Image 1
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Today is Friday January 21, 1910 and it is a cold windy
morning in northwestern Pennsylvania. My name is Angelo; I’m a 12 year old from
a poor Italian Immigrant family. It’s early in the morning and I hear the
whistle blowing from the mine. That’s my cue to get out of my bed. I climbed
over my little brother with whom I share a bed with and rush downstairs. I run
to the coal stove to warm up before breakfast. I let the heat hit my back
especially, because it’s stiffer than hell. Why is my back so stiff, it’s
because I am a breaker boy at the local coal mine.
I’ve worked there now for the past 2 years. I’m not the only boy around who works there, many of the boys in the neighborhood work at the mine. We have to work because our parents need us to. They need us to provide money so we can survive. My dad had a fake birth certificate notarized so I was allowed to work. By law were not supposed to be there, but no one checks. I make 57 cents a day. I believe I should make more, but the stingy bastards that run the mine won’t give us anymore.
After warming up, my mother has
breakfast ready for me. My father is
already at the table, we have to eat quickly then get dressed for work. My mother gets our lunch ready and puts it in
a tin lunch pail. We head out the door
and head down the dark streets to the mine. I meet up with my buddies along the
way. We talk about how we’re going to prank the new kids today. We’re going to nail his lunch box down so he
can’t pick it up. Once there, we head to the breaker room. The room is tall and
dark; the air is still filled with some of the coal dust from yesterday.
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Once the coal starts rushing in,
the room will be filled with a black cloud. I breathe this in every day, I wear
a handkerchief over my mouth but I still breathe a lot of it in. I also chew on
tobacco, this helps absorb some of the coal dust. We hear the chute boss coming;
he’s the biggest asshole we know. He doesn’t give a damn about us; he beats the
hell out of us if we slack just a little. Now it’s time to start, we hear the
machinery starting up and we know the coal will soon follow. That’s what we’ll
hear for the rest of the day; the loud grinding of the coal crusher and tons of
coal coming down the chute. It’s too loud for us to talk, so we made up hand
signals so we can communicate.
Image 2
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Right before I crouch down to get started, I put a big wad
of chewing tobacco in and cover my mouth with my handkerchief. Now it’s time to
work, I crouch over as the coal starts rushing in. I’ll do this all day, trying
to sort out anything that doesn’t belong like slate and rocks. They won’t let
us wear gloves; they think we can handle the coal better that way. Our seats
don’t have a back on them, so our backs become stiff and sore rather quickly.
A couple of hours into the shift, I get a nasty cut on my right thumb. As I’m checking it out, my boss whips me with a stick. I hate that son of a bitch; I’ll get him back later. I know it’s getting close to noon that means lunchtime. I want to hurry over to the lunches and see the look on the new kids face when his lunch falls apart. He’s lucky because we actually like him. If we didn’t like him, we might yank his pants down and pour axle grease all over him. I eat my lunch quick so we can play tag. This is the only time we can get to run around while the sun is out. |
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The whistle blows and it’s time to
head back to the breaker. I grab some grease because I’m going to make a ball
of it and cover it in coal dust. That’s how I’m going to get the boss back;
when he’s not looking I’m going to drill the asshole with it. About a half hour
after lunch, it’s time to strike. I send a hand signal to a couple of my
buddies to watch this. I drill him with a perfect shot to the lower back. He’s so
pissed off, all the boys are laughing. He wants to know who did it, but no one
sequels, we all hate him. As the day comes closer to an end, I have to be
careful. By the end of the shift I’m so exhausted. I look up and one of the
newer kids leans over and almost falls into the coal crusher. We warn these dumb kids, sometimes they just
don’t listen.
Image 4
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Image 3
The shift is finally over and it’s been dark for a few hours now. I have one more day to go this week because we get Sundays off. As my buddies and I walk home, covered in black filth, we pass the local school house. I dropped out of school when I started at the mine. They had classes for the kids who worked at night, but I was too exhausted to go. When I would go to class, I would end up falling asleep on my desk.
Once home I go to the washroom and clean off the black cloud of dust that covers me before dinner. Then I rush back downstairs as my mother has supper ready for us. I’m starving; she made my favorite, beef stew. After dinner I play with my brother for a while. Then it’s off to bed for another day at the breaker. |
Image References
[1] Hine, Lewis. Hine: Breaker Boys 1911. 1911. Granger.
Web. 22 Nov. 2014. <http://imageslocal.fineartamerica.com/images/images-iphone5-cases-covers-medium/images-medium/hine-breaker-boys-1911-granger.jpg>.
[2] PHMC Bureau of Archives and History . Web. 22 Nov. 2014. <http://explorepahistory.com/kora/files/1/2/1-2-1A98-25-ExplorePAHistory-a0m2v5-a_349.jpg>.
[3] Typical Group of Breaker Boys in a Pennsylvania Mining Town. University of Minnesota. Web. 27 Nov. 2014. <http://darrow.law.umn.edu/photos/Breaker_Boys.jpg>.
[4] "Breaker boys, Woodward coal mines.". 1900. Detroit Publishing Company. Web. 22 Nov. 2014. <http://www.shorpy.com/files/images/4a16385a.jpg>.
[2] PHMC Bureau of Archives and History . Web. 22 Nov. 2014. <http://explorepahistory.com/kora/files/1/2/1-2-1A98-25-ExplorePAHistory-a0m2v5-a_349.jpg>.
[3] Typical Group of Breaker Boys in a Pennsylvania Mining Town. University of Minnesota. Web. 27 Nov. 2014. <http://darrow.law.umn.edu/photos/Breaker_Boys.jpg>.
[4] "Breaker boys, Woodward coal mines.". 1900. Detroit Publishing Company. Web. 22 Nov. 2014. <http://www.shorpy.com/files/images/4a16385a.jpg>.
