THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



375 



r^^i 



curing; a defect owing to the aqueous nature of 

 the plant. I find the spuri-y spoli^n of in many 

 works as good for fowls, but 1 have frequently 

 seen them refuse to eat the grain. This grain is 

 very minute, and should bt". but little gathered. 

 They sow about twelve pounds per acre. The 

 spurry, turned in green, is spoken of by many the- 

 oretical farmers (^agronomes) as one of the best of 

 the ameliorating plants. 



White slavery tn great Britain, em- 

 ployment OF FEMALES IN THE ENGLISH 

 MINES. 



From the Plougli Boy. 



It appears that the employment of lemales in 

 the coal mmes is chiefly confined to Yorkshire, 

 Lancaster, Cheshire and the east of Scotland and 

 South Wales ; and the revolting cruellies, prac- 

 tised on hoys, as detailed in our first notice, is 

 equally extended to gir's. In lact, not only are girls 

 preferred as " hurriers." lor their greater docility, 

 but they are taken in the mines at even an earlier 

 age than boys, Irom a supposiiion that when in- 

 fants they are the most " cuie" of the two. It is 

 distressing to read the accounts which some of the 

 tender lemales themselves give of the hardships 

 they undergo. One says, •'! work in Hardhill 

 mine. We hurry the carts by pushing behind, 

 but I frequently draw with ropes and chains as the 

 horses do. It is diriy, slavish work, and the water 

 quite covers our ankles. I knock my head against 

 the rocks, as they are not so high as I am, and 

 they cause me to stoop, and makes my back ache." 

 Another gives the following dreadlLiI description 

 of what they have to undergo. "My employ- 

 ment is carrying coal. Am frequemiy worked 

 from /bur in the morning till six at night, and every 

 other week I work night work. I then go down 

 at two in the day and come up at four or six in 

 the morning. Two years ago the pit closed in 

 upon thirteen of us, and we were without Ibod 

 and light two days ; nearly one day we were up 

 to our chins in water." Our space will not permit 

 us to multiply such extracts ; and we must there- 

 fore content ourselves with stating generally that 

 there is no variation in any part of the voluminous 

 evidence collected on this subject of young 

 girls being employed in coal mines, except thai 

 their labor is more severe, and treatment more 

 cruel, if possible, in the east of Scotland than 

 elsewhere. 



Nor are young, or even married women, much 

 better off than the girls. Anne Harris, aged 15, 

 I' heartily hated it. It was no woman's work, nor 

 is it good for any body ; but I am obliged to the 

 work, as father howks (hews) the coals below." 

 Janet Duncan, aged 17, " was a coal bearer at 

 Henmuir pit. The carls she pushed contained 3 

 cwt. of coals, and it was very severe work, espe- 

 cially when they had n stay before the carts to 

 prevent their coming down too fast ; they fre- 

 quently run too quick and knock us down. Is 

 able to say that the hardest day-light work is in- 

 finitely superior to the best of coal work." Mar- 

 garet Drysdale, aged 15, " did not like the work, 

 but her mother was dead, and her father took her 

 down, and she had no choice. Her employment 

 is to draw carts, and she had harness or drag ropes 

 on, like the horses."' One more. Katharme Lo- 



gan, aged 16, •' began to work at coal carrying 

 more than 5 years since ; works in harness now ; 

 draws backward wiih her face to the tubes ; the 

 ropes and chains go under her pit clothes, (which 

 consist simply of a pair of boy's trousers ;) it is 

 o'ersair work, especially when we had to crawl." 

 We can imagine no sight more horrible than 

 young girls harnessed to carts, and drawing them 

 on all-lbura through confined passages, perhaps 

 not two feet high, and frequently a foot of that 

 I space a thick sludge of water and coal dust; nor 

 ! can any one form an adequate idea of it without 

 1 inspecting the plates which represent it in the par- 

 liamentary report. 

 j Well may the report eay, that " when the na- 

 ture of this horrible labor is taken into considera- 

 tion — its extreme seventy — its reerular duration of 

 from 12 to 14 hours daily — the damp, heated, and 

 unwholesome atmosphere of a coal mine, and the 

 tender age and sex of the workers— a picture is 

 presented of deadly physical oppression and sys- 

 tematic slavery, ot which I conscientiously believe 

 no one unacquainted with such liicts would credit 

 the existence in the British dominions." 



Married woman are chiefly employed in filling, 

 riddling, and carrying, and the labor imposed upon 

 them is excessive. The reason given by one 

 witness (herself married) why they undertake 

 such work at all is, " that if the women did not 

 work below, the children would not go down so 

 soon." The same witness says that she wrought 

 till a stone 14 months ago so crushed her leg and 

 foot that she could not gang; and that the oppres- 

 sion of coal bearing is such as to injure them in 

 alter life, few existing whose legs are not injured, 

 or else their haunches, before they are 30. What 

 other troubles married women undergo from ao 

 occupation so unnatural for them, will be seen" 

 from the following brief abstracts : 



.lane Johnson, aged 29 — " I could carry two 

 hundred weisht when 15 years of age, but now 

 feel the weakness upon me from the strains. I 

 have been married nearly 10 years and have had 

 lour children, and have usually wrought till within 

 a day ofthe child's birih. Many women lose their 

 strength early from overwork, and get injured in 

 their backs and legs." 



Jane Peacock, aged 40—" I have wrought 

 in the bowels of the earth 33 years. Have been 

 married 23 years, and had nine children, two Btili 

 born, and they were so from oppressive work. A 

 vast number of women have dead children and 

 false births, which are worse, as ihey are not able 

 to work after the latter. It is only horse work, 

 and ruins the women, it crushes their haunches, 

 bends their ancles, and makes them old women 

 at 40." 



Isabel Wilson, aged 38—" When on St. John's 

 work I was a carrier of coals, which caused me 

 to miscarry five times, from the strains, and I was 

 very ill after each." 



Elizabeth M'Neil— " I knew a woman who 

 came up, and the child was born in the field next 

 the coal hill. Women frequently miscarry below, 

 and suffer after." 



Jane Wood — " The severe work causes women 

 much trouble. They frequently have premature 

 births. My neighbor Jenny M'Donald has lain ill 

 for six months, and "William King's wife lately 

 died from miscarriage, and a vast number of wo- 

 men suffipr from similar causes. 



