Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1873-02-22


needs of poverty has doubtless miti-
gated distress, and should certainly
not be deprecated But the fact that
= wealthy community like that of
Cumberland should have fallen into a
habit, now chronic, Of calling annual
" upon the coal region for donations
for it's poor is a species of presumption
not admirable in the second city of
the State" Cumberland has long
fattened upon the advantages confer
red by the coal trade, so much indeed
it is difficult to conceive of leanness
within its borders. AS the county
seat it is the natural focus for local
advantages, improvements and profits,
which inure to the gate city not
altogether creditable to its enterprise,
but mostly to its geographical position
Its prominence in great measure has
been imposed upon it by its lucky
proximity to the Allegheny coal beds,
and its yet more fortunate position as
the shipping point. This circumstance
gave rise to that widespread fallacy
an illusion now transatlantic
concerning the distinctive title of our
coal, With these suspicious circum-
stances haloing its location, name and
fame, it has reaped rich harvests from
what it has delighted to misname the
Cumberland Coal Field 1t is the
head of navigation on the Chesapeake
and Ohio Canal, although by fortu-
nate anomaly it is not situated on tn f,
Ohio. 1t is, as before intimated, the
great point Of coal transshipment to
railroad and canal. 1t is point also
where several railroads intersect, to
which may be traced in connection
with the not remote neighborhood of
iron and coal, its eligibility as site
for a rolling-mill. This magnificent
institution gives employment to hun
dreds of workmen, while an addition
al mill, now nearly completed. will
provide labor for hundreds more. A
grand hotel is another consequent of
railroad partiality. and the yet lavish
Improvement of railroad property still
adds pomp and circumstance to the
Queen" city All this affords much
municipal chuok1ing; the run of luck
never fell more pleasantly than upon
Cumberland, yet it is not happy, and
from the very shadows cast by its
grandeur, its appeal still goes out with
insatiate cry-"come and help us p
Like the noisy, wounded soldier, whom
an Irishman said Thought no one
killed but himself" Cumberland fan
cies itself as alone with its poor, and
forgets that its solitude consists only
in its habit of asking for outside aid.
The best excuse is, the city has SO
long been the beneficiary of so many
munifcent resources, it is not strange
that the thought of perpetuity should
pervade its unsatisfed cupidity for
favor. 10 many people outside, how
ever, it does not so occur. Enough
advantage has been, is, and will be
gathered from the coal region, without
adding charitable requests, to say
nothing of its duty, in common with
other and less fortunate places, to pro-
vide of itself for its own poor.
But we have heard it argued that
the improvements showered upon
Cumberland has been positive disad-
vantage to the people in the conse-
quent exorbitant rental rates. This
bears hardly upon the poor, but the
fault does not lie with the city's bene-
factors. With the rapid building up
this feverish, inflated condition of
rent values must abate and terminate
in reasonable level. Meanwhile, let
us hear no more requests for external
aid to mitigate evils that possibly
originate in domestic polity, at least
until a correction of the evils demon
strate failure of better results.
Sometime since when we suggested
the advantages in general and to
Frostburg in particular that we might
derive from a new county," inclu-
ding the coal region, we were at once
unanimously demolished by the Cum
berland press. The exultant citation
of constitutional impediments threw
sombre shadow over our star and it
soon went down. The unbroken tide
of fortune which had pursued Cum
berland was not thus to be arrested.
AS in other instances, luck favored the
city, this time in the shape of tech
nicality, but not less surely on that
account The nrintad oo,,uon4,