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exercise was to walk across the bridge leading to the mine and roost on the mine entrance. T h e rest is history: One day I guess one of 'em was roostin' on top of the entrance and somehow it fell off and into a coal car. No one knew it was there and they took all the cars into the mine as usual. They got clean into the mine and one of the men went back to uncouple the cars and all of a sudden we heard this gobblin, gobblin, gobblin. You shoulda' seen them men move. 46
T h e verbal story ends there, leaving to the listener's imagination the ensuing chaos. It seems that the turkey came out on top: Oh yeh, I remember the turkey. I was on the motor and here comes the turkey walkin' out just as big as you please. Jack Mills had a rope around its neck and was walkin' it out [of the mine]. But the turkey was leadin'. 47
This type of h u m o r o u s story provides a lighter side to the miners' below-ground work. On another level, Lucas believes initiation rites and rituals serve as an informal, systematic method of eliminating the psychologically unfit miner. 48 T h e miners had to feel they could depend on each other during times of crisis, such as a cave-in or entombment. For those who passed the initiation rites, part of their mandatory socialization process was fulfilled. As with most circumstances, the initiation rites evolved and changed over time. Likewise, when documenting these beliefs some were found to have changed over the thirty-year span the interview covered. Two notable examples relate to whistling in the mine and the significance of the miner's helmet light going out. Traditionally, whistling in the mine was strictly forbidden. H a n d documents this ban on whistling as one of the most widespread of all miners' superstitions. A California mine foreman reportedly told H a n d he fired at least a dozen men for whistling. 49 This custom was also documented in Utah (Park City), Montana, Michigan, Maryland, Illinois, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania. 50 Objections to whistling were also strong in Wales and England, although recent 46
Ibid. Thomas Hilton, Sr., interview. 48 Rex A. Lucas, Men in Crisis: A Study of a Mine Disaster (New York, Basic Books, 1969) p. 2 1 . 49 Hand, "California Miners' Folklore," p. 135. 50 Wayland D. H a n d , "Folklore from Utah's Silver Mining Camps," pp. 150-51; H a n d , "Folklore, Customs, and Traditions of the Butte Miner," pp. 20-21; Dorson, Bloodstoppers, p. 211; Harry Middleton Hyatt, Folklore From Adams County, Illinois (New York: Alma Egan Hyatt Foundation, 1935), no. 8519; Edwin Valentine Mitchell, It's an Old Pennslyvania Custom (New York: Vanguard Press, 1947), pp. 239-40; Daniel Lindsey Thomas, Kentucky Superstitions (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1920), no. 3098; Howard, "Some Mining Lore from Maryland," p. 163. 47
