The river tipple is operated in much the same way as the railroad tipple, except that its apparatus must be so arranged as to accommodate itself to high or low water. The floor of the river tipple is usually placed from forty to fifty feet above low-water mark, and the weighing pan is held in position by a counter-weight, which may be raised or lowered at pleasure. A small stationary engine, or a hand windlass, draws the empty boat or barge into position under that end of the tipple which projects over the water. About twice as many men are required to operate a river tipple as are necessary to operate a railroad tipple, and while the railroad tipple costs but from two thousand to four thousand dollars the river tipple is built at an expense of from four thousand to ten thousand dollars. But even this latter figure is small when compared with the cost of an anthracite breaker, which may run anywhere from twenty thousand to one hundred thousand dollars. CHAPTER XV. THE BOY WORKERS AT THE MINES. In the coal mines of the United States boys are employed at two kinds of labor: to attend the doors on the traveling roads, and to drive the mules. This is known as inside work. Their outside work consists in picking slate at the breaker, and in driving the mules that draw mine cars on the surface. No one of these different kinds of employment is such as to overtax the physical strength of boys of a proper age, but they are all confining, some are dangerous, and some are laborious. Yet the system of child labor in the coal mines of America has never been comparable to that which was formerly in vogue in Great Britain. The British “Coal Mines Regulation Act” of 1872 remedied the then existing evils to a considerable extent; but the hardships still to be endured by children in the British mines are greater than those which their American brothers must suffer. The act of 1872, just referred to, provides that boys under ten years of age shall not be employed under ground, and that boys between ten and twelve years of age shall be allowed to work only in thin mines. It is the duty of these children to push the cars, or trams as they are called, from the working faces to the main road and back. Boys who are thus employed are called “hurriers” or “putters.” They are often obliged to crawl on their hands and knees, pushing the car ahead of them, because the roof of the excavation is so low. That is why boys who are so young are allowed to work here; because, being small, they can the more readily crawl through the passages cut in these thin seams, which often do not have a vertical measurement of more than from twenty to twenty-eight inches. The act of 1872 forbids the employment of females in the British mines; but formerly not only boys but girls and women also worked underground. There was then no restriction as to age, and girls were sent into the mines to labor at an earlier age than were boys, because they were