Translator's preface and acknowledgments -- Epigraph -- [pt. 1]. The first journal -- Preface / Matti Pelto -- A miner's life -- A young trammer -- Sayings -- Two miners -- A letter to a brother in Kuortane -- A "happening" in the mine -- A mine casualty -- An hour's rest on the night shift -- A dream -- pay day -- Christmas Eve -- The miner's daydream -- A poem -- An accidental death -- Longing -- Hard luck -- A glimpse into the bottom level and prevailing conditions -- [pt. 2]. The second journal -- Introduction -- A few moments of freedom -- Life or death? -- The dynamite guard -- The bachelor -- He longs for the ends of the earth -- Devil Jack -- Problems -- A capitalist's slave -- The joys of life -- Beneath an old mine -- Fear -- Top trammers -- A bit of life -- The carpenter's fate -- [pt. 3]. Interlude -- Matti makes a visit to Finland -- [pt. 4]. The third journal -- Pettit Mine, year 1912 -- To the surface in a skip -- Reflections on life; compromise -- Broken terms -- The good and bad places -- Some leisure time -- A Miner rests -- Plotting in the mine -- Charging, blasting and and eight-hour day -- A certain moment in the mine -- Tears -- Air! Air! -- A decisive moment -- The ditching contract -- On the mine dumps -- Into the mine again -- Carelessness -- Reflections : New Years Eve 1912 -- Saturday night shift -- The vagabond life -- The ground is shaking -- Hidden dynamite -- The miners cut lagging -- [pt. 5]. Afterword -- Matti returns to Finland -- appendix 1. The Pettit Mine and Sparta Village -- appendix 2. Background on underground mining -- appendix 3. Biographical notes on translator -- appendix 4. Notes on previous use of materials.