The Big Stone post. (Big Stone Gap, Va.) 1890-1892, 1891-05-22
THE GTEAT SOU
it gsffcrs advantages Tor Investors saper-
dor to Any Other partof the Globe.
AN IMPARTIAL STATEN ENT..
{sarlboronsA in rornIghsly Review.

But matters are to-day, however,t taking
quite new shape. The great coking
field Of Pennsylvania is no longer the on
" source of the finest coke, while the ma
tural gas has given out altogether. On
the other hand, since the demand for
steel has become SO enormous for railways
and house girdor building. etc., the East
ern iron masters are compelled to go to
Lake Superior for their spiegeleisen to
obtain q suitable orc for their Bessemer
conyerters. This ore has to come all the
way from Lake Superior at a water freight
of about $2 a ton, shipped to Toledo and
Cleveland, and thence by rail to the Penn
sylYania blast furnaces. Some Sc ton
this Bessemer ore from Lake Superior
costs in carriage before it reaches the
Eastern furnaces over best ore, also, that
it pays to send; tons are dug and cast
aside that is not of high enough grade 10
be worth sending Y
The demand for steel rails alone will
keep Pennsylvania going for years. Steel
rails in America have doubled the cary
ing capacity of simply incalculsble.
Let us trace for moment the area Of
the one great coking basin Of America.
Beginning with the Northcrnmost area of
production, the Connellsville coke field,
we 60 on south to the New River field in
West Virginia, and on the great Poca-
hontas field on the border of North Vir-
ginia, and then on to, Big Stone Gap and
the field Of the Tennessee Coke Co., and
then on further South to the English
town Of Middlesborough. From there we
descend to the very much less good coke
of Chattanooga, and lastly to Birmng-
ham, Ala, where the coke fields end alto
gether West of Birmingham.
The heaviest deposits are in East Ken
lucky and West Virginia, for there the
strata have not been denuded at all, and
I have seen in the ravines throughout that
region, both ut Middlesborough and Big
Stone Gap, two six-foot seams Of pure
coal, one above the other, running right
through the entire mountain range with
out fault in the seams, besides one and
sometimes even more four-foot seams, all
above the water level Of the valleys.
These large seams are all worked with
simple adits into the hillside, and the coal
wherever went into it was as solid be-
tween slate beds as could he wished for.
The majority of this coal is free from
sulphur and cokes out to sc per cent of
carbon; at least it does this at the two
fields l saw ut Cumberland and Big Stone
Gap.
Now, the whole of this great Elkhorn
coal region, as it is called, comprising as
it does many thousands of square miles,
is virtually one great forest-clad country
of hills and mountains and valleys, in
tersected with streams and rivers, covered
with an underground OF rhododendron
and azalea. The timber is probably the
finest hardwood timber in the word-elm,
ash, maple, oak, hickory, walnut, ETC., Of
immense size.
This great forest country has never
been cut into and destroyed so far, be-
cause there was not only no access to mar
ket for the timber, but the country itself
was only half surveyed. The whole of
West Virginia and East Kentucky has al
ways been an impenetrable mountain for
est till quite lately on roads for years ex
cept one i
Close in proximity to these enormous
coal fields are the great iron-ore deposits
of Virginia and Tennessee. From Nir-
GIMP right down throughout the whole of
the so-called Smoky Range of the Allie
ghanies, bordering North Carolina and
Georgia, and again down as far as Biz
mingham, Ala, iron-or deposits abound.
On the Cumberland side of the Tennessee
valley there exists bed OF red fossil ore
over 70 miles in length. This is the prn-
cipal orc that will be used at Middles-
borough, and is the same in character as
the ore at Birmingham. 1t is high in
phosphorus, but can be treated on the
basic hearth process for steel-making
especially when blended with the red or
brown ores that abound through the
Smoky Ranges the other side of the
valley. i 4 Il
1t is often forgotten by English nves-
tors when they put their money into
South American countries that they have
to deal with a country that has virtually
no settled forms of government, and that
England is not going to enforce the claim
of English creditors with the cannon Of
our war ships. Again, these countries
have practically no population, and what
there is composed mostly of lazy Italians
and Latin races of all sorts.
In America, ON the other hand, you
have the most stable and conservative
form of government in the world. We
may not understand the institutions and
laws of America, but that is our fault,
and If our investing public make mistakes
in American investments it is simply
their foresight which is to blame. The
courts are free and will respect general
rights Of all sorts. There is no fear Of
foreign wars. 1t therefore all comes
down to question OF efficient manage
ment and careful selection.
THE suIEST INVESTMENTS.
Breweries aud stock yards and elevators
are very fine things SO long as you can
get them managed by local American
boards who have strong share interest
in them, but do not let us blind ourselves
to the fact that you are really only buying
goodwill, four walled factory and a lot
Of beer barrels. The real value of
America is in real estate, and in real es
tate include not only such property as
Middlesborough. bat also all American
railways in which you can hold an efiec-
tive block of stock which will control the
management. It is in this real estate of
one form and another that future unearn-
ed increment Of value lies. Breweries
wall vanish, but coal regions and railways