New Gods of North America

When little Taylor heard Wayne say that he wanted to visit the mine, his first reaction was to disapprove.

His original words were:

"Wayne, if you want to visit the mine, I welcome you anytime. But we each have a beautiful lady by our side now, and it's probably not appropriate to take them to a dirty and messy place like a mine."

The attitude is sincere and the reasons are sufficient, but he does not cooperate.

If it were any other time, Wayne might have just thought about it and let it go, but Wayne was secretly investigating something at the moment.

Hey, the more you say that,

The more I think about the past now.

So Wayne took out the spherical bottle and said, "I have something powerful here. Let me show you something."

"What?"

Little Taylor took it suspiciously, unscrewed the bottle cap, smelled it, and then poured a sip into his mouth.

After swallowing it, he smacked his lips a few times and said, "Isn't this water?"

Wayne and Inessa looked at each other, and Inessa shook her head slightly.

So Wayne patted Taylor on the shoulder and said, "Before you make love with a lady, you should rinse your mouth first. It's polite."

This made little Taylor blow on his palms several times and smell them again and again.

After a while of verbal argument, little Taylor finally couldn't resist Wayne's insistence, so the group set off for the mine.

One of the horses of the two criminals had run away, so now one of them was dead and the other was tied up like a dumpling, and the two of them could only ride on one horse.

Wayne rode his horse in front, leading the way, while Inesa followed on horseback behind.

Because Wayne had seen his secret meeting with Miss Greenspan, little Taylor no longer hid it. He happily put his arms around the young lady's slender waist, and the two of them rode on the same horse, with Taylor standing by to show the way.

The three major landowners Wayne is currently investigating are Mr. Stern, Mrs. Taylor and Mr. Greenspan.

Miss Greenspan, who is being hugged by little Taylor, is the only daughter of Mr. Greenspan.

According to Wayne's understanding, the relationship between the two of them is roughly like "a senior white-collar worker working for a rich relative, and chasing after the apple of the eye of the neighboring tycoon family."

According to the concept of strong alliance in this era, the landlord father-in-law basically has to take the villain position in front of the poor boy.

If we add some elements like lovers quarreling, separation due to misunderstandings, amnesia due to shipwreck, and cure of terminal illness, it shouldn't be a problem to shoot one or two seasons.

Logically speaking, Miss Greenspan should have gotten the script for the female lead, a young, beautiful, wealthy girl with a cheerful, lively and generous personality.

But Wayne wasn't interested in her, otherwise he might have joined in their plot.

This was mainly because Miss Greenspan's appearance did not meet Wayne's preferences and she had obvious freckles on her face.

Little Taylor thinks freckles on girls' faces are good-looking and make them look young, playful and energetic, but Wayne just thinks there is something wrong with his aesthetic sense.

Respect, blessing.

…

After arriving at the mine,

Little Taylor arranged people and a carriage, and took the police station key given by Wayne and took the two criminals away first.

Then Little Taylor asked Miss Greenspan to wait in his office for a while while he took Wayne and Inessa to visit the mine.

The scene in the mine was roughly the same as Wayne had imagined, but it was actually quite different upon closer inspection.

The similarity is that the skin color of the miners here is indeed a mixture of black, white and yellow - yellow refers to the skin color of the indigenous people of the New World.

But the differences are:

"Taylor, there are no overseers in the mines? I thought it was like on some plantations, with slaves working in chains and overseers whipping them."

Little Taylor shook his head. "Although it doesn't conform to mainstream values, everyone working in our mine is an equal 'employee' to us. There are no so-called 'slaves'. Everyone is a free person."

Wayne didn't believe that the Taylor family would be conscientious capitalists, so he continued to look at little Taylor, waiting for his explanation.

Little Taylor leaned close to Wayne's ear and lowered his voice slightly:

"Although the mines here are not deep, they are underground coal mines and are quite dangerous. If we buy slaves to mine, on the one hand, the loss of personnel will be too great, which is not economical; on the other hand, the tunnels in the mines are narrow and complicated. If something happens to the supervisor, there is no way to tell whether it is the slaves secretly fighting back or a real accident.

“So it’s better for us to trade equally. We pay according to the actual amount of mining, and they provide labor for the mine. They manage the labor force themselves and bear their own risks.

“It may seem like we are losing money, but the total cost is actually lower, and we don’t have to supervise their work any more. So free blacks, illegal immigrants and indigenous people are welcome to work in our mines.”

I see. It is indeed the routine of the unscrupulous capitalists.

Slaves were still the "private property" of slave owners, and they would feel bad if they were damaged.

However, temporary workers hired for a short period of time will be unceremoniously treated as pure "consumables".

Wayne thought for a moment, "Have you had any major accidents here in recent years? Or plagues, infectious diseases, or anything like that?"

"Accidents do happen from time to time, but because the mines here are not deep and the tunnels are small, there are no single serious casualties. They are just small accidents here and there."

Little Taylor recalled a little more, "It's not a plague, but I heard that there have been several small-scale outbreaks of malignant diseases."

"When did it happen? Were most of those patients cured or died?" Wayne asked.

Little Taylor shook his head:

“We don’t know about these. We are only responsible for the management of the mine and do not allow sick workers to enter the mine.

"As for whether they contracted the disease in the temporary settlements for workers, that is their own internal issue and we do not care."

Wayne looked around the mine and asked, "If I want to know about these things, who would be more convenient to ask?"

"The workers all have their own circles, and you can usually ask their leaders."

Little Taylor paused, "But most of the workers in the mine can't stay for too long, and they are replaced quite frequently. I'm not sure who to ask about the previous matter."

Tsk.

I'm stuck here too...

Wayne pondered and looked up and down at little Taylor, wondering whether he could trust what this guy said.

"Ah, I remember now."

Little Taylor clapped his hands at this time. "As for matters concerning infectious diseases, you can go back to town and ask Dr. John. He has been to the mine several times before. It is said that he always came to provide free medical treatment to the workers. He should know these things best."