Many a mine mule has hee-hawed with delight as his life sentence to hard labor in an underground prison has been commuted by the arrival of electric transportation. The Sharp-nosed sticks in the foreground are "sprags" to be stuck between the spokes of the car wheels to brake or "scotch" them. They have left their imprint upon the vernacular of the coal region, since to "sprag" a scheme is effectually to block it.