only of falling roof
and exploding gas, but of being crushed
by the cars Their pay varies from $1.10
their own lamps. cotton and oil.
h when the driver reaches the age of 20
he becomes either a runner or laborer
in the mines more frequently the latter.
The runner is a conductor who collects
the loaded cars and directs the driver.
The laberer is employed by the miner,
subject to the approval of the Superin-
fendept, to load the cars with the coal
which has been blasted by the miner AS
rule he is paid so much per car. and
q definite number Of cars constitute a
days work-the number varying IN Differ
emit Understanding from FIVE to seven,
eoualing from twelve to fifteen tons of
coal. The laborers work is often made
difflcult by the water and rock which are
found in large quantities in coal veins.
There are 24000 laborers in the anthra-
cite mine sof Pennsylvania, each one of
whom is looking forward to becoming
miner in the technical sense of the word
that lis, the employer of a lahorer. To
do this a laborer must have had two
years experience In practical mining and
be able to pass an examination before
the District Board. If he passes he be-
comes a contractor as well as a laborer.
re enters into a contract with the com