The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1928-10-12
heCherry
/" Where with our
we tell the truth
about many things. sometimes pro-
fOundly, sometimes fiippantly,
sometimes recklessly.

Henry Ford, collector of old time
dance tunes, should send a scout to
Scranton, Pa, and have him look in
on certain Saturday night affair
which is bringing fame to certain
mine foreman and a group of union
miners of that city that sits placidly
on top of maze of coal diggings.
1t all started when someone pos
sessed of roll of money set forth
plan for the establishment of recrea-
ton hall, swimming pool and other
things and died with the project in its
infancy. All that grew out of the
scheme was more or less barn-like
hall which is used as union meeting
place and Saturday night dance hail.
Jack Cole is the mine superitend-
ent around whose energetic person
ality the Saturday night amusement
more or less revolves. The strange
part of the story is that the whole
venture was by way of being COM
plete flop until Cole got the idea that
old time dances might make the thing
a success.
The idea works, as any visitor will
discover.
When the evenings festivities are
in full swing there will likely be a
couple of hundred miners and their
wives or sweethearts on the floor.
The modern dances get their innings,
but the big drawing card of the eve
ming is always the program of old
time square dances, tripped to sucn
tunes as were known in the early
dogs of the Republic, such tunes as
were scraped out of energetic old fid-
dies in the barn dances of other days,
such tunes as are all but lost in the
music to-day, unless one digs into
the memories of the oldsters or goes
as Carl Sandburg has put together.
There's a young fiddler in the trio
of musicians that makes this Scranton
mine dance rythm who knows his
Turkey in the Straw" as well as any
son of Vermont ever knew it half
century ago.
Where he discovered the music he
plays he only knows, and he only
grins about it.
The atmosphere of this miners
dance halls is lot different from the
vintage. It is not affected by any
of the lingo that has been invented
to give such places a glamor befittinG
their price. 1t is plain, old fash
ioned Saturday night dance, and moth
ing but, and the price for getting past
the door is just two bits, twenty-five
cents, silver quarter of dollar
The dancing that goes on in this
mine revel takes no back stage place
be it known. 1t classes along with
the best to be found anywhere. Cole
himself is at it in every number
There's a fire boss who does a NEAR
step and there's a barn boss who
takes last, lingering look at his
string of mules and makes bee line
for the dance floor. This mule boss
&c hx Of ho,rn what &c l. oc
"some stopper" and rumor has it thai
he has learned new intricacies o.
movement from the foot work of tht
charges over which he watches for al
eight-hour stretch each day.
The mine mules and the mine ca
stay where they are while the bosse.
of this and that and the artists O.
pick, shovel and powder leave th'
works fiat on it's back to revel for {
night in the hall that would be cole
as the Arctic circle in winter were /
not for double dose of steam pipes
fed with steam from the mine boiler
and for the wild music that comes
from one of the most efficient trio
extant.
Perhaps this Scranton union dance
hall, home of the dances of old, abou
which the king of fiivverdom has mad
such fuss, is but a sample of what il
going on in many places. The un
usual things are those about whici
we know little and which we do no
commonly see. Towns all over th
may are filled with things that are un
usual to those not Of those towns.
Miners have about them things tha
are unusual to others; so do carpen
ters and iron molders and steamfit
ters, as we'll as sailors who go dow
to the sea in ships. The fiddler o
Scranton, the masters of the old-tim
dance patterns, and the genius wh
calls the dance-these folks are hav
ing a lot of fun at the close of eacl
hard working week and it was wortl
look, as it would be to anybody VIII
cares to know what the human rae
is doing with itself as it passes thi
way.
IIAIInM DDECCMEN