Shorpy, Urchins, & This Fabulous Century
Funny how these interweb things happen. You do a google search for one thing and stumble upon another. Today I discovered Shorpy . "December 1910. " Shorpy Higginbotham , a 'greaser' on the tipple at Bessie Mine, of the Sloss-Sheffield Steel and Iron Co. in Alabama. Said he was 14 years old, but it is doubtful. Carries two heavy pails of grease, and is often in danger of being run over by the coal cars." Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine." For some reason his face resonates with me. My Welsh ancestors came to America and were coal miners in Van Meter, Pennsylvania - site of the Darr Mine explosion of 1907 where 239 souls died. My gramma still talks about buying things at the "company store" and her father, my great-grandfather Williams, died of the black lung... This picture also makes me think of the Second Life New Babbage urchins (I'm at 1:09 in the blue dress) ...and how these kids I think would fit in right fine wit...