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Page 9
"We remove a scale from the rock, and behind is still another picture.
The whole mass of the shaly roof is a portfolio of inimitable sketches.
The sharpest outlines and the minutest serratures are clearly traced.
Buds, woody stems, cones, fruits, grasses, rushes, club mosses, all are
by turns pictured on the dusky ceiling."
In another portion of his book, Professor Winchell speaks of very
curious things that have been found in many instances by miners in the
heart of a coal mine.
These are the trunks of trees, which are found standing upright as
though still growing.
Mr. Winchell says:
"These tree-trunks are from one to five feet in diameter, and are
sometimes sixty or seventy feet in height.
"In many instances they have been found standing erect, and have
evidently been buried by accumulations of mud and sand.
"In the excavation of a bed of coal these petrified trees are not
unfrequently cut off below, when the slight taper of the trunk permits
them to slide down into the mine.
"These 'coal pipes' are much dreaded by English miners, for almost every
year they are the cause of fatal accidents."
* * * * *
The tailors of New York are striking for better wages and shorter hours.
They want laws to protect them, for they complain that their wages are
often left unpaid.
Several of the Unions in neighboring cities have joined the New Yorkers,
and it is expected that the strike will be a long one.
This strike is peculiar in one sense, for, while the workmen are really
fighting the contractors, these same contractors are heartily in
sympathy with them, and hope that they will win.
The contractors are the people who make the garments for the large
wholesale houses, and they declare that the low prices the wholesale
houses pay for the clothes is the cause of all the trouble.
Formerly the contractor was able to get $1.25 for making a coat, now the
manufacturers will only pay 75 cents.
As the manufacturers' prices went down, the contractors had less money
to pay their hands with, and they were obliged in turn to reduce the
wages of the workers.
When the wages were as low as the contractors dared make them, they
increased the day's task, and forced the workers to make more coats in
their day's work.
For the first time in six years all the branches of the tailors' trade
have joined in the strike.
The leaders from all the various organizations have had meetings, and
consulted as to the scale of wages to be demanded from the contractors,
and the terms on which the strikers will return to work.
It is hoped that they will be able to hold out until the end of June,
when the busy season for making winter clothes begins, and when the
wholesale houses will be obliged to consent to pay higher prices for the
garments or lose their winter business.
A great deal of sympathy is felt for the strikers. The President of the
Police Board actually went to one of their meetings and addressed them.
He told them that he believed their cause was a proper one, but warned
them that they would ruin themselves if they used any violence.
He said that he had been told that some of their number had begun to get
restless and grumble, so he had dropped in on them in a friendly way, to
ask them to be careful, and not do anything to bring them in contact
with the police.
So far there has been no rioting or violence.
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