Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1903-01-07
LIFE OF A
1COAI- MINER.l

Rev. John Mcdowell, who was
once coal miner, gives the following
sketch of his life:
"I'm IL years old, goin' on 49,
said the boy to the boss of the
breaker. He didn't look more than
10, and be was only 8, but the law
said he must be IL to get job. He
was one of multitude of the 10000
Youngsters of the mines who, because
miners families are large and their
pay comparatively small, start in the
breaker before many boys have
passed their primary schooling.
From the time he enters the
breaker there is a rule of progress
that is almost always followed. Once
breaker'boy, the upward growth of
boy to man, breaker boy to miner,
the descent from manhood to old
age, from miner to breaker boy that
is the rule. SO the nine year. old
boy who is "12, goin' On 49," starts
in the breaker. He gets from so to
70 cents for 10 hours work. He
rises at $50 o'clock in the morning,
puts on his working clothes, always
soaked with dust, eats his breakfast,
and by 7 o'clock he has climbed the
dark and dusty stairway to the
screen room, where he works. He
sits on hard bench built across a
long chute, through which passes a
steady stream of broken coal. From
the coal he must pick the pieces of
slate or rock.
1t is not hard life, but it is con-
timing and irksome. Sitting on his
uncomfortable seat, bending con-
stantly 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 rule the breaker is fiercely
hot in summer aud intensely cold in
winter. In many of the modern
breakers, to be sure, steam heating
pipes have been introduced into the
screen rooms and fans have been
placed in some breakers to carry
away the dust. But, however favor
able the conditions, the boys life is
hard one. Yet it is a consistent
introduction to what is to follow.
The ambition of every breaker boy
is to enter the mines and at the first
opportunity he begins there as a
door boy-never over ID years of
age and often under. 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 his door. Not many of
these boys care to read, and if they
did it would be impossible in the
dim light of their small lamp.
Whittling and whistling are the
boys chief recreations. The door
boys wages vary from 65 to rs cents
day, and from this he provides his
own lamp, cotton and oil.
Just as the breaker boy wants to
be door boy, the door boy wants to
be driver. When the mules are
kept in the mines, as they usually
are, the driver boy must 60 dowr the
shaft in time TO clean and he. Jess
his mule, bring HIM to the foot of
the shaft and hitch him to trip of
empty cars before o'clock. This
trip of cars varies from four to seven,
according 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 breaker, where
the coal is cracked, sorted and
cleaned, and made ready for the
market. There are to-day 10000
drivers in the anthracite coal mines.
These boys are in constant danger,
not only of falling roof and explod-
ing gas, but of being crushed by the
cars. Their pay varies from $1.10
to S1.25, from which sum they sup.
ply their own lamps, cotton and oil.
When the driver reaches the age
of twenty he becomes either run.
ner or laborer in the mines, /. yre
frequently the latter. The runner js
the conductor who collects the loaded
cara and 6iracta tho driua, Thn L.