Authors: George W. M. Reynolds,James Malcolm Rymer
Report
.] The young children were for
the most part of contracted features, which, added to their wasted forms, gave
them a strange appearance of ghastliness, when cleansed from the filth of the
mine. The holers, or excavators, were bow-legged and crooked, the burners and
trammers knock-kneed and high shouldered. Many - very many of the miners were
affected with diseases of the heart. Then, who ever saw a person, employed in
the pits, live to an advanced age? A miner of fifty-five was a curiosity the
poor creatures generally drooped at five-and-thirty, and died off by forty.
They invariably seemed oppressed with care and anxiety: jollity was unknown
amongst them. I have seen jolly looking butchers, blacksmiths, carpenters,
plough men, porters, and so on: but I never beheld a jolly-looking miner. The
entire population that labours in the pits appears to belong to a race that is
accursed!
"I pondered seriously upon all this; and every
circumstance that occurred, and every scene around me, tended to strengthen my
resolution to quit an employment worse than that of a galley-slave. I saw my
mother wasting all her best energies in that terrible labour, and yet remaining
poor -beggared! Scarcely enough for the present - not a hope for the
future! Sometimes I wept when I contemplated her, although she had but little
claims on my sympathy or affection; nevertheless, when I saw her bald head -
her scalp thickened, inflamed, and sometimes so swollen, that it was like a
bulb filled with spongy matter, and so painful that she could not bear to touch
it, - when I heard her complain of the dreadful labour of pushing the heavy
curves and trains with her sore head, - when I perceived her spine actually
distorted with severe work ; her stomach growing so weak that she frequently
vomited her food almost as soon as it was eaten; her heart so seriously
affected that the intervals of violent palpitation frequently made her faint;
her lungs performing their functions with difficulty; her chest torn with a
sharp hacking cough, accompanied by the expectoration of a large quantity of
matter of a deep black colour, called by colliers the
black-spit
:- when I saw her thus overwhelmed with a complication of maladies
- dying before my eyes, at the age of thirty-three! I-when I looked around, and
beheld nine out of ten of all the persons employed in the pits, whether male or
female, similarly affected,- I shuddered at the bare idea of devoting my youth
to that horrible toil, and then passing to the grave while yet in the prime of
life !
"I thought of running away, and seeking my fortune
elsewhere. I knew that it was no use to acquaint my mother with my distaste for
the life to which she had devoted me: she would only have answered my
objections by means of blows. But while I was still wavering what course to
pursue, a circumstance occurred which I must not forget to relate.
"One morning my candle had accidentally gone out, and I
was creeping along the dark passage to the spot where Phil Blossom was working,
to obtain a light from his candle, when I heard him and my mother conversing
together in a low tone, but with
great earnestness of manner.
Curiosity prompted me to stop and listen. 'Are you sure that is the case?' said
Phil.-' Certain,' replied my mother. 'I shall be confined in about five
months,' - 'Well,' observed Phil, 'I don't know what's to be done. My old woman
will kick up the devil's delight when she hears of it. I wish she was out of
the way : I would marry you if she was.'-Then there was a profound silence for
some minutes. It was broken by the man, who said, 'Yes, if the old woman was
out of the way you and I might get married, and then we should live so
comfortable together. I'm sure no man can be cursed with a wife of worse temper
than mine.'- 'Yes,' returned my mother, 'she is horrible for that.' - 'Do you
think there would be much harm in pushing her down a shaft, or shoving her bead
under the wheel of your tram, Bet?' asked Phil, after another pause.-' There
would be no harm,' said my mother, 'if so be we wern't found out.' - 'That's
exactly what I mean,' observed Phil.- 'But then,' continued my mother, 'if she
didn't happen to
die
at once, she might peach, and get
us both into a scrape.' - 'So she might,' said Phil.-' I'll tell you what we
might do,' exclaimed my mother, in a joyful tone: 'doesn't your wife come down
at one to bring you your dinner?' - 'Yes,' replied Phil Blossom: 'that's all
the old cripple is good for.' - 'Well, then,' pursued my mother, I'll
tell you how we can manage this business. ' - Then they began to whisper, and I
could not gather another word that fell from their lips.
"I was so frightened at what I had heard that I crept
quickly but cautiously back again to my place of labour, and sate down on the
lower steps of the ladder, in the dark - determined to wait till some one
should come, rather than go and ask Phil Blossom for a light. I had suddenly
acquired a perfect horror of that man. I had understood that my mother was with
child by him; and I had heard them coolly plotting the death of the woman who
was an obstacle to their marriage. At my age, such an idea was calculated to
inspire me with terror. I think I sate for nearly an hour in the dark, my mind
filled with thoughts of a nature which may be well understood. At length a
young woman, bearing a corf, came with a light; and I was no longer left in
obscurity. I then plucked up my courage, took my basket, and went to Phil
Blossom for a load of coal. My mother was not there; and he was working with
his pickaxe as coolly as possible. He asked me what had made me so long in
returning for a load; and I told him I had fallen down a few steps of the
ladder and hurt myself. He said no more on the subject; and I was delighted to
escape without a braying or basting. While I was loading my corf, he asked me
if I should like to have him for a father-in-law. I said 'Yes' through
fear, for I was always afraid of his
nieves
, as the colliers call their
clenched fists. He seemed pleased; and, after a pause, said that if ever he was
my father-in-law, I should always take my
bait
(or meals) with him in the cavern
I thanked him, and went on with my work; but I pretty well comprehended that
the removal of Phil's wife by some means or another had been resolved on.
"Shortly before one o'clock that same day my mother
came to the place where I was carrying the coals, and gave me a butter-cake (as
we called bread and butter), telling me that else was going up out of the mine,
as she must pay a visit to the tommy-shop for some candles and grease for
herself, and some tobacco for Phil Blossom. I did not dare utter a word
expressive of the suspicions which I entertained; but I felt convinced that
this proceeding was in some way connected with the subject of the conversation
which I had overheard A strange presentiment induced me to leave my place of
work, and creep along the passage to the foot of the shaft, in order to see
whether Phil's wife would come down at the usual time with his bait. Several
half-marrows
and
foals
(as we called the young lads who
pushed the trams) were at the end of the passage just at the foot of the shaft;
and we got into conversation. It is a very curious thing to look up a shaft
from the very bottom; the top seems no bigger than a sugar-basin. Well, the
boys and I were chattering together about different things, when the click of
the clatch-harness at the top of the shaft fell upon my ears. I peeped up and
saw some one get on the clutch , then the creaking of the wheel and roller was
heard. 'Here comes some one's bait, I dare say,' observed one of the
half-marrows.- 'I wish it was mine,' said another; 'but I never get any thing
to eat from breakfast-time till I go home at night.' - Scarcely were these
words spoken when a piercing scream alarmed us: there was a inching sound-the
chains of the harness clanked fearfully - and down came a woman with
tremendous violence to the bottom of the pit, the clatch rattling down
immediately after her. A cry of horror burst from us all; the poor creature had
fallen at our very feet. We rushed forward; but she never moved The back part
of her head was smashed against a piece of hard mineral at the bottom of the
shaft. But her countenance had escaped injury; and as I cast a hasty glance
upon it, I recognised the well-known face of Phil Blossom's crippled wife.
"One of the boys instantly hastened to acquaint him
with the accident. He came to the spot where his wife lay a mangled heap, stone
dead; and he began to bewail his loss in terms which would have been moving had
I not been aware of their hypocrisy - the half-marrows were, however, deceived
by that well-feigned grief, and did all they could to console him. I said
nothing: I was confounded!
" In due time the cause of the
accident
was ascertained. It appeared that
my mother had gone up the shaft, but when she got to the top she struck her
foot so forcibly against the upright post of the machinery, that she lamed
herself for the time. The old woman who presided over the machinery (as I have
before said) very kindly offered to go to the tommy-shop for her, on condition
that she would remain there to work the handle for people coming up or going
down. This was agreed to. The very first person who wanted to go down was Mrs.
Bios sum; and my mother alleged that the handle unfortunately slipped out of
her hand as she was unwinding the rope. This explanation satisfied the overseer
of the mine: the intervention of the coroner was not deemed necessary ;- my
mother appeared much afflicted at the
accident:
Phil Blossom mourned the death of his wife with admirable
hypocrisy ;- the corpse was interred within forty-eight hours ;-and thus was
Phil's wife removed without a suspicion being excited!
"I was now more than ever determined to leave the mine.
I saw that my mother was capable of any thing; and I trembled lest she should
take it into her head to rid herself of me. One day she told me that she was
going to be married to Phil Blossom: I made a remark upon the singularity of
her being united to the very man whose wife had died by her means;-she darted
at me a look of dark suspicion and terrible ferocity; and, in the next moment,
struck me to the ground. From
that instant I felt convinced that I was not safe. Accordingly, one Sunday,
when I was washed quite clean, and had on a tolerably decent frock, I left the
hovel which my mother occupied, and set out on my wanderings.
"I had not a penny in my pocket, nor a friend on the
face of the earth to whom I could apply for advice, protection, or assistance.
All that stood between me and starvation, that I could see, was a piece of
bread and some cheese, which I had taken with me when I left home. I walked as
far as I could without stopping, and must have been about six miles from the
pit where I had worked, when evening came on. It was November, and the weather
was very chilly. I looked round me, almost in despair, to see if I could
discover an asylum for the night. Far behind me the tremendous chimneys and
furnaces vomited forth flames and volumes of smoke; and the horizon shone as if
a whole city was on fire: but in the spot where I than found myself, all was
drear, dark, and lonely. I walked a little farther, and, to my joy, espied a
light. I advanced towards it, and soon perceived that it emanated from a fire
burning in a species of cave overhung by a high and rugged embankment of earth
belonging to a pit that had most probably ceased to be worked. Crouching over
this fire was a lad of about fifteen, clothed in rags, dirty, emaciated, and with
starvation written upon his countenance. I advanced towards him, and begged to
be allowed to warm myself by his fire. He answered me in a kind and touching
manner; and we soon made confidants of each other. I told him my history, only
suppressing my knowledge that the death of Phil Blossom's wife arose from
premeditation, instead of accident, as I did not wish to get my mother into a
scrape, although I had no reason to have any regard for her. The lad then
acquainted me with his sad tale. He was an orphan; and his earliest remembrance
was experienced in a workhouse, of which, it appeared, he had become an inmate
shortly after his birth, his parents having been killed at the same time by the
explosion of a fire-damp in the pit in which they had worked. When the lad was
eight years old, the parish authorities apprenticed him to a miner, who gave
him the name of
Skilligalee
, in consequence of his excessive leanness. This man treated him
very badly; but the poor boy endured all for a period of seven years, because
he had no other asylum than that afforded him by his master. 'At length,' said
the boy, 'a few weeks ago, master got hurt upon the head by the failing in of
some coal where he was working; and from that moment he acted more like a
madman than a human being. He used to seize me by the hair, and dash me against
the side of the pit: sometimes he flogged me with a strap till my flesh was all
raw. I could stand it no longer; so, about three weeks ago, I ran away. Ever
since then I have been living, I can scarcely tell how. I have slept in the
deserted cabins on the pits' bank, or in the old pits that have done working: I
have got what I could to eat, and have even been I glad to devour the bits of
candles that the colliers had left in the pits. All this is as true as I am
here.* [* See