EXTRAS
WIT & HUMOUR
In January 1928, the mining company at Wabana set up a Night School for its employees. Many miners had not gone much beyond Grade Five before leaving school to help support their large families. The Company Night School was meant to help them improve their mining skills. Among those who enrolled in the winter of 1928 was a miner from Upper Island Cove. The men of Upper Island Cove [often shortened to "Island Cove" in conversation] were famous on Bell Island for their quick wit and sharp humour. Many of them worked in No. 4 Mine shovelling iron ore, where a pair of men would load twenty 1 & 1/4-ton ore cars a day. The following exchange between a miner from Island Cove and the teacher, E.A. Spurrell, was recorded in the Daily News:
Teacher: Can you do Arithmetic?
Miner: What's that?
Teacher (trying another tack): Can you do sums?
Miner: All I know how to do is load 20.
Teacher: Well, if Mr. Bishop (another teacher) gave you five dollars and I gave you five dollars, what would you have?
Miner: I'd have a fit!
Source: Bown, 1927, p. 21.
Teacher: Can you do Arithmetic?
Miner: What's that?
Teacher (trying another tack): Can you do sums?
Miner: All I know how to do is load 20.
Teacher: Well, if Mr. Bishop (another teacher) gave you five dollars and I gave you five dollars, what would you have?
Miner: I'd have a fit!
Source: Bown, 1927, p. 21.