Labor History: Con Carbon, The Minstrel of the Minepatch

Friday's Labor Folklore Con Carbon, the Minstrel of the Mine Patch Con Carbon the Minstrel of the Mine Patch  by  George Korson Con Carbon was the best known of all of the bards and minstrels in the Anthracite Coal Region of Pennsylvania.  Born into a mining household in Hazleton, Pennsylvania in 1871, he went to work in the Audenried Breaker at the age of nine. Three years later he was brought to Wilkes-Barre by his parents and there continued his apprenticeship in the mines.   Carbon came into public notice quite early when he revealed the sweetest tenor voice in the Wyoming Valley. He was also richly endowed with Irish wit and a sense of mimicry. But all these gifts were mere handmaidens to his outstanding talent -- the ability to articulate in ballad form the thoughts, feelings, experiences, and deepest yearnings of his fellow workers.   New ballads came from him in a steady stream, every traditional one increasing his popularity until his name became a household word throughout the region. He was always on demand to sing his own ballads, but his frail health did not permit him to accept even a fraction of all the invitations that rained down on him. As an expedient, he collected some of his songs and ballads which he had printed under the title of "Con Carbon's Own Songster" and sold at ten cents a copy. Nearly all the contents were cast in phonetic Irish dialect: "When the Breaker Starts Up Full Time," "Mackin's Porch," "Gossip in a Street Car" and "Me Johnny Mitchell Man."    Con Carbon was idolized not only as a maker and singer of miners' ballads, but as a superb storyteller and mimic. His Irish brogue was delicious and, indeed, nature was profligate with her gifts to this humble mining boy. It is gratifying to record that he used these gifts not to enrich himself, for he died a poor man, but to bring a ray of light and some cheer into miners' lives. No wonder then that the boys who went down the shaft in cages worshiped the ground he walked on.  Kingston, Pa. 1900 An instance of such hero-worship was cited by the late Father Phillips, one of Wyoming Valley's most prominent clergyman, with natural gifts of his own to distinguish him. The incident which he describes below occurred at the turn of the century:   "I was booked to deliver an address at an Ancient Order of Hibernians meeting one night in Plymouth. A committee escorted me to the stage on which were seated many prominent members of the Order, among them a little old gentlemen whose face was handsomely decorated with side-whiskers. While conversing with a member of the committee, the little gentleman in question, who was seated on my right, suddenly said, "Begorra, I wonder what's keeping the talent?" I turned and looked at him with surprise, but said nothing. Suddenly he cried, "I wish the talent was here." Again I looked at him with surprise, wondering whether he meant to slight me -- me, who thought I was the whole thing.    Presently, my little friend on the right emitted a roar which would shame the best efforts of a Sioux warrior on the warpath. He threw his hat high in the air and roared with all the lung power at his command: "Be jabbers, the talent has arrived! The talent has arrived!"    It seemed in a moment as though bedlam had broken loose. Every man in the audience was on his feet, whooping with bulging eyes and mouth agape: "Hurrah for Con!" I looked towards the entrance when, lo and behold! I saw Con Carbon being carried on the shoulders of two strapping young miners towards the stage. I thought that my little friend on the right would go into convulsions on the wings of enthusiasm. Every lineament of his features seemed to bespeak the esteem in which he held Con. Even his side-whiskers looked as though their every hair waved a welcome to the laughing, rollicking, good-natured Con.   It was several minutes before the enthusiasm subsided, only to break forth again in cries of, "Let us have 'Me Johnny Mitchell Man,' Con." When Con stepped to the front of the stage, the applause was simply deafening. It seemed to shake the whole building, from top to bottom.    He, and not I, was the feature of the evening. Beside him I felt my own littleness. He certainly was a wonderful character."   Con Carbon died in 1907. Among the tributes paid his memory was a letter to his family from United Mine Workers of America President John Mitchell in which the union leader told how the minstrel had inspired him during the Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902.    -- Edited from: Minstrels of the Mine Patch : Songs and Stories of the Anthracite Industry (1938) by George Korson.    Cornelius "Con" Carbon is buried in an unmarked grave in  St. Gabriel's Cemetery in Hazelton, Pa. George Korson (1895-1967) was a folklorist, journalist, and historian who also wrote Coal Dust on the Fiddle : Songs and Stories of the Bituminous Industry (1943).  Con Carbon and Father Curran When Con was still a raw youth and his ballad singing was making him an idol, saloon keepers vied for his presence in their saloons. Of course, he did not have to pay for his drinks, but his mere appearance brought increased business.  The sordid manner in which his talents were thus exploited disturbed the late Father Curran, his parish priest. One Sunday morning he thundered the warning that the first saloon keeper who dared serve the young minstrel drinks would lose his license. As it was generally accepted that Father Curran was not accustomed to making idle threats, Carbon found every saloon in the parish closed to him. This annoyed him, as he had begun to acquire a taste for the hard stuff. One day, soon afterward, a friend invited him into a saloon for a drink. Carbon refused saying, "I can't go in there. I've been silenced by the Church!"  -- story by George Korson. The historic marker is in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Most breaker boys were children between the ages of 8 and 10 years old. It is estimated that, in 1880, twenty thousand (20,000) breaker boys were employed in northeastern Pennsylvania where 80 percent of all the world's anthracite coal was located. Breaker boys were known for their fierce independence and rejection of adult authority. The boys often formed and joined trade unions and precipitated a number of important strikes in the anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania (Wikipedia)