The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1853-11-30
LOCAL MATTERS.
MIDLoTHrAH co. N,.uo r..

MIDLoTHIAE Coal MINING CompAyY.-
oone DAYS since, we noticed the high price at which
~. sns Y she city. and asked for information
10 well acquainted with the opsratons of the MidIo-
THAN Company, has placed us in possessiou of GER
Lsn isGas wnen we now give our readers with the
rope tnAt they may pronf In future by them This
Company will produce the present wear about nne
million bushels Of coal, that being the averase aua,,
since it designed to increase the prod.ct Of ,s
present year, at least twenty-five per cent: bnf this
idea WAS necessarily abandoned. owing to the great
advance and scarcity of labor; and in order even TO
furnish the average supply, the Company have been
forced to purchase fifteen men. at very high prices
ana to send to Pottsville and procure white men IS
to this provisions and all articles necessary for mi
ming purposes have advanced rapidly, thereby aeon
mupiasing uiI the expenses of the Company, to meet
cent ana half In the bushel, that it has been
heretofore selling at
The Midlothian Company, we are assured, make
no dinerence In the price of their COAL whether pur
chased tor shipment consumption in Richmond
dpsrage coal they sell at tsoelpe and half cents per
ousaet but where the purchaser requires it be
lected in large lumps the price is advanced never
exceeding fourteen and half per b.ssheL deliv-
cred az their coal-yard or in Richmond. fourteen
anu nait cents for lump coal deiireyed Richmond
and cur citizens are compelled to pay t,centy cents
per bushe for the same article. pretty snug profit
that to say the least of it.
But the Midlothian Company cannot raise more
than from 2eS to 400 bushels per day of good hmm
csai suitable to the Richmond trade, without iniur
expected to do.
The friends of this Company assert, most uneauvo-
caily, that they have entered into arrangement
with the retail dealers with other miners to ad-
vance the price of coal and that they are just as
willing and as ready to sell the product of their mines
to one man as another, at the same price. They give
as one reason for the scarcity of the lump present
that having place at the pits It during the
summer, and being unable to induce citizens to
lay in their supplies before the fall in they are
compelled to ship it, and thus produce a scarcity
from the simple fact that it is impossible for them to
supply each days demand. without injurng their
80 sales. Now it this be so, and we have reason
to doubt it, our readers may in future avoid high
prices by getting their regular supplies of coal during
the spring and summer months. Even now, this
Company can furnish abundance of average ceal.
at fair price, if the people will be satisfied with it,
and as it makes good and more durable fire, by
little care and management, we would advise its
at present.
This Company, it is said, have uniformly furnished
coal to all purchasers at the same price, and they pro-
mise to continue do SC; but it win be impossible
for them to furnish this city with all it needs until
coal-yards general depots established at the
terminus of the Richmond and Danville Railroad
Let this be done howev, and there will then be no
further necessity for scarcity for the Mining Agent
of the Company, heartily seconded by his aids and
werkmen, have tested the capacity of the principal
shaft at the mines, with the view of giving the Rich
mond and Dapville Railroad Company practical
evidence of what would be required the ensuing
year to transport their coal Ind found that the shaft
alluded to would raise thousand bushels of coal
per day, being more than the road would transport
under its present arrangements.
This subject of fuel is of vast importance to our
readers, and therefore, it is that design keeping
before them such facts come to our knowledge
We have no desire to create prejudice against any
con. pany set of men, but when see the neces-
sares of life advancing far above the means of the
masses and in effect driving the poor 20 suferag and
want, we feel it duty we owe TO the public to
tain the of the rise, and TO make them known
In the article of wood, the prices somewhat re-
ceding but they vastly too high yet and will be
greatly reduced the the railroads running
into the city reduce their tariff of tolls and offer faci
lities of land, by constructing outs at
proper points to cut wood and send 1t to market
This should be DONE and once The railroad COM
panies owe this much Richmond for her liberality
towards them, and we believe they will now repay it.
AT least earnestly hope So for the sake Of the
community large, but particularly for the benz
ft of the thousands of poor persons who can beary
subsst in weather, and who will find great dit
icuty in preventing themselves and their little ones
from perishing by cold, even when fuel is furnished
| them on the most moderate terms.