Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1910-08-03
lppseve|t Investigates In
dusiria| Conditions.
flrner President Talks With
children Of Miners.
IND With the Miners Themselves,
Without Recognition.

scranton, Pa. Aug. 2-Theodore
Roosevelt spent the day among the
workers in the heart of the Pennsyl-
yania anthracite region.
He met and talked with the men who
dg the coal. as they came from the
mines black with grim. He talked with
them about their homes. their chill
/ drel,. and their manner of living. He
! talked with their wives. and their chill
| dren. and learned from their own lips
how they look at life. He climbed to
the TOD Of a coal breaker and remained
there half an hour in the sitting coal
dust so that he might see what the
| boys who work there, have to do.
He spent another half hour in silk
mill talking with the girl workers. He
saw how they lived. He plodded two
4 miles through the dust UP hills and in
all manner of places and returned to
Scranton as evening was drawing near.
blck with grim but smiling with de-
light at his experiences. The best part
Of it all, he said repeatedly. was that
ne was able to meet the people as a
. private citizen and talk with them as
Il man to man.
Many of the toilers had no idea of
the ex-president's identity which he
took care to conceal. when possible I'M
til after he had finished his talk
The coionels new experiences began
. last night when he was on his way
bv automobile from New York to Della
| ware Water Gap
It was close to noon today when Col
Roosevelt. Lawrence Abbott who is as
ISOLATED with him in editorial work in
New York, Miss Fannie Cochrane and
Miss Florence Lucas Sanville of the
Consumers League of Philadelphia
started away from Scranton. AL
though the ex-President had been I'M
able to keep secret his visit to Scran-
ton. he chung with grim determination
to his purpose of visiting the mining
towns unknown and with that in mind.
he refused to say where he was going
The party motored through Scranton
| 10 the north and up the Lackwanna
Valley road to the village of Dixon
City It is a typical mining town of a
few hundred inhabitants.
The automobile labored until he
could COMO farther in the hills and the
colonel and his fellow investigators
stepped out and walked. Col. Roosevelt
poding through the dust in the broil-
Ing sun. No one recognized him. al
though he walked past two small no.
! tells. each of which had group of
oilers on the porch.
Col. Roosevelt walked on in the dust
until he met a diminutive girl clad in
4 blue dress her hair tied with d pink
| ribbon. He stopped her and asked her
! who she was
I'm Annie Trykowski please, sir"
| she sai6. land I'm 10 years old"
What do you do?"
4 work in silk mill. I'm a Winder.'
she said proudly. Before you can be a
! winder you have to be a bobbin girl.
| I'm past that"
! The colonel asked her how long each
day she worked. how she liked it and
what she had in the way of amuse-
| ments. His chief object of the day was
| to learn what the people have. for di-
| version. and how their amusements
may be improved. After timidly an
swering more questions. the little SILK
wlnder walked on home. without the
least idea with whom she had been
! talking.
jake Kavanaugh, miner. was walk
| ing down the street just then. He had
| Just emerged from the shaft and ne
was as black as man could be. He mad
on the full regalia of a miner. with big
| boots, a lamp in his hat. a dinner pail
| N his hand.
CONTINUED on Page Ten.)