New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1854-09-28
LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE
COAL AND OTHER MATTERS.

70 ehs Etror n Tk " y Trt,rss
Sir: The newspapers have a great deal to say
about the price Of coal as though it was some
strange thing for the price Of that article to rise snd
fall like other commodities. Flour may 60 up from
rs 70 si2 and j. seems all right but IT, one year in
Eve. coal rises beyond fair average, the whole
community feels aggrievei- One day last week l
went to the barges to purchase hay for my horses,
and the seller had the conscience to charge me 81 IS
ner 100 lbs Without grumblng took a dozen
bales: but on weighing them they fell short about
10 MS each and the wood weighed on each bale say
an Ibs on a bale weighing go. Here were so lbs.
loss ON $50 bringing the cost of my hay 10 cents
ner H. and as keep Ia horses, and they eat 20 lbs
a dsy ON the average, my share OF the shave ~ 10
cents day on each horse. say 81 40 day Now,
tbers are some ~ 600 carmen Of al sorts in the City
- no, less than IS 900 or 30 900 horses and the less
10 the public is not less than 900 per day from
,bis source alone. Now this is really grievance,
and no one says anything about H. Ano'nes grew
snee Is short weight, especially among the Herman
grecers In fact 1t Is almost impossible any longer
70 have fair dealing unless at the larger and more
respectable establishments and the poor seldom trade
with these. -, :. TIL .
Iyish to call your attention to an article IN Ihe
EreninR Post of Yesterday, which SLOWS an amazing
ignorance on the whole subject in one that writes to
enghten the public. He says, " If the price OF LIVER
pool coal in this City be sll per chaldron' Ne Is
compelled to. pay at least s3i OF that 81 IN the
shape OF Goa taX-that Is the punlsninent' or pu!
" ing foreign COAL
Further he says, the price Of orrel coal ls lol
sterling or less than 80 tun. Now 100 tuns OF Law
erpool orrel coal will out from 30 10 100 ceal-
drons according to the caprice of the Irish shovelers
or the measurer IS is about the average and as coal
weighed in Liverpool generally falls short here about
four per cent. a chsldron and tun will not greatly
differ Now Sir lately paid for permit to land $50
tuns Liverpool coal s66 90, or not far from 81 ii
per tun instead of 50 so asserted by The Post.
And on this charge paid nearly o. tun freight,
and with this high freight ships do better with pas
seneers and iron, crates and dry goods The price oil
freight on coal from Liverpool to this City for two
wears past has been from IL to 3Ol, with per cent
prmage say on average % 30 per tun. about the
price that our anthracite has sold for The fact Is
that if our burning apparatus were adapted to the use
of b;tumnous coal il could not be brought ana sold
here in any quantity duty free. Not over 10000 tans
are sod per year. and that mostly TO persons prefer
ing it on accoun, of its supposed greater heathtul'
ness The great bulk of foreign coal is imported for
the use of our gas companies. II we were to depend
upon a foreign supply for the COO, 600 tuns consumed
in this City what price do you suppose 1t would
rise to-
TIE Post further says if the ship owner were not
obliged to pay heavy duties imposed by our tarh no
wouh fill every vacant space with coal. Now the
ship owner does not pay the duty when coal is taken
on freight and still he will not bring It under % to
o. per tun or about the price our anthracite usually
sells for There is very little true information In tins
article Of The Post and many others that have
seen are only calculated TO misead the public.
A DEALER N Coal.