The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-05-10
Little Known Facts About Everyday Life In The
 Alabama Coal Fields
CURIOUS VIEWS
 ABOUT STEALING
Very Little Title to Personal Property. Smith Got Away With Rail- road-How an Engineer Was
 Forced to Restore Tools
By JACK RETHEA

The etn1cS or the coal fleldS or Ala
 lama are something that no mortal who has not spent years in the district can comprehend. The unwritten but none the less rigid laws in regard to the possession of property govern ing the operations are both amusing and peculiar.
 In most mining camps there is only local law to govern. At least this was true up to the last big strike but things have been bettered in the last three years. Stealing? Stealing is always going
 on in mining camp. But they don't call it stealing The local law doesn't call it stealing and 1t is not regarded as theft is in the more civilized DOT tons of the state. The law gives this privilege--that while you may go
 to a mans office or his house and take anything you see that you want he has the same privilege and it is q race between you to see who can get the most
 Stole Railroad
 I once knew a man who stole a railroad bodily and got away with 1t. It happened out on the Frisco line dur ing the boom days when you couldn't get steel for love nor money. The company in question was anxious to build an
 extension and it was imperative that 1t be gotten under way at once. The Frisco was unable to get the rails and the company was in a quandary. The
 matter was turned over to the man in
 question whom we will call smith. Smith swore that he would get the rails and he kept his word in .thls way.
 The Frisco was preparing to relay the main line and work train canle along dropping the necessary rails main there until the second work train came along to lay them smith took a gang of negroes and followed the train along, gathered up enough rails for his purpose, about two miles, and snaked them into the woods. He also got the fish plates and spikes the same way He still lacked a spike maui and switch points. Of course he could have bought them, but it is against all prin- oiples of mining camp engineers td | buy anything when you can steal It. That section was in. charge of a | foreman whose pet boast was that 1 the miners could put nothing over | on nm ana Slnltn QtClQtu tO dSquiir | switch points from him. One Sunday morning While the foreman and his | orkmen were at church Smith and a | gang slipped up to the section house 1 and stole pair of switch points. 4> l few days later the foreman came down i to the mine raising sand and looking | for his points but Smith had hidden 1 them in the bushes and the foreman had only his trouble for his pains. He | left to go up to the mine to see if they were there While he was gone smith worked desperately and succeeding pl | getting his points in place before the | foreman returned. Once they We're down the foreman could not identity l them as it would have been necessary 1 for him to have turned them upside dowr and examine the numbers.
 Got His Spike Maul
 | Smith still wanted spike-maul and got | 1t one day when a freight car got off the track near the mine. While the crew was 1 spiking the frogs in place Smith came up and stood watching them work The min Ute they turned their back he grabbed the spike maui and threw it in the bushes. The crew hunted high and low for the maui. but had to leave it behind ana Smith constructed his spur in peace ana without it costing the company cent TOT
 materials.
 | The relation of the crews or lreish ht | trains making the mines and the official forces of the mine are amusing. Whenever
 train crew heaves in sight everybody
 about the mine nails everything down 1 that is not too heavy to move and then l sits on it. train crew will steal any thing Their especial favorites are tools
 such as shovels, picks and wrenches. It doesn't matter whether they need them or not, they figure that they may need
 them a little later and take them home so as to have supply there. Another thing they delight in stealing is oil. An engine crew using the smallest amount of
 coal and oil gets a bonus, and it is a favorite trick to go to the oilhouse and help themselves.
 | remember once at Acton train crew
 came up to the mine and stole everything they had in the shape of tools, also get ting away with a large amount of oil.
 Walter Willbanks, when he discovered the theft, slipped down to where the engine
 was waiting on the siding for passen- ger train to pass. and cut off the whistle. He removed the valves connecting with the steam pipe so that the engineer could not blow his whistle, making it impossible | for him to go on the main line.
 The engineer rolled merrily off but when he attempted to call In his fiagman by ! whistle he discovered that he had none,