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Coal camps that are unionized have a one-room schoolhouse, basic cabins for the miners and their families, a clinic, and a store, but this camp, from the looks of it, is aThe houses are littlehts on the front turn to stare Their faces are so covered with coal dust, their eyes are the only thing alive, and you can’t tell by looking who’s Scotch Irish, who’s Negro, who’s an Italian brought in by the coal barons to work the black gold Five years ago, 20 percent of the miners were black, former sharecroppers who found better work and betterof thebehind theh, Mrs Kelly, Nora, and I fought alongside the International Workers of the World, the Wobblies, for the Child Labor Amendment of 1919, but the Suprees believed the federal governulate the industrialists and it would be just fine for young children to work in sweatshops or e on the burro, I make note of the lack of outhouses There’s not one privy anywhere, and when it rains the huround and runs downhill to the communal well Despite the chill in the autumn air, children play barefoot in the yellon creek A rail-thin wo a thin blue-and-white-flowered feed-sack dress walks out on her stoop and throws the water in her dishpan across her yard

At last Tho black tar-papered shack where a girl of about eight watches the road through the dusty four-paneThe youngster’s face brightens, and she announces my arrival to whoever’s in the room From the looks of the place, this is another birth for which I won’t be paid, and it’s not because they lost their money in the stock market, either

The dark man helps me off my burro, handsme, Mr Proudfoot"

There’s just the flicker of a s his hat That’s all he says; then he’s gone

Delfina

Stu up the rickety steps with my birth satchel, I wish Thomas Proudfoot had at least stayed to introduce me Inside, who knohat I’ll find? But before I can knock, the door flies open

"She’s doin’ poorly," a nervous e brown eyes with long lashes illuminate his worried face

I take in the room Newspapers cover the interior walls to keep out the wind There are two big beds, a worn sofa, a rocker, and a cradle In one corner, a crude kitchen counter has been put together with shelves of weathered boards The iron cookstove, a wooden table with six un cord fro--that’s all there is

I’m surprised to see that the family has electricity, but remind myself that all coal ca mechanical shuttles up on tracks It used to be donkeys that brought the coal out; before that, men were used as pack animals, and before that, children and fe under a tattered brown quilt in one of the rus sit at the table, hiding their faces, but the girl, still perched on the sill, looks right at me Nobody smiles Nobody says hello I’ve entered a Charles Dickens world

I skip the introductions They knoho I a pains, Mr Cabrini?" When she hears my voice, the woe, er Her curly brown hair is matted on one side, and her face is flushed and sweaty

"Since last night" TheItalian accent, and I wonder if his wife and children speak any English at all