CHAPTER VI

WHAT A MINE IS LIKE

AN UNDERGROUND forest becomes an underground city that is the evolution of a coal mine. For city it certainly is, with streets and passages-often on different levels-for the conveying of the cars of coal and supplies, and the journeying of the miners to their respective places. In an old pit near Newcastle, England, there are no less than fifty miles of passages, and our Pennsylvania mines can excel this. To think that many, perhaps most, of these excavated roads are the result of hand labor, stroke on stroke!

In digging out the coal, or undercutting, as the first process is called, the miner must sit, crouch, or even lie in an uncomfortable position for hours, wielding his pick to get out the coal. Machines have been invented for cutting coal when found under certain conditions,-one machine originated in America in 1887, which is more widely used here than in England, where a different type is used. But even where machines are employed the beginning must usually be made by hand, and in many places it is not feasible to use the machines. Certainly the invention of a machine in 1887 was of no use to young William and his father in their arduous work; in fact, even today no machines are used in the Arnot mines. Whatever the work or the manner in which the mining is done, the fact remains that any employment that keeps the worker underground is disagreeable, dangerous, and a menace to the health.

The mine that little William Wilson worked in was not better or worse than others of its kind. All mines are full of dangers, and fifty years ago there were not many of the safety inventions that have since been in use. Dangerous gases are confined underground, and digging for coal frees them. Many of these gases are intensely inflammable, light is necessary for the miner to carry on his work, hence the danger of explosions is great. One of the greatest inventions connected with mining is that of the safety lamp, invented in 1815 by Sir Humphrey Davy. With the improvements that have since been made in such lamps, it is possible for the miners, if careful, to be comparatively safe, so far as explosions are concerned. The slightest breath of an open light upon the dangerous gases is sufficient to cause them to explode, and then partitions are burned away, smoke and fire roll through the passages, pushing their way up the shaft and telling the workers above that their fellows are being suffocated or burned alive. At such times the men show their heroism, many cases of most extraordinary sacrifice of life to save others being told in connection with mine accidents.

There is always the danger of flood. An underground stream or spring may be suddenly tapped and the water will pour through the passages, catching unawares the hapless workmen and carrying them to their death. Many mines have to keep pumps going all the time. Even when the miner starts in on his day's work, he puts himself in peril, for in going down the shaft in the cage he trusts himself to the chains and ropes which lower the cage, and they may give way and precipitate him to the floor of the minę.

Another danger is that which little William experienced when a prop gave way and he was hurled under the debris. Rules are very strict in most mines regarding the placing of props to hold up the ceiling of the mine, but men working constantly in the presence of danger become accustomed to it and grow careless of precautions and often do not observe the rules. Sometimes, indeed, such accidents are absolutely unpreventable.

Necessarily, the air in a mine must be close, foul, and poisonous, even though not directly inflammable. The pumping of fresh air into mines and the extraction of the bad air, its foulness increased by the breath and exhalations of the perspiring workers, is a serious problem, and many and various have been the attempts at its solution. Usually systems are used with two shafts or wells, called respectively the upcast and the downcast. If there is a shaft of any kind at each end of a mine, with connecting passages, a rough kind of ventilation or circulation will necessarily result, but this will not affect the side passages and chambers not directly on this main avenue.

One plan which seems to give universal satisfaction is to have a specially constructed chamber at the bottom of the upcast in which is an immense furnace in which a fire is kept constantly burning. The column of air above this furnace becomes rarefied and ascends, while the cooler air below rushes in and spreads itself in all directions to take the place of the bad air. Ventilation fans for changing the air have also been brought to a great degree of perfection. But by any method, a strong current of air would naturally take the shortest and most direct course from entrance to

exit, not penetrating the many offshoots from the main passage. Therefore, there must be a system of barriers and tight closing doors in such a way that the fresh air must traverse all the windings and penetrate every part of the mine. In order that this current may be guided along the passages where it is intended it should go, many boys are employed to open the door to all comers and carefully close them after all have passed through. These boys are called trappers. There they sit, in semi-darkness, with nothing to occupy them except when the welcome call of a wagoner or other workman gives them a moment's diversion and companionship. I well remember passing through these doors in the Arnot mine in which William worked.

Dry coal dust is liable to explosive action. Frequent watering is necessary to prevent such explosion. Yet the more perfect the system of ventilation, the more will all the moisture be dried up, and the more dangerously inflammable will this coal dust become. In any case, the miners have to breathe this dust as it rises and their lungs are filled with it, so that it adds to the danger of the pulmonary trouble which is so common among this class of workers.

The fact remains, however, that, in spite of all the precautions that have been and may be taken, including the introduction of the most scientific and improved appliances for the safety of the miner, his task, working perhaps thousands of feet below ground, continues to be a frightfully hard and dangerous one. Although the most terrible death tolls are usually due to explosions, which happen only occasionally on a large scale, many more workers are receiving fatal in

juries through the falling roofs and sides of seams in the mines. It is said that not a single day passes throughout the year without seeing the death of at least one miner, and that the average number of deaths every day of every year is thirty and upward.

More miners are employed in American mines than are needed for getting out the necessary quantity. Therefore some must be laid off at times. It is said that miners work, on an average, only two hundred and twelve days in the year. However fortunate this may be for their health, it is readily seen that they must be idle the remainder of the time. Mining communities are usually in a remote section where it is difficult for a miner to obtain other work to do when not occupied in the mine, even if he were fitted to do anything else. This enforced idleness, without pay, of course brings increased suffering to himself and his family. The miner is reckoned on a par with the railroad employee as regards danger, and next to the structural iron worker, who is listed in the extra hazardous callings.

The life of the miner was summed up by the late President John Mitchell of the United Mine Workers (the body of which Mr. Wilson was Secretary and Treasurer) in these words:

"First, the boy of eight or ten is sent to the breaker to pick the slate and other impurities from the coal which has been brought up from the mine; from there he is promoted and becomes a door boy, working in the mine; as he grows older and stronger he is advanced to the position and pay of a laborer; there he gains the experience which secures him a place as miner's helper; and as he acquires skill and strength