Driver in West Virginia Coal Mine. Brown, West Virginia.

“The driver boy must go down the shaft in time to clean and harness his mule, bring him to the foot of the shaft and hitch him to a trip of empty cars before seven o’clock. The driver takes the empty cars to the working places and returns them loaded. . . . There are today ten thousand drivers in the anthracite coal mines. These boys are in constant danger, not only of falling roof and exploding gas, but of being crushed by the cars. Their pay varies from $1.10 to $1.25, from which sum they supply their own lamps, cotton and oil.”—Rev. John McDowell (1902)