All alone, with no one
to speak to, sitting in a damp, stifling atmosphere, the poor children
had to stay day after day; and if they went to sleep they got well
beaten. Rats and mice were their only companions, and Sunday was the
only day on which they were gladdened by the daylight.
It was a shocking state of existence, nor did it grow better as the
children got older.
Then they had to drag heavy loads along the floors of the mine. When
the passages were narrow the boys and girls had a girdle fastened
round their waists, a chain was fixed to this, and passed between
their legs and hooked to the carriage. Then, crawling on hands and
knees through the filth and mire, they pulled these trucks as cattle
would drag them, whilst their backs were bruised and wounded by
knocking against the low roof.
Girls and women were made to carry heavy weights of coal. Children
stood ankle deep in water, pumping hour after hour, and their work was
sometimes prolonged for thirty-six hours continuously; so that it
was no wonder the children died early, that they suffered much from
disease, and led cheerless, wretched lives.
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