Reports of the Inspectors of Mines of the anthracite coal regions of ...

112 Reports of the Inspectors of Mines. [No. 10,
the inspector can do but very little to avert accidents from this cause, and
the individual operator and corporations are as helpless as the inspector,
only in the matter of compelling their mine bosses to do their duty in re-
lation to propping. The men themselves are the parties to attend to this
matter above all others. We sorely need better discipline, and I woidd
hail the day when every colliery shall have a code of rigid rules which
shall have equal force with the mine law itself. In England, the " mine
regulation act " provides for such rules, and I now have copies before me,
and I believe that such a set of rules would do great good in our collieries,
and I most earnestly commit the subject to the consideration of our law-
makers.
Crushed by Mine Cars.
There was only one fatal accident from this cause during the year ; but
the non-fatal ones numbered thirty-eight. There can be no excuse for the
Irequency of accidents from this cause. Drivers and runners are the prin-
cipal sufferers, and in most cases they bring the suffering upon themselves.
They get into a rage at their mules, and beat them until they get so mulish
as to be utterly unmanageable, and, in their attempts to control them, they
are frequently thrown under the cars, and are seriously injured. Several
bo^^s have lost limbs in this way during the year, and escaped with their
lives onl^- as by a miracle. Several men have been injured by mine
cars also, in trying to pass tliem on the wrong side, and in narrow places
on the main roads, and by riding on them. As a rule there is ample room
to pass cars at all the collieries on the one side or the other of the road,
and if men will only use their common sense they need not be caught. I
have found some places where drivers and runners had to run to sprag their
cars, where tlie pillars were too close, and I have caused skips to be taken
from the pillars to give them the necessary room. Mine bosses in many
collieries do not keep the roadsides clear enough from rubbish, bon}'^, rock,
&c., and the boys stumble over them, and often fall under the cars. Such
collieries are in a dirty, slouchy condition, and the mine bosses in charge
are generally of the same character.
Accident No. 22.—James Owens, a door boy in Jermyn's slope, Jermyn,
was instantly killed July 2d, by a trip of loaded cars on a self-acting plane.
The little fellow was going to his work in the morning, and was walking
up the plane upon the wrong side of the track, and when tliirty j^ards from
the foot of the plane, the loaded trip came down upon him, knocking him
down, and mangling his body in the most shocking manner, and carrying
it down to the foot of the plane. His head was nearly severed from his
body, one arm was entirely cut off, and every bone in his body seemed to
be broken. There are so many accidents occurring on the slopes and planes
in this manner, that I am forced to express the opinion that no one should
be allowed to travel on them while they are working. A traveling way
ought to be provided parallel with them, and this could be done in almost