Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-10-17
LIFE AND COMFORT
Involved in the Proposition to Change
the Annual Moving Day.
EVERYTHING is In ITS FAVOR
British Scientists Think the Petroleum Sup.
ply is Inexhaustible.
GAS COAL DISCOVERED IN VIRGINIA

The proposition to change "moYing day"
from April 1 to May 1 is meeting with
almost universal appreciation, and that it
will be carried into effect there is scarcely
douot. Real estate agents and landlords
are equally in favor of the change. The
custom is legacy from the early settlers of
western Pennsylvania, who, for some rea-
son, found it convenient to make farm leases
begin and end April 1. But that is no reason
why it should.be indefinitely continued, like
law of the Medes and Persians, to the
great discomfort of large class of people,
and to the benefit of none except the doctors
and grave-diggers.
The need of change is so generally recog-
nized that it does not require prophet to pre-
dict that it will be made.
at the meeting of the British Association for
the Advancement of Science, few days ago,
Prof. Hull referred at some length to the great
expansion Of the mineral industry of the United
States, He agrees with the late Prof. Jevons
that future British manufacturers must not
expect to derive any help from the United
States when coal shall have become dear or
scarce at home In the discussion which fol-
lowed the papers numerous speakers expressed
their agreement with Prof Hull's anticipation
of heavy increase in the future cost of coal.
Mr.. g. W. Hastings, NJ. p, stated that in the
StaffOrdshire and East Worcestershire. coal
field the owners found that the recent increase
in wages had considerably diminished their
output. If these representations are true,
English industry has an evil time before it.
Fortunately we have an escape from such diff
culties in the shape of petroleum.
THE employment of petroleum in the arts is
caid m
son in the presidential address before the Me-
chanical Section of the Association. USED
originally for Illuminating purposes, it is now
employed as fuel for heating furnaces and
steam boilers, and as a working agent in heat
engines. AS lubricant il stands unriYalIed.
As an illuminant, it is, even in this country, to
large extent superseding every other in pri-
vate houses, and even in public lamps" Mr..
Anderson is sanguine upon the subject of Pc
troleum. He regards it as a universally ap-
plicable fuel, and he seems to believe that its
deposits are practically inexhaustible.
The remarkable permanence of oil wells, and
the apparently inexhaustible evolution of
hydro-carbon gases in certain regions almost
force one to believe. according to Mr.. Ander-
son, that the hydro-carbon products must be
forming as fast as they are consumed, that
there is little danger of the demand ever ex-
ceeding the supply, and that there is every
prospect of oil being found in almost every por
tion of the surface of the earth, especially in
the vicinity of great geological disturbances.
Mr.. Anderson is full of confidence in the ca
pacity of petroleum to fulfill all claims upon it
to put it in a hackneyed phrase-"with
promptitude and dispatch" Improved methods
of boring wells, he tells us. will enable greater
depths to be reached; "and it should be remem-
bered that, apart from the extra cost of sink
ing deep well, there is no extra expense in
working at great depths, because the oil gen.
orally rises to the surface or near it." Mr.
Anderson speaks with the authority of an able
and intelligent expert, and his assurances may
help English manufacturers to console them
selves against the prophecies of the approach
ing extinction of the coal measures.
The results of experiments made with sam |
pies Of gas coal recently sent to New York, |
taken from veins tributary to the Clinch Val |
ley division of the Norfolk and Western Rail |
road, in Southwest Virginia. establish the fact.
in the opinion of the Roanoke Herald, that it |
will command a share of the patronage now en- |
joyed by tho Pennsylvania Westmoreland and |
Youghiogheny Goals in all the Eastern markets
1t is equal in value to the best Goals from the |
districts named, and is thought by experts to |
be superior to the gas Goals mined on the |
Chesapeake and Ohio and Baltimore and Ohio |
roads. The veins are five to six feet thick and |
very easily mined. The owners of these prop |
ertles are prepared to make leases for coal |
operations on reasonable royalty. The greater |
portion of the gas coal field controlled by the
Tazewell Coal and Iron Company, with head |
quarters at Tazewell Court House, Va, ana T. |
P. Trigg and associates, Abingdon, Va. The |
demand for THIS class of coal is increasing |
yearly, and it is expected that the shipments to |
Eastern cities from the line of the Clinch Val |
ley division during the year will be very large |
The Philadelphia Real Estate Record takes I
occasion to remark: 1T is a noticeable fact
that the man who naturally takes to real
estate. either as an investment or as a safe way
to husband his earnings, is generally counted
among the winners. He may not be able to
count his gains with the same frequency as
does the man who speculates in stocks. neither
is he compelled to estimate his losses as often.
nor is he so frequently worried with financial
The characteristics of the
two men are entirely different There is an
air of solid comfort and equanim1ty about the
man who owns land and houses. while the stock
speculator's face and manner are indicative of
his extra hazardous calling"