Samuel Smiles：Thrift, Excerpt 108

These were doubtless "roaring times" for the colliers, who, had they possessed the requisite self-denial, might have made little fortunes. Many of the men who worked out the coal remained idle three or four days in the week; while those who burnt the coal, were famished and frozen for want of it. The working people who were _not_ colliers, will long remember that period as the time of the _coal famine_. While it lasted, Lord Elcho went over to Tranent--a village in East Lothian--to address the colliers upon their thriftlessness, their idleness, and their attempted combinations to keep up the price of coal.

Source： https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14418
Locator：Excerpt 108 · Verified：2026-10-19 · Verification：Short excerpt

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