Image: George Harvan included most of the following photographs in The Time of Mollies (Lansford, 1969). He coupled many of the photographs with lines from contemporary ballads and poems that he found in the Mauch Chunk Democrat, Mauch Chunk Coal Gazette,…
Image: In the chutes I graduated instead of going to school--Remember, friends, my parents they were poor; When a boy left the cradle it was always made the rule; To try to keep starvation from the door. At eight years of age to the breaker first I went, To…
Image: Then don't refuse the miner lad, The crust of bread -- his prayer! Beneath that blackest face of his, He hides a heart as fair! The toil of his bare brawny arms, All, all our hearts and houses warm!
Image: When I went to the breaker first I was very young, My mother was left with a family and I the only son; My father he was taken, I hope his soul's at rest --He was crushed to death by a fall of coal while working in his breast.
Image: Little I thought when I grew old and mining could do no more, I'd go back to the breaker where I spent my days before. This world is full of trouble, hardship, care and strife, It's twice a boy and once a man, is a poor miner's life.
Image: There came to this country a short time ago, A poor Irish widow from the County Mayo. She had but one son, his age it was eight, And the boss gave him work picking slate. The first day at the breaker the boys all did stare, For poor little Mike was…