(解説文要約)
この部屋は、ササベヤという坑内の詰所です。絵の左上をご覧ください。
左側に座っている炭鉱労働者が「頭領さん、よか切羽ひとつくんない」と言っています。
それに対しする頭領の言葉が中央上(うえ)に書かれています。
「ほうきで叩き落とすような切羽はねえぞ」
怠け者の炭鉱労働者が、採炭しやすい切羽を担当させてくれと現場監督に願い出ている様子です。
現場監督も、だらしない炭鉱労働者を怠けさせると人事係から小言を言われるので、頭を悩ますわけです。
This is a room called Sasabeya, an office for the coal mine supervisors.
In this scene we see a miner asking his supervisor to transfer him to a coal face that is easy to dig.
In the text, the miner sitting on the left says, “Sir, would you place me at a good coal face?”
His supervisors respond ironically, “You know, there aren’t any coal faces where you can dig with a broom stick.”
These unproductive miners were a constant headache for their supervisors.
They could not favor these workers, but on the other hand, could not completely ignore them as the supervisors themselves would be held responsible for low output from the company personnel.