The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1875-01-09
Sur the noang.



Well boys, what are you looking Al 70
eagerly2 Only piece Of coal, % you
say Charlie ! shouIan't suppose yoa
could find anything worth looking At il a
smutsy piece Of coal. Ah, well lam
glad my boys have found that Only piecs
Of coal, as charliecalls It, is worth licking
at.
/ think can tell you something about
I that win make you open your eyes wider
still Now this piece Of coal Is the most
wonderful piece Of magic In the world
suppose tell you that this hard black
lump once had life That black lump i
really one Of the most wonderful things IL
the world. II was once delicate little
plant, turning ever 10 the sun, and bending
and nodding with every breeze. Il Is
almost beyond belief, and / don't wonder
that you shake your heads Many people
older than you would do the same If told
that the coal, to which thsy owe 80 much.
and which they use quite as matter Of
course, once made up great forests which
covered vast areas. They know il comes
somehow out Of the earth, and a. long as
it continues to come, and doesnt cost moro
than SO much ton, they don't bother
themselves with questions as to what il i.
have no doubt many regard it as q pccu-
liar kind Of rock. ! want my boys to
know better, and 50 let us see If we can't
explain the mystery about it.
Well, then, in the first place. plants are
composed principally Of two gases and 4
substance called carbon. The eascs are
oxygen and hydrogen. You can easily
remember the word carbon. Nov when
plant begins to decay, these two gases
escape into the air, while the carbon stsys
aud forms coal. So remember that coal
Is chiefly carbon and 1t gets the carbon
from plants.
Since il has been proved that coal does
come from plants, and that our vegetation
nowadays makes little or no coal, we know
that when the great beds Of coal, were
formed everything must have been speei-
ally arranged for il. The world wasn't
then as il is now. Ii was just sky and
water, with here and there patches Of
land. There were great marshes every
where. Sometimes these would dry up
and become dry land. Then again the
sea would come rushing 10 over the land,
and form new marshes. There were no
birds In the air; no people upon the land.
Only reptiles and marsh-loYing boasts
roamed around in the soa clay. An was
quiet and desolate, yet it was not dreary
time. In the marshes and on the land
grew beautiful trees. Plants ran wild
everywhere. II was world Of living
green. Now, IL was simply on account Of
the marshy land that this vegetation made
coal, while our own does not.
/ | told you that . time was specially
planned for coal-making As the plants
and leaves decayed, they fell into the wa
ter The gases could still escape, but the
carbon, being covered from the action Of
the air, was left This is the simple ex-
PLANTATION. Silently, and with no human
eye TO see, the work went on year affsr,
year, century after century.
A few Of the plants in those davs of
gigantic forests were like what we have
beautiful ferns as large as many trees.
Such now grow only in the tropics.
"Horsc-tails," " as you call them, which are
now seldom over tive feet high, grew then
as high af twenty feet Conifers, like our
frs and pines and codas, were very album
dant- But the two most important trees
in coal-making have entirely disappeared
from our forests One Of these had no
branc hes, but was covered with leaves and
crowned with cluster at the top. Some
times they were sixty feet high.
But you don't see how we know that
trees did make coal? There are several
reasons. If you should put . piece Of
coal under microscope, and examine Il
carefully, you would see the vegetable
fibers in il. 1t is the best proof We could
have. Then, besides, in many places
stems and leaves are found ia the coal,
and sometimes trunks Of trees arc stand
| ing in the beds. Arain. wood con1a;ns