THE BLACK COUNTRY.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2622, 4 June 1877, Page 2

THE BLACK COUNTRY.

Although it may not be desirable that thebHthe-brotherhood of pit lads should indulge, as absurd rumour some time since, gave them credit for doing, in champagne for luncheon and pine-apples at dessert, it is very satisfactory to Jcno.w that bread learned amid the grinie and heat ?of a coal-pit need not be either coarse in quality or stinted in quantity. No, one, indeed, who from practical experience knows anything of Blaclr Country life, would feel disposed 7 to d grudge the poor underground^ Sludge something besides mere bread. Good meat in abundance, and gcod beer, should also be his. It is a grimesome county. The oxen in the meadows look as though they had been belaboured with soot-bags, and it sets one's teeth on edge to watch the dusky sheep cropping the gritty grass. The roads and. paths are the color of jet, the mud is of the complexion of paste-blacking, and the roadside-puddles are pools of ink. The nature of the soil pursues the miner even to the churchyard. Nobody " lies under the turf," correctly spaaking, in the land of pit-holes, unless it be turf of the kind which is sold in slabs, as fuel. It is literally " ashes to ashes " here. Black tombstones, with, gold lettering, is the fashion in the coal districts. But only for a very little while can; the metal retain its pristine lustre. The chemicals with which the heavy air is charged soon change the gold to clay.-cplor ; it shrivels in its setting, and hangs about the letters in curled-up morsels. . • • • It must not be imagined, however, that the pit lad (they are called lads, fromseven to seventy) resigns himself to tho grimy influences of- his surroundings. To his credit be it spoken, he is a" blacix -" no longer than he can: help. , His first act when he reaches home—of course, there may be exceptions, but Tani speaking of the rule—is to "goin " for awash/ In every pitman's house may be found at least one enormous tub, and hot water is ready prepared by the time* he returns in the evening, or morning if he is working " night shift;" and no good wife would think of letting her lad sit down to supper until she has scrubbed him clean. It is a two-handed job, as any one who has endeavored to sponge between his shoulders and the small of his back may easily understand. They

ha?e a praise-worthy respect for Sunday, and, if they do not all go lo church, they make a fair compromise, if there is truth in the axiom that " cleanliness is next to godliness." It is a fact, that in Sabbathday tidiness the inhabitants of a pit village come out triumphantly from comparison with a certain class of Londoners. Take any five hundred of the mob which throngs the New Cut or Shoreditch on a Sunday morning, while the churchbells are tolling, and the same number at the same hour walking out in this region of eternal smut, and for one illwashed, slovenly-clad pit lad, you may count twenty Londoners. "Of course, it is easy enough to understand their washing themselves on Sunday, as well as on week-days, but bow they contrive to keep clean all day long is the wonder. They seem to have a way of putting such a gloss on their skin by means of yellow soap and rough towelling that the coaldust, if it settles, blows off again, just as it does off a looking-glass or plate of polished metal. : The pit lad's life underground is much more methodical than might be imagined. His working hours, in times of peace and harmony, and when strikes are not disturbing the land, are eleven per day; and since it would be a waste of time to raise so many cagesful of lads at dinnertime, they take their mid-day meal in the bowels of the earth, not on the heaps nor in the holes, however, but in the regular dining room, which is a chamberMj~<* cut out in coal. The pit lad does no^F' dress for dinner. He: does not eT«n . wash his face, which is as black and shiny as the material he work* on. Neither is he fastidious in the matter of tablecloths and cutlery; but, despite these small deficiencies, a pitman's dinnerparty is a picturesque spectacle to contemplate. The food is good, abundant, and substantial. At mid-day scores of pitman's wives and children may be teen hurrying to the pit banks, eacH _ the bearer of a capacious basin, tied in a check handkerchief, and very unmittakeably labelled with the name of the individual to whom it is consigned. As for beer, that is provided for all who require it on the premises, every pitman being entitled to the liberal allowance of two quarts daily. The check handkerchief serves as. a tablecloth, and the pocket clasp-knife, with a spoon, complete the dinner service. The "buttjr'' finds the c.ndles, so that it does not do to indulge in a very brilliant illumination over the banquet, but the few dismal " dips," stuck against the glistening walls with dabs of clay, yield sufficient light to - reveal the hearty feeders --some with the sleeves of their jackets tied.round their throats comforter wise (for::there are strong draughts through a well-ventilated pit), some with their broad shoulders and chest and arms naked as those of savages, and as black. The days, however, when the word "pitman " was almost synonymous with" savage " hare long since departed. In the present times, in many pits, swearing is strictly prohibited, both while the men are at work and while they /are- in the diningroom, the.forfeiture of a day's beer being the penalty of disobedience; nor is it at all uncommon to find, after dinner, and during the "rest," that som? v pious old pitman has produced a Bible, from which he gives forth wholesome lesions for; the good of those who choose, to listen. One of the greatest advantages, according to the men's thinking, that a /'safe" pit possess over a,"fiery" one, is that it enables them to smoke a pipe after dinner.—James Greenwood, in Railway Service Gazette. J