the railway running by the lodge-gate carries
coal down to the sea-port a dozen miles off; the
new buildings and improvements, the mended
roads, the enlarged houses, the erections for
machinery, the schools, the capital amateur
band which greeted us by playing outside our
window during dinner on the night of our
arrival, are all due to coal. "How does the
system here differ from that in the north?"
repeated the young engineer who accompanied
me to see a new method of ventilation at work.
"Why principally in lack of intelligence and
obstinacy of prejudice. There's no double shift
here, to begin with—the men work twelve hours
at a stretch, and then knock off altogether;
they only employ one man and a boy to 'a
face,' instead of three men as in Northumberland
and Durham, and the miners 'prop,' the
roofways for themselves, instead of leaving it
to people whose regular business it is. Then,
they employ big horses and enormous trams;
so that each working is thrice the size it
need be. And what is the result? Why
just this: With coal which is more easily
got, and with the finest quality of coal for
steam purposes in the world, with abundance
of material and plenty of hands, the population
here is worse off, and the coal more expensive
to procure, than in any other district I
know. There cannot be a question as to its
superiority, for the government have been trying
a series of experiments as to how much steam
a given quantity of it would produce against
the same amount of northern coal, and the
result has been that they've decided in favour of
the former. It's all want of system from first
to last; but the people about here are so
conservative, that when you propose any
improvement they at once look on you as a
personal enemy of the Principality. What can be
more senseless than letting one man and a
boy fiddle for a twelvemonth at a face, which
three men would exhaust in a third of the
time? Yet it is done, because it's the custom of
the country, and for no other reason whatever.
Remember the expense, too! For the longer
a face is worked at, of course, the more it
costs, as the maintenance and wear and tear of
props, arching, and what you may call
permanent way add enormously to the price of
production. In the other case a working is
exhausted, and another begun, in the time it takes
to get one fairly started here; and, of course,
when it is not wanted as a roadway to anywhere
else, it can just be left to take care of itself, or
blocked up at no cost to speak of. You'll perhaps
remember that the coal you saw in the north,"
continues our informant, "takes good stiff
work with pick and shoulders before it is
dug out. Here, you may almost slip it off
the seam with a walking-stick, so lightly
does it lay. Yet no one gets the benefit,
through the faulty plan pursued. As for the
cost of horses against ponies, I daren't attempt
to say what it is. Besides the size of the
passage to be scooped out, a man has to be
employed to drive, as well as a boy to lead, when,
with a pony one boy would do all the work, and
better; then there's the difference in the cost
of the two animals, and the difference in their
keep, so that it comes to a pretty penny
altogether. As for letting each pitman prop his
own roof as he works on, it's not merely silly,
but wicked, for it wastes labour, and endangers
life. How is it likely that a man whose proper
function is to hew can turn his hand to a
distinct branch of workmanship without disastrous
results, as well as waste of time? For he has to
go about and get his prop, mind, to carry
it to the pit, and then to put it up in his own
awkward way. To show you what I think of it,
I'll venture to say there are as many deaths in
collieries from roofs falling, through the amateur
props giving way, as from any other simple
cause connected with the mechanism of a pit.
And, mind you, I'm not sure that, if statistics
were carefully gone into, the explosions that
shock every one so are the most serious foes to
human life. But, keeping to the faults of the
Welsh system, it seems to me too great a waste
of human energies to make the men carry their
own supply of coal home, instead of leading it
to their doors. You'll see them after twelve
hours' labour staggering to their cottages with a
sack of coals upon their back, because "as much
as they can carry" is their perquisite, and,
though the trouble is saved, one can't help
thinking that the additional work taken out of
the labourer must tell upon his producing power.
Perhaps you may think this a small matter; but
to show what older and shrewder heads than
mine think of the system altogether, I'll tell
you what happened here last week. The Welsh
coal-owners met in conclave at Cardiff, and
determined to reduce wages fifteen per cent.
One of their number, however, and the
managing partner of the largest concerns hereabouts
gave his men the option of receiving ten per
cent out of the fifteen back again, if they'd
agree to work on the English system. They
actually hesitated, and refused at first; but
they've come in since, and the offer was
renewed for several of the large pits. I look
upon this as the thin end of the wedge, and,
in spite of local prejudice, am persuaded that
the double shift, and the north-country mode
of working generally, will come into play here
to the advantage of all. Already, we're
inaugurating some important improvements in
machinery (opening a door, and showing a wheel,
the size of a small house). This flapper at the
top of the shaft acts instead of a furnace at
the bottom, which is, after all, an objectionable
and sometimes dangerous mode of ventilating
a pit. Both create a vacuum which the fresh
air rushes in to supply. But as this is worked
by an engine, its speed can be regulated, so that
on a damp day greater pressure can be put on,
and the foul air withdrawn as fast as generated.
You can't regulate a furnace with half the
certainty you bring to bear on this; and if we
succeed in making it do full duty for the old kind
of ventilation, we quite believe that explosions
and accidents will be made infinitely more rare.
We're fixing some atmospheric engines, too, at
another pit, which are to have some nine-inch