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ent001540-031

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ent001540-031
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    University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Libraries

    Page 25 PITTSBURGH - ITEM 13 BOOR RISES AND HE ENTERS CAGE. DOOR SLAMS DOWN. BYRNES; (Cont>d) like that, It'S the loneliest job in a mine. So I sing to keep myself company. Cornin'? GARRCWAY; Jerry Byrnes is the father of eight daughters, six surviving BEGIN DESCENT INTO MINE. and two he survives, He was born 66 years ago, back in the last century. He survives that, too. At nine he was a "breaker boy," a kid that used to separ- ate coal from slate. And he remembers the songs of the mines he sang as a boy, Coal was the common denominator and grief their great leveler, And all of it was mixed in song of its own tempo ,,. the tempo of their lives. The songs made their lives less bleak, less stark, bearable as a Saturday night in a saloon. CAGE REACHES BOTTOM. BYRNES LEAVES IT AND WALKS INTO MINE. WE SEE ONLY HIS BACK NOW, Here was once an ancient forest that flowered a billion years ago, compressed vegetation that was leveled by the weight of a million centuries.