The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1864-08-22

uefunTt no oil tNeuIHf n NluEluuNQ lENflDs tue
| Coal Exchange exhibits vast amount OF busi-
ness animation. Some three or four hHndred
gentlemen arc gathered together talking about
prices, and shipments, and arrivals; the factors
are ali at their desks, quite prepared to open up
negotiations or 70 conclude bargains and behind
/ them patient mariners and shippers from the
North are awaiting the result Of sales and the in
structons as 10 the delivery OF cargo which will
follow those sales. There are even visitors in the
| galleries looking down upon the busy crowd be-
low and their presence seems 30 give additional
| Importance TO the scene.
suppose my face must have iullcd as / be-
| came impressed with the business aspect Of tho
place, for my glance fell whom my eyes met those
OF kindly but melancholy looking gentleman to
whom had been introduced shortly BEFORE and
| who had been the most pathetic Of all In his
lamentations over tho decline and fall OF the
London coal trade. lie bad OWNED my thoughts.
| Had told him what was pasJing through my
mind, the information would have been utterly
superhuOus.
at looks like business, doesn't it &" he asked.
| ] assented enthusiastically.
| "Ah :" he exclaimed with a sigh, "yOu are like
| all the rest. DO you remember the GOLFERS
strike which took place some years ag5j"
| ] did not; and said So
nothing TO DO, so they sat on the barges all day
| long and played at cards. The factors and mer-
| chants here In like manner had nothing TO do,
! and some of them actually went back 20 the
| sports Of their boyhood, and played at marbles
| upon the floor OF this, or rather OF the Old EN-
change, as an innocent If not exciting way of en-
| pltyiuk LutlL hllnbs WGll SIT, ne AulGu, Qlllte
gTavely, "if they were all TO set to now and play
at marbles again, or 'Egg-hat,' or Fly tho gar
| ter or Buck, buck, how many horns do hold
! up they would be almostas well occupied as
| they are at present"
! It is all but deserted now. The shippers have
sheered of TO speak nauticaly), the factors have
| closed their accounts, the merchants have, for
the most part, retreated to their counting houses
! even the beadle has quilted scene where his
| presence would seem like n satire or n sham.
There is only one individual, in fact, left here-a
| pensYe, melancholy man-and him aecost for
| lack of other cOmpanionsbip.
| To my surprise find that though outwardly
| sombre, he is inwardly sunny and that, although
| connected with Goals, he looks by no means de-
| spondently upon their future. / ut once began TO
regard this hopeful person with admiration, and
| the painful thonght flashes across me that perhaps
l have formed too hasty judgment upon the
coal trade from the gloomy reports l have pre-
| vously heard. So ] introduce myself TO this
| gentleman, and as he is proceeding westward,
and my course is northwest, we split point Of
the compass and sally forth together.
| In the course of conversation, find thnt he is
| the representative Of what may be called new
development of the coal trade. He is the agent
| OF an extensive colliery near Chesterfield, and
more for the purpose of watching the market
| than OF buying and selling. He is wholly un-
connected with the trade in sea-borne coal, and
deals only in that brought to London by railway,
and which is comprehcnsively known as Inland.
| And now begin to feel interested, for in COM
mon, suppose, with the mass Of mankind, l
have always pinned my faith to sea-borne coal,
and but that contempt for Inlands which con.
| nolsseur in Eau de Uie de COgHdc may be sup
| posed to entertain for British brandy. So say
in a friendly, but depreciatOry tone, "Ah Inland
coal Is all very well, but Of course there's nothing
| like WalPs-ends."
do you know what Walrsends are q" he
asked drily.
."No," said I; "but know that they are a par
tculary good sort of coal"
"Wen, there are almost seventy varieties of
, | that particularly good sort Of coal, or rather
| seventy different collieries have adopted the
name; and yet, strictly speaking, there Is no such
D "What / mean U.s." said my friend, "thot thu
q | mine which first yielded the coal called Walls
y end, and which took its name from being neal
n the end of the old Roman wall, has long ceased
- TO be worked and that other mines have merely
F, adopted the name on account of its popularity
o If we called our Inland coal Wal'send, it woulC
= | be just as much SO as anybody else's."
y "But,' said /, 'is there then no difference be
: tween Inland and the coal called Wal's-end ?"
n 81 do not quite say that. l simply say that til,
: mere name indicates nothing"
!" "Wellp l exclaimed slightly recovering from
7 my astonishment 81 always thought sea-bornC
: Goals the best"
I $50 do most people but there again you ar,
? needing a mere name Sea-borne, Of course, car
only mean carried by sea. But are you aware
that plenty Of coal Is bF9nSbhs sbs fn a twf2y y mile m
| cOntiguity which determines mode Of conveyance
, , We might, if we pleased, ship our Goals al
Grimsby and bring them 20 London in collier
Instead of that, we bring them by rail and they
are inland nc once"
"The fact is" continued my new friend, "thc
dislike 10 inland coal arises from mere prejudice
| or, to speak moro correctly, from mere ignorance
which is only now giving way. Somewhere about
twenty years ago we brought inland coal to Lon
don for the first time. Nobody would buy IL
For years our trade was utterly insignificant
Well, after a while the Great Northern Railway
began 10 sell inland coal The result, at first, was
much the same. At last there came hard winter
If,arN as,nlp l1fWa=su
| This was our opportunity. The Great Northern
Railway Company at once advertised that it would
sell its coal throughout the entire winter at twenty
, shilings ton. People then began 20 believe in
inland coal, and the trade was fairly started. IL
my opinion it is yet only in its infancy, but you
may Judge of its development when / tell yoT
, that the colliery l represent alone sent abOu
GOO tons 70 London in 1862, and that the toti
sent by others in the same year amounted to more
than million tons. Why, We ourselves pay from
, 10000 to $1,000 per month for railway carriage
| and have no doubt we shall pay twice as mucl
| some day. For you see our prices remain mucl
the same all the year round, land-carriage beinl
unaffected by wind and weather. Whereas
during the prevalence of certain gales, the collier
| are unable to put 70 sea, and, the market beint
| ill.supplied, prices go up
"Then," said /, "the general complaint at th
| Coal Exchange is not altogether without cause
3 Trade is at all events in transition state"
My friend nodded assentingy, and said, eyes
with tendency to concentrate Itself in the hand
of few great firms"
"But now tell me-" said I, sis not the quallty
n | of sea-bOrne coal better as matter Of fact apt
" not Of fancy, than that brought by railway -
at is very often better, was the candid reply
= especially when high price is charged for It
y 1t cannot be denied, too, that some Of the Alan,
:, coal is full Of seam useless for the purposes 0
. combustion, and which deposits itself in dirt,
y ash. Nevertheless, inland coal eau be obtainedh
J Londsn and its outskirts, which think quite a
. good ~ Wall's.end, and which / always burn.
7 "Ihero was no need TO show me Il price list.
understood the hint without H."
"Then yOw coal has no ash, / suppose" wa
! my reply, in a tone Of indifference.
"Hy IT, he SAID with a smile.
"And / hare tried IT,"