The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1869-10-05

y
formerly the custom 10 throw away in
the "cuin boaps" all coal below the ST.
zes familiar in the market; but Of late
years chestnut and pea" Goals have
grown into use very rapidly, and econ :
omioal operators burn chiefly the latter
for the mining engines Il will hardly
sell As yet for enough 10 pay the cost Of
transportation TO the great markets /;
but it is so easily burned that, us il be-
comes better known, the demand for it
will certainly increase; aud this item
Of waste viii be diminished.
The dust, "culm," or crushed coal,
the slate picked out Of the coal, aud the
rejected fine coal itself, are all thrown
out together in heap upon the ground
Every colliery becomes embarrassed in
few years with these vast piles Of
waste, which il can only build higher
and extend wider at constantly in
creasing cost. There is one at collie
nv near Scranton which covers fifteen
acres not less than seyenty-hye feet
deep; and the owners have now built
upon it new trestle work twice as high,
up which to carry their waste aud throw
it off Bat these are new mines com
pared with those OF the Lehigh Coal
and Navigation Company al ound Sum
NIT Hill, where the side Of the noun
tain, six to eight hundred feet in height
has been in several places carried for
ward into the valley by tho coal waste
thrown out from near the top. The
same system prevails in all the districts;
and it is within the truth to estimate
| the amount Of excellent anthracite ceal,
nearly pure carbon, now standing IN
these dreary dust heaps aftwo years
supply Of fuel for the coal-burniug pub
lie Of the United States. 1t is con-
stantly increasing, and must increase
so long as this wasteful method OF prep
aration for market is practiced. Mean
while the poor Of all the country around
the mines, and the miners and laborers
in the works, get good supply OF fuel
by sitting out portions Of these heaps.
Practical men are busily trying to con-
triye ways of burning the coal dust it.
self, aud succeed well enough to make
it probable that the "culm" will one
day be useful fuel.
oyERwoRK K-IDLENEss.
These impressions Of wastefulness
are heightened in many ways In the
Schuylkill and Lehigh regions the price
of coal stimulates operators to drive
their works to the utmost in many
places two sets of hands are employed
in the mines, one by day and one by
night, and machinery OF all kinds il
made to do far more than it was built
or designed to do. On the railroads
trains crowding together crush one
another, and, in various ways, 80 many
coal cars are destroyed that the shops
engaged in building them, which arr
using every means to increase the roll
ing stock in use, find it their utnIos
achievement TO maintain the present
equipment. In the shafts and in th,
inclined planes, engines give way unde
their unusual loads and the too constan
strain; and Interruptions in these way
, are SO frequent that. although there ha
been quite general effort 10 press pro
dHetion to the utmost, the actual per
centage Of increase Of the weekly con
signments is but small
But all this, it must be confessed
does less to intensity the depressing
sense OF waste in the business than th
present idle condition Of the extensiv
works upon the Lackawanna. Here i
an amount Of capital and OF labor made
for the time, absolutely unproductiy'
and useless, which is sufficient 10 min
aud deliver in New York fifteen thous
and tons OF coal every day. A sma
proportion Of this labor is employed
indeed, at distance from home; bu
it is adding scarcely anything to th
production there, 80 that it is reall
! wasted; Gad the capital invested ia res
estate, mines, machinery, railroads
rolling stock, canals, boats, docks ali
yards, is not merely idle, but in man
parts actually going to decay for war
Of use OF maintained only at cost whie
is sheer loss. Nor does this nos oC
cur for the first time The employmer
Of labor and the productive use Of caE
ital have been for many years peculial
ly uncertain and irregular in the bus
ness. The uncertainty, the enormou
waste caused - the irregularity, hay
to find compensation somewhere; an
: it comes IN the form Of higher price io
: coal. THUS the people everywhere AZ
! tvxed by the disordered relations heF
between the employers aud the en-
: ployed.
Gov Bulloek, Of Georgia, is callc
His Boyiniiy" BY bis oppoDents
-Capital punishmenL-Ten thoui