imself for a higher position in the mine by
hard reading. This Ohio mine, like many of the American collieries,
maintained a free school and an admirable technical library for the
use of those workers who wished to better themselves.

[Illustration: HOW ANTON'S FATHER WAS KILLED.

Miner, failing to test for vibration when tapping roof-slate, goes to
work and is crushed by falling slate.

_Courtesy of U. S. Bureau of Mines._]

[Illustration: COAL-HEWERS AT WORK.

Holing or Undercutting in a typical seam not high enough for men to
stand upright.

_From "Mines and Their Story."_]

[Illustration: WHERE THE BRANCH LINE FORKS.

Loaded car of coal switched to main line and on its way to the shaft.

_From "The Romance of Modern Mining," by A. Williams._]

The young student miner was zealous in his efforts to promote modern
ideas among his comrades, and knew that the old superstitions bred
carelessness and a blind belief in Fate. Despite their differences in
age and in points of view, he and Otto were warm friends, and he
returned the old man's attack promptly.

"So far as Anton's father is concerned, Otto," he said, "it was Jim
Rover's carelessness that killed him. He was caught by a falling roof
just because he wouldn't take the trouble to make sure that the draw
slate overhead was solid before setting to work to undercut the coal.
I know that's so, because he told me, just before he died. I was the
first one to reach him, after the fall, for I was working in the next
room, just around the rib."

"An' who made the draw slate fall, just when Jim Rover was a-standin'
right under it? Answer me that, Clem Swinton!"

The other shrugged his shoulders.

"Every man who's ever handled a coal pick knows that draw slate is apt
to work loose. That's one of the dangers of the business. And the
danger can be avoided, as you know perfectly well, Otto, if a chap
will feel the roof for vibration, with one hand, while he uses the
other to tap on the slate with the flat side of a pick. If he won't
take the trouble--why, it's his own fault if he gets killed.

"Blaming the 'knockers,' Otto, doesn't hide the fact that nearly a
thousand miners get killed in the United States every year, just
through their own carelessness."

The old man shook a finger ominously.

"It isn't always the careless ones what get taken," he declared. "Look
out for yourself, Clem Swinton; look out for yourself! It's you the
knockers'll be after