us with fuel

the coal man and the miner

i. black diamonds

mining car

“how are the black diamonds holding out, wallace?” asked mrs. duwell. wallace had just brought up coal from the cellar.

“only a few more scuttlefuls in the bin, mother,” answered wallace.

“on your way from school you may stop at the coal yard and ask mr. carr to send a ton to-morrow.”

coal mine

“all right, mother, i won’t forget. but tell me, why do they call coal black diamonds?”

“i haven’t time[182] to talk about it now. perhaps mr. carr will tell you. you have just ten minutes to get to school.”

on his way home wallace stepped into the little office of the big coal yard.

“how are you, my boy; what can i do for you to-day?” asked mr. carr, who was a rather tall man with a bent back and one shoulder higher than the other.

“how do you do, mr. carr?” replied wallace. “mother wants you to send a ton of coal to-morrow—the same kind as the last you sent.”

wallace waited until the coal man entered the order in the book and then asked, “mr. carr, will you tell me why they call coal black diamonds?”

mr. carr smiled pleasantly. “certainly, son, certainly. you see, coal shines like diamonds, and then, it’s worth more.”

“worth more? why, i thought diamonds were worth more than anything else.”

“no, indeed! if there weren’t any coal in the ground, all the diamonds in the world wouldn’t heat a house, cook a meal, pull a railway train, or run a machine.”

“well, i never thought of that,” said wallace. “you certainly could not burn diamonds in a cook-stove.”

[183]

“no, indeed!” said mr. carr, who seemed much pleased at wallace’s interest.

ii. in a coal mine

“were you ever down in a coal mine, mr. carr?” asked wallace.

“was i ever down in a coal mine?” repeated mr. carr. “yes, sir, i was a miner for years in the coal regions, and would have been in a mine yet, probably, if it hadn’t been for this,” pointing to his shoulder and bent back.

“is it very dangerous work?” asked wallace, with wide-open eyes.

“well, if the roof doesn’t fall on you, and if the mine doesn’t catch fire, and if the gas doesn’t choke you, or explode and blow you up, it isn’t dangerous; it is perfectly safe.”

“but how did it get hurt—your shoulder, i mean?” asked wallace.

“oh, that! i’ll tell you. one day we were getting out coal at the far end of a tunnel. suddenly, before we had time to run, the roof came tumbling down and buried us. when they pulled us out, my helper was dead, and my back was as you see it now.”

“what makes mining so dangerous?” asked wallace, in surprise.

[184]

“well, you see, it’s this way. when you step into the cage, that is the elevator, you leave the sunlight behind. the cage sinks down, down into pitch darkness, sometimes hundreds of feet. at the bottom of the shaft it is like an under-ground city. street-like tunnels, with car tracks laid on them, run out in every direction. the coal cars are drawn by mules or by electricity.

“as you go up the tracks you see cross tunnels and the miners’ little lamps shining in dark holes that look like black caves. here the miners work, blasting out the coal, and loading it on cars to be drawn to the mouth of the mine and hoisted up into daylight.

“sometimes the walls and roof are not properly braced. then they cave in and great lumps of coal fall down on the men. sometimes gas or fire-damp collects. then there is danger of choking or of being blown up. sometimes, in blasting, the coal catches fire, so that the whole mine burns.”

minder with photos in the background

can you tell a story about the journey of a ton of coal from the time the miner digs it out of the mine, and boys sort out the slate, until it is put into the furnace in a house?

“why, miners must be as brave as soldiers,” said wallace.

“yes, i suppose they are brave. people do not know how much they owe to the miners. they risk their lives every time they go down into [185]

[186]the mines. but they don’t think much about the danger. that is part of their work.”

“thank you for telling me about it,” said wallace.

“you are welcome, my boy; good-by.”

“good-by, mr. carr.”

wallace hurried home with a new respect for mr. carr and the men who work in the dark mines under the ground.

questions

how does the coal man bring the coal to your house?

from whom does he buy it?

pretend you are a piece of coal and tell the story of your life.

name some of the things which we would have to do without if there were no miners or coal men.

do you burn anything else at your house besides coal?

are the men who supply us with these things our helpers too?

where does the wood man get kindling and firewood?

where does the oil man get oil?

will you ask for a book about p?-tro′l?-?m, or coal oil, when you go to the library next time?

can you think of any other people who supply us with fuel?