S FOREWORD OMETIME when the light of a winter sunset is flooding the street, let the reader look narrowly at a stream of coal as it slides along the chute across the sidewalk. If the lumps are large and rusty, he may see that they are stained a blood red. It is only the oxide of iron. Yet coal cannot be obtained except at the cost of life. This sort of life The miner's life calls for risk and sacrifice, not only for himself, but equally for others. develops heroism. Yet there are no stage-heroes in the mines,-only plain men. If one is in danger of death, his comrades will risk their own lives for him,-and that is all there is about it. But he who leads the rescuing party is no hero in his own eyes; just an average sort of man who may need to be "brought out " himself to-morrow. The characters in this book are fictitious: the characteristics are real. Such things as are here recorded happen every day. For nearly fifteen years the lights and shadows in these pages have fallen across the author's path as he has gone among this people. One of the hindrances to an understanding of other classes is a lack of imagination. It is difficult for one whose life has been clean and safe to put himself in the place of another who is constantly struggling in the dark. Because those who know nothing of the miner's life find it so hard to sympathize with him in his needs and temptations, this book has been written. Some of the incidents here narrated have made their appearance in periodical form. They are here amplified and presented in their proper relation. W. F. G. |