, at least while at work, and it was a
very hard job to get one's skin clean after the day's work was over.
Then it was fully a mile from the opening of the coal-mine to the face
of the coal, and all, of course, was in the blackest darkness. I do
not believe that one ever experiences anywhere else such darkness as
he does in a coal-mine. The mine was divided into a large number of
different "rooms" or departments, and, as I never was able to learn
the location of all these "rooms," I many times found myself lost in
the mine. To add to the horror of being lost, sometimes my light
would go out, and then, if I did not happen to have a match, I would
wander about in the darkness until by chance I found some one to give
me a light. The work was not only hard, but it was dangerous. There
was always the danger of being blown to pieces by a premature
explosion of powder, or of being crushed by falling slate. Accidents
from one or the other of these causes were frequently occurring, and
this kept me in constant fear. Many children of the tenderest years
were compelled then, as is now true I fear, in most coal-mining
districts, to spend a large part of their lives in these coal-mines,
with little opportunity to get an education; and, what is worse, I
have often noted that, as a rule, young boys who begin life in a coal-
mine are often physically and mentally dwarfed.
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