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Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday February 11, 1903
Children of Pennsylvania’s Anthracite “Coal Shadow”
-Part II of article by Francis H. Nichols, with illustrations by Frank E. Schoonover
From McClure’s Magazine of February 1903:
CHILDREN OF THE COAL SHADOW
BY FRANCIS H. NICHOLS
Illustrated by Frank E. Schoonover
[Part II of III]
The School of the “Breaker”
The company’s nurseries for boys of the coal shadow are the grim black buildings called breakers, where the lump coal from the blast is crushed into marketable sizes…..Between the [coal] chutes are boys. All day long their little fingers dip into the unending grimy steam that rolls past them…..
…..In front of the chutes is an open space reserved for the “breaker boss,” who watches the boys as intently as they watch the coal.
The boss is armed with a stick, with which he occasionally raps on the head and shoulders a boy who betrays lack of zeal…..
