The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-03-26
WHAT GOES ON UNDER THE
 CITY OF SCRANTON, PA.

b. S. ufford in the Springfield Republican o CHAMPION, Pa. is city to which
 might apply the term, acres Of A/ diamonds" These jewels have made the men, have made the city, have ex- tended its fame. It is a spot which is in- cluded in the 65O,OOO square miles of the coal regions of our United States. Few of the visitors who come here are aware of what is constantly going on beneath the crust where their eyes cannot pierce into this underground city. Down, hun dreds of feet an army of workers are passing to and fro at their work in the alleys" and ''courts' that lie in this modern cataeombs. Trains of cars and locomotives, or mules whose eyes are al- most sightless, are hauling the black pro- ducts of the mines from point to point, the rumble of whose activity scarcely reaches into the world above. And yet at table where 1 dined the other day, faint thud and rumble could be noticed which told of some miner who was shoot ing off his blast hundreds of feet down under our dining table Could we have thrown an X-ray down there, we should have seen several dusky forms, lamps on their caps, returning from their hiding to break with their picks the gistening blocks of anthracite which had been brought down from their vein. These several tons would then be transferred in cars along tracks to the shaft while an empty ear rolls back to be refilled.
 Electric locomotives are gliding along .ll
 specter-like. lodging aside to evade be- ing crushed. Even with their best care the death angel hovers there, whose sharp scythe almost daily wounds or stays its victim. Mine bosses are overseeing the routine of work; swarthy toilers are constantly uprearing timbers as the black nuggets are excavated, to ward off the frightful caye-in Electricians, engineers at their hoisting engines. and fans, pumps and other contrivances all tell of busy under world, whose labyrinths form weird tale in the lives of these brave bread-winners.
 A singular feature of the mine is the romance of the mule. He is conveyed down in the cage to his Imprisonment, as in some Andersonville, never again to infirmity to be shot. Some of them have never seen the light of day, for they were born down there. And how strange it is to sec them in their stalls eating the mere food which only perpetuates their prison exile. It would need a number of stripes like the zebra to complete their picture of convict relationship. And yet as the horse runs back again into the burning barn, so these creatures are un- manageable when taken up into the sun light for they kick each other and seem uncomfortable until returned to their cap tivity. The only real picnic these long cared toilers learned to love again was during the strike of 1902, when. like the soldiers in their tents. they roamed the fields and browsed during those dark months of the coal war
 Besides these sparkling treasures are to be found remarkable fungus growths. Lovely white roofs, like some magician's cave. overarch the old spaces from which the coal has been taken. But finally these turn into water, and only add to the liquid to be constantly pumped to the surface. It Is an interesting item that for every ton of anthracite dug out twen- weight tons of water must be hoisted To this end powerful pumps are ever throbbng with their mighty pulsations to evade the rivers which would soon be- come such In the alleys. The Maltby pump is most used here.
 Another weird member of this craft is the gas detective, who wears helmet and on his back can of compressed air. Like some diver down in the caves of the sea, he creeps with a torch in his hand that he may ignite the veins of deathly vapor that turk for the miner, and so explode them in their early origin. These float up along the roofs and are not very dangerous till they fill the lower spaces. That this deadly gas comes from the coal is demonstrated by breaking a piece or anthracite under water. when bubbles Will be seen to rise. Should an injury pefaii a workman, crude hospital Is avaiiaoie where the first care of the wounded IS