The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1903-01-04

waste Is evidently more than the coal
itself.
Near every mound you see the huge
buildings of the coal workers
They are not unlike those OF the United
States, but the scenes abou. them are diff
ferent.
In the United States the work is done al
together by men.
Here most of the labor above the surface
is performed by women.
And such women!
Lusty young girls Of from 16 to 20.
Pretty girls, rosy-cheeked, round-armed
and plump. with faces smut;y with coal
dust. but at the same time comeiy.
GIRLS BEAUTY ACCUMULATED
BY COAL DUST.
Their eyes are bright and their beauty
is accentuated by the coal dust on their
faces. through which the red flames show
forth like that of the dark moss rose.
They are very tiger lilies set in a back
ground of black diamonds.
Come with me and let us visit one of tie
mines.
We enter the great works, where the
mighty shaft is jerking up and down, rails
ing the coal to the surface.
At the mouth of the opening stand a half
dozen of the Belgian girls, their heads done
up In blue and white handkerchief turbans,
their sleeves rolled up high above the ell
BOWS and their shapely ankles plainly
showing between the ends of their skirts
and their white wooden clogs,
See them grasp that car as the engine
stops and shove 1t over the rails to where
it is to be dumped for. the %sorters.
As they do so another gang Of girls takes
their places TO handle the next car, ard
other shoot the empties back to the other
side of the shaft.
There is no fooling about this. d
The women work like bees. and with the
strength of horses.
They do more tina the men. and they
are. / am told, more conscientious in their
work.
Leave the shaft and come with me to .he
sorters.
The coal rolls down a chute into the
cars.
Women stand at the side of the chute and
help il onward with hoes.
Girls of IA to 20 sit further down, picking
the refuse and slate out of the coal with
their hands.
Still further on are more turbaned. bare
armed maidens. sooty and dirty. working
away as fast as their fingers can move.
and in the railroad car itself. into winch
the coal uIOpS, tItIc III OlHtI "oihc Hc'
ing the coal this way and that. sorting
the waste.
All the work is done by the piece, and
the girls are paid in proportion TO the
amount they perform.
1 asked as to the wages. and was told
| that the best workers can pick abou. a
basket and a half every hour. thus earning
| as much as 80 cents In their day of twelve
hours.
And still the women miners of Belgium
| are far better off to-day than they have
| ever been in the past.
Their condition has been VIGOROUSLY lad.
CHILDREN HARNESSED TO
CARTS AND COAL CARS.
Fer a long time little children were en-
ployed in the mines.
! They were harnessed to carts and coal
| cars with straps and chains, SO that they
crawled along on their hands and knees.
| Dragging the coal to the mouth of the
shaft.
Now women under q are prohibited by
law from working underground, and hence
those whom you see on the surface are
young girls.
| They could get better wages down below.
and many of them will leave the surface
work and go into the mines as soon as they
are old enough.
As a result, the surface girls are not bent
| and broken, and those I saw were as we'll
developed physically as the pr:c gol. girls
of the United States.
! And still they were toiIing like SD many
| horses, pushing the cars this way and
| that.
Some were lifting great Jumps o: coal
| weighing from fifteen TO twenty pounds
| each.
Others were doing all sorts OF work. which
in America would be done by rden.
In one place a ditch was being u and
| lined with brick and cement.
A girl OF Is was mixing the mortar wild