The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1892-12-12
pNi.burnh pipateh.

Pilsburoh Diputeh,
The announcement that great syndi-
cate Of capitalists has bought up more
than 100000 acres of coal land in the
West Virginia mountains along the
valleys of the New and Gauley rivers
and Loup creek, is OF wide importance
to the industrial world. Few recent
enterprises are on a larger scale than
the great coting works which are soon
to light these charming river valleys
with fitful glare at night and wrap them
in clouds OF sulphurous smudge most OF
the day. The great extent Of these
coal deposits has been talked Of in a
general way for some time, and the asser-
ton has been made that they rivaled
in many respects those Of Western
Pennsylvania, but it has only been
within the past year that they have
attracted the serious attention OF heavy
capitalists who have become convinced
OF their value for coking and are now
building works which in time, they
anticipate, will equal in output the
famous ConnellsvilIe region.
Experts have pronounced the coal OF
these mountains equal for coking pur-
poses to that OF ConuelIsville, and the
narrow and beautiful valleys OF these
winding mountain streams will be lined
with hundreds OF ovens before another
twelve month is over. Frick and the
other great coke operators oil Pennsyl-
vaaia will have TO meet u new and Wig
orous competition, the central force OF
which are the millions Of the Wander
bits and the financial shrewdness and
Bagacity OF Drexel, Morgan & Go.
CHEAPER FUEL FOR THE SOUTH.
The effect of this development upon
the iron and steel industry OF the nation
is too complex theme for such an arti-
Gle as this. In all likelihood it means
cheaper fuel for the southern furnaces
and mills, ard consequently greater
lease OF power for them and more force
to their competition. The single item
of lower freight rates on fuel because OF
the shorter haul will be very important
to all the industries Of wide section.
The force OF this new competition in
coke, however, is likely to also compel
lower prices for that fuel the furnaces
of Ohio and Pennsylvania as we'll as to
those in the south, so that the iron and
steel industries OF the whole country
will probably derive some benefit. Thus
is theinterest ofone section the concern
of all, for the opening up OF this new
coking region will quite possibly be q
notable factor in the further cheaper
ing Of iron and steel products for the
millions. The Chesapeake q Ohio rail-
road has built branches up the Gauley
river and Loup creek to accommodate
this new traffic and in anticipation OF
its volume has also doubie-tracked its
road, the work being almost completed
at this time. Since the steep walls OF
the New river rise go closely to the
water as in many places not to allow OF
two main tracks side by side, the second
one is on the opposite bank Of the
stream, and it is expected coke ovens
will be built near both, wherever The
steep walls recede enough to permit OF
it.
A PIcTuREsQUELY BEAUTIFUL REGION.
The eighteen miles OF the New river
which are soon to thus become the CEN
ter of great cokiug enterprise are
widely famous as part of one Of the
most picturesque and beautiful OF the
mountain rivers OF eastern America.
When one contemplates it now and
thinks of what it will be year hence,
the old aesthetic structures OF Ruskin
against modern industrial despoilatiop>
appear in new light, and despite
American zeal for the development OF
great resources and pleasure in indus
trial advancement, we cannot but con.
TESS sympathy for Ruskin's pleas and
feel the sting OF regret that the wild!
beauty which has given thousands OF
travellers delight must be blasted by the
touch OF modern materialism.
Those who know its charms will
mourn for the old along the New next
year and forever after. The quiet Of
wooded glen will be broken by the shrilI
whistle of the engine on the coal
breaker. High up the steep slopes,
marking entrances to mines, will stand
unsightly buildings like plague spots in
what are even yet tree'clad solitudes.
Below them to the railroad tracks will
DO the dirty and unpoetic tramways,
and into the clear waters of rushing
rivers will fall the communicating refuse
OF the mine. The smoke and dusky
Crime of coke ovens will mingle in chok-
clouds with the blue haze OF autumn
that bands the mountain sides and the
soft mists that crown majestic submits.
The sweet odors OF the deciduous for
eat and the balm OF pines will alike be
H.. lyNh oNgh n
a myriad Of smudgy pits. The negro
miners, huddled in coarse new cabins
in little Tecesses OF the mountains and
their brother toilers over the stone
ovens alike begrimed and prosy, have
lost the charm, If not the ltghthearted
cheerfulness OF the old plantation life,
and stalk like veritable imps OF Vulcan
in landscapes where only man and
mans works are vile.
GREAT CHANGES IN A FEW YEARS.
A few years since the rush and shrek
OF the locomotive awoke strange echoes
among mountains that many knew q
sound less tender or profound than tho
roar OF the tempest through gorge and
defile, the alternate moaningot the trees
in winter and their whispering choruses
in sumner and the murmur Of the
mountain torrent in sprinGtime rushing
with foam and fury upon its apparently
endless task OF cutting even deeper its
rocky channel, and wrestling some atom
as guerdon from every stubborn boulder
that disputed its way even while, by
its fall from its strata above, it
muteiy testified to the proves OF the
stream. In autumn, the same stream
eddiod and rippled softly over the