Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-01-03
BELGIAN COAL MINES
Large Part of the Work is
Done by Women.
ARE POORLY PAID
WHAT THE GOVERNMENT IS
DOING FOR THE PEOPLE.
A Land Of Factories and Saloons
The Bee Hive Of
Europe.
ARE POORLY PAID
Copyright, 1902, by Frank G. Carpenter.)

Copyright, 1902, by Frank u. Carpenter.)
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
Washes, Belgium.
I am in the heart Of one Of the richest
coal mining regions of Europe. Belgium Is
only about one-third the size of Indiana,
but 1t has deposits of coal and iron which
make it hum like bee hive. 1t is the bus
lest workshop upon the continent, and 1t
supports about as many people to the
square mile as any country Of the world.
Its annual product of coal amounts to
22,OO0,O00 tons. It uses the greater part of
this at home, and also imports fuef from
Germany and England. AT present the peo-
pie are looking to the United States as a
possible source of manufacturing fuel, and
the day may yet come when the mills here
| will be largely run through coal from the
United States.
The Belgium mining conditions are en-
tirely different from those of our country.
Our mines are near the surface, and it
costs but little to get the coal to the cars
Those of Belgium are far down under the
earth, and every ton has to be lifted by
ma chinery to the surface. Some of the
mines which l visited today are more than
a half mile deep. The water has to be
fought at every turn. and mighty pumps
are employed to keep the works dry There
are tunnels cutting the earth this way and
that at a depth of 1900 feet. Over them
are other tunnels and the whole country is
a catacombs, made by getting out the coal
The mines have to be timbered. The wood
is cut from the forests near by, but the most
of it is not over six inches thick and as it
comes to the mines it looks like telegraph
poles, each fifty feet long, tapering to a
point at the end. Such timber stands in
great stacks about each mine. 1t is I'M
loaded from the cars by women, who handle
the poles like so many Amazons,
Belgium's Coal Pyramids.
This coal region is far different from
those of Pennsylvania, Ohio or Ten
nessee There it is mountainous. Here
at Washes the land is fat, and the only
elevations are from the dumps of the mines.
The coal here is filled with waste. 1t has
to be sorted and the refuse is carried out
upon cars. There Is so much of it that a
pyramidal mountain soon rises up beside
each mine, standing out like black cone
against the blue sky. There are such
pyramids everywhere in this part of
mines which produced them having been
worked out and abandoned. Others have
ladders up their backs and framework on
| the top where women push the cars along
and with a rafting sound empty them.
| Some of these pyramids are smoking. There
| is much sulphur in the coal and spontaneous
combustion often starts a fire which burns
| on for years. Instances are known Of peo-
| pie going to sleep on the dumps and being
| suffocated by the fumes and gases.
| Take your stand with me on one of these
| coal mountains just outside the mining
town of Washes and look about you. See
| the farms covered with rich crops, with
| these coal mounds rising above them. There
| is one at our right with great bug-like bags
| crawling over it. Take your field glass and
| look at them. They are not bags. They are
| women who are picking up the coal that
has been left in the waste. There comes a
car along the coal mountain. Two women
are pushing it and with the glass you can
almost see their muscles swell as with bare
arms they cast it on the dump.
Now look at that mound at the left. It
is hundreds of feet high, and, like the 9TH
ers about it, 1t is an evidence Of the enor-
nous waste that the miners have to con-
tend with. Every bit Of coal that is brought
to the surface has to be picked over and the
waste Is evidently more than the coal itself.
Near every mound you see the huge build
ings Of the coal workers. They are not I'M
like those of the United States, but the
scenes about them are different.
Tiger Lilies and Black Diamonds.
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 sixteen to twenty. Pretty girls! rosy
checked! round armed and plump with
same time comedy! Their eyes are bright
and their beautyJis accentuated by the coal
dust on their faces through which the red
flames forth like that of the dark moss
rose They are very tiger lilies set in q
background of black diamonds.
Come with me and let us visit one of the
mines We enter the great works where
the mighty shaft is jerking up and down
raising the coal to the surface. At the