Froth Part 43

"What is the matter? Why do those men tremble so?" asked Esperancita anxiously.

"They have the palsy," said one of the clerks.

"What is the palsy?"

"They get it by working in the mines."

"Do many of them get it?"

"All of them," said the doctor, who had heard the question. "Mercurial palsy attacks all who work in the mines."

"And why do they work there, then?" asked the girl, with much simplicity.

"It is their mania!" said the doctor, with a peculiar smile.

"For my part I think the fresh air up here is much better to breathe than the foul air down below."

"Why, of course. I would be anything rather than a miner."

They came out at length on a small open s.p.a.ce, where some workmen were busy erecting an artistic pedestal of marble.

"This is the pedestal for the statue of the Duke," said the manager of the mines, in a loud voice.

"Ah, ah! They are going to put up a statue to you?" said one and another, gathering round the great man. He shrugged his shoulders with a deprecating gesture.

"I am sure I don't know. Some absurd notion that has been started in the miners' wine-shops, I suppose."

"No, indeed, Senor Duque," exclaimed the manager, whose duty it had been to start the idea which Llera had suggested to him at a hint from Salabert himself. "No, indeed. The town of Riosa is anxious to erect a monument of its grat.i.tude and respect to a n.o.ble patron who, in the most critical circ.u.mstances, did not hesitate to risk an enormous sum in the purchase of a half-ruined undertaking, and so to save it from utter disaster."

"What a beautiful thing it is to do good!" exclaimed Lola, in a voice full of feeling; and her pretty eyes rested admiringly on Requena.

Every one complimented him; though many of those present knew the meaning of this magnificent sacrifice. They looked at the work for a minute or two, and then proceeded on their way. The mines were close to the town, on the further side. Outwardly they looked like a manufactory on a small scale, with a few tall chimneys vomiting black smoke. There was nothing to betray their colossal value. The party went into the buildings and over the premises where the subsidiary processes of the works were carried on, and which included carpenters' sheds and forges, the engineers' office and private room, &c. But what impressed them all was the sad and sickly appearance of the operatives. They were all broken with decrepitude, and the Condesa de Cotorraso could not help saying:

"Only old men seem to be employed."

The manager smiled. "They are not old, though they look so, Senora."

"But they are all wrinkled, and their eyes are sunken and dim."

"There is not a man of forty among them. Those whom you see at work here are too far gone to work underground. We employ them up here, but they get less wages."

"And does it take long in the mines to reduce them to this condition?"

asked Ramon.

"Not long, not long," murmured the manager, and he went on: "Such as you see them, they are always eager to get back to the mine again. The pay for outside work is so small."

"What do they get?"

"A peseta a day; six reales at most."[F]

They next visited the smelting-houses. The Duke had gone on first with the English engineer, whom he had engaged to report on the improvements needed to make the works pay. In these sheds they saw huge furnaces, piles of cinnabar and stores of mercury.

The furnaces consist of a retort in which the cinnabar is placed with the combustibles for calcining it. From this retort earthenware condensers rise, branching off into pipes communicating with each other.

In these pipes the vapours of mercury which rise from the furnace are reduced by condensation to the liquid state; and the quicksilver is precipitated and flows out by holes in the lower face of the pipes. But as a large amount of sooty matter remains, containing particles of metal, it is necessary to remove and clean the condensers one by one.

This is the work of boys, of from ten to fifteen, who, for seven or eight hours at a time, breathe an atmosphere charged with mercurial poison. They next visited the stores and the shed where the mineral is weighed for sale. And everywhere the operatives wore the same appearance of decrepitude.

The manager now proposed that they should inspect the hospital. Some refused, but Lola, who never missed an opportunity of displaying her benevolent sentiments, set the example, and most of the ladies followed her, with a few of the men. The Duke excused himself, as he was busy with the engineers, who were giving him their opinion on the state of the furnaces.

The hospital was outside the precincts of the mines, near the burial-ground--no doubt to accustom the inmates to the idea of death, and also, perhaps, that if the mercurial vapours proved ineffectual to kill them, those of the graveyard might finish the task. It was an old building, tumble-down, damp, and gloomy. It was only sheer shame which hindered the ladies from turning back from the threshold. The doctor, who had undertaken to guide them, showed them into the different rooms, and displayed the dreadful panorama of human suffering. Most of the poor wretches were dressed, and sitting on their beds or on chairs. Their drawn, corpse-like faces were objects of terror; their bodies shook with incessant trembling, as though they were stricken with a common panic.

Fear and pity were painted on the fresh faces of their visitors; and the doctor smiled his peculiar smile, looking at them boldly with his large, black eyes.

"Not a pleasing picture, is it?" said he.

"Poor creatures! And are they all miners?"

"Yes, all. The atmosphere they live in, vitiated by mercurial vapours, and the insufficient supply of fresh air, inevitably produce not only this trembling from acute or chronic mercurial poisoning--which is the most conspicuous result--but pulmonary catarrh of an aggravated type, dysentery, tuberculosis, mercurial irritation of the stomach, and many other diseases which either shorten their lives or render them incapable of labour after a few years spent under ground."

"Poor things--poor creatures!" repeated his hearers.

The little party who had followed his guidance listened to him with attention and sympathy. Never had they seen anything so terrible.

Labour--a penalty in itself--was here complicated with poisoning; and with sincere emotion, full of the best intentions, they suggested means of alleviating the misery of the sufferers. Some declared that a good hospital ought to be erected; others suggested a shop, on charitable principles, where the workmen could obtain good food at a cheap rate; others urged that the children should not be employed at all; others again that the labourers should be allowed to work for only a very limited time.

The doctor smiled and shook his head.

"All this would be admirable, no doubt; I quite agree with you. But then, as I can but tell you, it would not be a paying business."

They distributed some money among the sick, visited the chapel, where again they left some money to procure a new robe for the Holy Infant, and at last got out of the dismal place. To breathe the fresh air once more was almost intoxicating, and they laughed and talked as they made their way back to join the rest of the party.

The engineers were explaining to Salabert a new process of sublimation which might be adopted, and by which not only would the production be vastly increased, but the residue would be utilised. This was effected by condensers formed of chambers of very thin brickwork in the lower part of the funnel carrying off the vapour, and of wood and gla.s.s above.

A furnace to which these were fitted could be kept constantly going. The Duke listened attentively, took notes, raised objections, mastered the details of the business, and finally his keen nose scented enormous profits.

As the ladies came up he gallantly postponed the discussion.

"Well, how are my sick getting on, ladies? The sun has shone on them to-day," said he.

"Badly, Duke, very badly. The hospital leaves much to be desired."

And with one accord they complained of the defects of the building, painting it in the blackest colours, and proposing improvements to make it comfortable.

The Duke listened with smiling indifference and the half-ironical attention we give to a coaxing child.

"Very well, very well; we will have it all seen to. But you will allow me to set the business on its feet first--eh, Regnault?"

The superintendent bowed with an insinuating smile.

"And the men must work shorter hours," said the Condesa de Cebal.

"And they really must be better paid," added Lola.