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Tape 16-1, Page 7

Nothin'! They all stuck on them, they didn't do their work. That's the way
the miners, some of' them, are. They'll work hard, but they killin' theirselves
and won't produce nothin'. that's, that's it. So when they come down there, the
mine laborers come over to me, I went in and looked at it--and there was a
company man, he was a road man, and he was fixin' a latchet
or switch into our place, and he said, Oh, he said, today you'll have a good chance,
because they fired fourteen holes. I said, We'll see. So we waited a little while for
that dust to blow away, the smoke, and I go in, and Oh, it was pretty dusty yet, and
I look and I took a shovel and a pick, maybe gthere's some big chunks, you know and
they rolled over on the track, I'll bust them and throw gthem on the sides that they can
put the cars in. Ha! I'm goin', goin', I come to the end of the track, I don't see nothin'!
And I start grtumblin' to myself, I said, Well, I'd like to see the guy and tell me that
there's lots of coal. I says I don't see a gosh-dang piece, I said, like my fist. There
was some dust around, that's all. So my buddies come down, my laborers, they come down,
and they look and look, and the guy takes a shovel and he says, Joe, he says, you gotta
go and drill a hole or two, give us a start, so we or we won't get home tonight. I said
never mind, I said, we'll get it. And this guy that was puttin' in the latches there, the
company guy, he said, What the hell went wrong over there? And he was a dark-
complected guy, you know. I said you black son-of-a-gun you, I said come on and show
me that coal, I says. And he come runnin' over you know, and he looks around and
looks around and puts his head on my shoulder and he says, Well now I believe you, he says.
No wonder your laborers were always goin'... see, because e everybody looked to try
to get an earlier shift you know. If you made your shift then you was goin' home, you didn't
have to stay eight hours, you know. You'd go home. So they used to be mad because
them guys always had a chance and we don't. So I take the damn augur and I drill
two holes. When I fire them, this guy that was puttin' in latches, he said, How the hell
how to them holes shoot? I said what do you mean, how do they shoot? I said, Wait,
when you go down, then you'll