CHAPTER I.

CLOUDS GATHER AT WILKES-BARRE.


There are few valleys to compare with that of the Susquehanna. In point
of picturesque scenery and modern alteration attained by the unceasing
labor of man, the antithesis between the natural and the artificial is
pronounced in many respects; especially at that place in the river where
it runs through the steep banks on which is situated the thriving city
of Wilkes-Barre. Here may be seen the majestic hills standing as
sentinels over the marts of men that crowd the river edge. The verdure
of these hills during the greater part of the year is the one sight that
gladdens the eyes of the miners whose lives, for the most part, are
spent in the coal pits.

The picture would be perfect were it not for the presence of the
Coal-Breakers. These sombre, grizzly structures stand in a long line on
the west bank of the river, and appear to the eye of one who knows their
purpose, as the gibbets that dotted the shores of England and France
must have loomed up before the mariners of the Channel during the
Seventeenth Century, and when the supply of pirates exceeded the number
of gibbets, large as this number was in both lands.

The breaker is a truly modern invention, which, had it existed in the
days of the Spanish inquisition, would have placed in the hands of the
malevolent fanatics an instrument of exquisite torture. It is
constructed to effect a double purpose, the achievement of the maximum