"Work in the coal breakers is exceedingly hard and dangerous. Crouched over the chutes, the
boys sit hour after hour, picking out the pieces of slate and other refuse from the coal as it rushes
past to the washers. From the cramped position they have to assume, most of them become
more or less deformed and bent-backed like old men. When a boy has been working for some
time and begins to get round-shouldered, his fellows say that, "He's got his boy to carry round
wherever he goes."