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entries are opened to the right and left of the main entries on the same plan. In some mines the entries are driven singly, but they are not so good. Entries are from eight to twelve feet wide. Rooms are started off the butt entries, beginning from eight to twelve feet wide and gradually widening out to about twenty-four feet, at which width they are run parallel with main entry. This plan is often deviated from by reason of faults in the vein, described heretofore, and the roof in places becoming too treacherous to work under. Butt entries are about two hundred yards apart; the pillars or ribs left between the rooms are about twelve feet thick, through this pillar the workingmen make a break through about four feet wide, every sixty feet, to let the current of air through up close to the face. When a new break-through is made, the old one should be closed up in order to throw a stronger current of air to the working face, but this is not always done, because it cuts down the operators' profits, and the men suffer often with hanging powder smoke.

The pillars of a mine are left until the rooms are all worked out. When the miners attack them, and take them out, this is considered the most dangerous part of mining. Some of the mines have a largefurnace, others an exhaust fan to produce artificial ventilation.

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SMOKE IN MINES.

Smoke is the combined gasses and carbon escaping from fire in a state of imperfect combustion, and is liable to ignite by coming in contact with fire. In mines where the coal is shot on the solid, as is most of ours, vast volumes of smoke fill the mines after firing, which on being drawn to the one furnace becomes very dense in places. On September 14, John Henderson, a miner, was badly burnt in Mine No. 6. An at investigation held went to show that at the noon firing, as he was preparing to leave the mine, a dense volume of smoke filled the mine around him, at which time an Italian miner put off a very light shot, which ignited the smoke and filled the entry with fire. Smoke is often permitted to hang too long in parts of our mines, some days, by the pit bosses, for the health and comfort of the miners.

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VENTILATION.

The ventilation of mines is of great importance. Fans and furnaces are the means used, assisted by natural causes. A furnace is built of fire brick on a level with the vein of coal under an upcast shaft, in which a fire is kept up. A fan is placed at the top of an upcast

shaft and is run by steam power. There are days, in some of our mines, when a lamp can scarcely be kept burning on some of the entries by reason of a strong current of air sweeping through, while on other days, on the same entries, the current is weak and baffled. The intake or downcast being on a northern slope, consequently, when the wind blows from the north, which is generally cool, it has a tendency to suck in, hence the mine is well ventilated on such occasions. The lamps on the ent y are often blown out. On a calm day, with only a light breeze from the south, the furnace and fan must labor without the outside pressure they had when the wind was north. Again, cool air is heavier than warm air. When the atmosphere outside is cool and inside warm, it must, following the laws of nature, press in at the intake. The law says there shall be passing in every mine one hundred cubic feet of air per minute to the man, measured at the foot of the downcast. All practical mine men know that a mine. can have double that amount passing in at the downcast, while the men will be choking with smoke and bad air by reason of the pit bosses neglecting to erect doors at the proper places on the entries, and brattice up his break-throughs and abandoned rooms so as to carry the air from the downcast in the face of the workings, thence around the face to the upcast. Air entering a mine, could it find an opening, will take the nearest cut to the upcast. These openings it often finds, because it takes lumber and labor to close them up. I have never found an instrument to measure the air in a miner's room. lamp, lungs and eyes must be your guide to judge its quality and quantity. Here an inspector meets with his greatest trouble in enforcing the law regarding ventilation; not that he cannot tell from the burning of his lamp and the air taken into his lungs that it is impure, but the boss says it is good, you are mistaken in your judgment, you are not in this mine day after day like myself, did you not measure it at the downcast where the law said it should be measured, with your annemometer, and found I had more than the standard? The law does not say that I shall brattice up my break-throughs, nor hang doors where you want them. The inspector now must resort to the courts, where a justice who has likely never been inside a coal mine must decide the case upon the testimony offered. The very men whom the inspector is seeking to benefit, now say: "I cannot testify that this air is bad without losing my place; I have a family, and work is hard to get now; compromise it; the wind will change to-morrow, likely, and our air will be better." Let the law say how the air shall be conducted from the intake to the face of the workings and around the workings, and what openings shall be closed.

Your

I wish to say in justice to Messrs. Sweeny, Superintendent of the Keith & Perry Coal Co., and J. T. Reavley, Superintendent of Rich Hill Coal Co., that these gentlemen have always treated me most courteously when in the discharge of my official duties, and afforded me every facility for entering and inspecting their mines at all times; and further, that these gentlemen have used all reasonable diligence in providing for the safety of the men under their charge.

MINERS' CUSTOMS.

Coal diggers have a custom that I do not know of being in vogue among any other laboring class. They only wash their hands at the noon meal, although their faces will be as black as midnight; but when the day's work is done they go through an ablution of the entire body. This custom is strictly adhered to, both in winter and summer. Many of them strip to the waist when in their underground room at work.

INTELLIGENCE AMONG MINERS.

A very respectable per cent. of our miners are intelligent—a reading and thinking people, well posted on the leading questions before the American people-keen disputants of the question that has baffled the wisdom of our greatest statesmen-Labor and Capital. During the dull seasons in the coal trade they have considerable leisure time. At these intervals they will frequently be found in squads and groups discussing this great problem of man against money, labor vs. capital, religious and political questions entering into their discourses, displaying thought and ability that would astonish those unfamiliar with their mode of life.

A large per cent. of all diggers entertain as little faith in a capitalist operating a coal mine and being free from a disposition to oppress them on every opportunity that presents itself, as a young Protestant that has been reared with Fox's Book of Martyrs in the house, has in Catholicism. There are a few miners who agitate every little trouble between the operators and men, who are only capable of seeing one side of a question, and do not stop to consider whether the grievance is real or imaginary, but advocate a strike, a resort to force. Such men in the coal fields are capable of doing much mischief, alike to men and operators, by their loud talk and socialistic views, sowing a seed of discord, which can only bring forth turmoil and trouble. There are times when the coal trade will justify a rise in price to the diggers and at other times a reduction. If the operators and miners would come together and settle this matter by arbitration, I believe it would save

much valuable time and money to operators, and would save a great deal of suffering and privation on the part of the miners and their families, and there would be none of that bitter feeling which a strike engenders. No miners' organization should ever advocate a strike until every possible means for an amicable settlement has been exhausted, for the men are sure to be the losers in the long run.

Men whose lives are largely confined to the dark and gloomy interior of a mine, where they are constantly confronted with the treacherous tap roof above, and noxious and explosive gases surrounding them; who take, as we might well say, their lives in their hands on entering the mines, baring the body to the waist and braving the perils to bring forth a commodity that the wheels of industry cannot move without, should have all the legislation that their surroundings demand. Rich men are a blessing, without them a country would be poor indeed, in every sense of the term; yet I have always thought they found means of protecting their interests in legislative halls which were not altogether in harmony with right and justice. From some cause our poor are getting poorer and more numerous, while the rich are growing richer, the middle man gradually disappearing. This is not a good showing for our republican form of government.

The statistics of the past few years show a vast amount of discon tent among underground coal miners; a great amount of time has been lost in strikes and suspensions, which is paralyzing to the coal business, often resulting in the destruction of mining property and suffering among miners and their families. The cause of this discontent the Legislature should diligently enquire into and remove if possible.

AREA OF COAL.

It is utterly impossible to give the area of workable coal in Bates county, as required by law. The Walnut coal fields, which have within a short time secured railroad facilities, are being developed. The indications are that from the amount of croppings on the hillside and in ravines, they cover a large territory and will prove a source of vast wealth to Bates county. The Mulberry is the same series. From indications I am inclined to believe there is less barren ground in these fields than in the Rich Hill coal series. The Hudson coal, I think, lays only in small troughs and basins. The number of prospect holes put down in the Gilbreath neighborhood with a drill will justify this conclusion. The coal lands purchased by the Kansas Missouri Coal Company, in north of Prairie City and northeast of Papinville, from what I could see in a short stay, judging from surface indications, form a

rich coal deposit, and ere long will witness the business scenes of a coal mining community. Form a careful study of the coal interests of Bates county for years, I am led to believe that the black diamond is almost inexhaustable.

ACCIDENTS IN MINES.

I very much regret to have to say in this respect that a large per cent. of the accidents in our mines are traceable to carelessness or recklessness on the part of the miners themselves. Men, in their familiarity with danger, become careless and reckless. I have often insisted on them putting in more props in their rooms, when they nearly invariably say, time enough yet. I have seen men go through black damps and white damps, when there was no necessity for it. I have seen numbers of them pass through the cage. when down, and under it when up, when there was a man-way around, a very dangerous proceeding. Numbers of times the mule drivers have passed me with mules in a trot or gallop, with one foot on the tail chain, the other on the inch and one-half projection at the bottom of the box. Many of them fail to use the necessary caution in handling powder and tamping; some in returning too soon to a squib that had been lit and was hanging fire. During the year, four men have been killed by falling roofs and eight seriously injured. Two men have been killed by premature discharge of powder in shooting, or squibs hanging fire, and returning too soon to examine same, while eight have been injured. One has been killed while passing under a cage, and three seriously injured. Six mule drivers have been crippled, more or less seriously. One man was injured by blast blowing through a rib; he was firing a shot on the rib, went into an adjoining room when the shot blew through and crippled him. I have no means of knowing how many of the injured die. I had time to call on one of the unfortunates injured some time ago, and am satisfied he cannot last much longer. He was a young, stout, noble looking fellow. The above is only a part of the accidents, as many of a less serious character the law does not require of me to investigate. I would recommend that there be a law passed requiring the county or district where mining is carried on to erect and maintain a hospital for crippled miners.

NO. OF MINES IN OPERATION.

li would be very difficult and tedious to give the number of mines in operation in this county. A large majority of them are surface mines or strip pits; they would run up into the hundreds. I will endeavor to