The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-11-08
is ANTHROCITE car,


is ANTHROCITE CAR.
Now that some political questions
| are settled, let US hope for good. we
can turn to other questions that com
front us and the falling mercury
Sharply reminds US that, for us un-
happy jewellers in towns and cities
with no woOdlot to draw upon the
most pressing one is that Of keenin1
warm and of the material with which
1t Will be done. Very few are in that
fortunate condition wherein the price
or wood or coal is not a serious one
to be considered and discussed in ali
the pros and cons of frugality and the
relatlVe merits and economies duly
weighed. Some day in the future there
VIII be born a genius who will correct
the mistakes of nature and eouaIiza
her extremes by finding some means
ny which the heat of summer will
not be flung off and wasted In unan-
preciative space, but the surplus will
De stored up and preserved against
Inc Gays when polar waves begin to
engulf a shivering humanity. Merely
reversing his process he will abolish
the iceman by bottIing up the frigiditv
or winter to be uncorked when the
mercury ranges among the nineties.
But the genius is not yet here and
we who have no money to burn must
sun have coal or wood to burn. And
thls brings US face to face with that
most potent seignior. the coal trust
whose name is Anthracite. He sits
serenely within his principally, en-
bracing AT square miles of the state
OF pennsylvania, and to the expostu-
lat1ons, appeals and threats he COM
posedly says. 1886 a ton, Sir. or
Madam, or no anthracite" We shake
our lists in his face and fret and fume
ana Illuminate resolutions, but he calm
~ smiles at our impotence. He knows
he Is securely buttressed against ALI
assaults. The state of PENNSYLVANIA
BOWS to his nod; states rights shield
him from congress-: courts uphold him
in his sacred right to do what he wiA
With his own; his army of distributing
vassals yield implicit obedience to his
imperious nod. He has fettered the
people by capturing the makers Of fur
naces and stoves and they have made
US furnish our houses with heaters
that are adapted only to his glisteninR
product, whose hardness rivals that
or his own cheek. He makes his vas
sals also dealers in wood-fuel and ad-
Justs the prices of wood and coal so
nicely that he who jumps from an
thracite to maple finds that he has
merely exchanged the frying pan for
the fire.
But, "as the pale history of this poor
world runs" tyrants have seldom died
in their beds. When domination seem
ed the most complete and securely
founded it's shattering began. When
the reservoir is fullest its danger is
greatest. Pride goeth before de-
struction and naughty spirit before
g. fall. While Anthracite sits with
the patience of a cat before a mousse
hole, waiting for Frost to drive con-
sumers into his pen, the consumers
are asking themselves II, after all.
anthracite is necessity. Is there not.
really, something good and commend
able in it's humber brother bftumin-
GUS? And they go tentatively, ex-
perimenting with the cheaper Goals.
and find, to their surprise and salts
faction, they can get along quite COM
fortably without anthracite. Then
there appears another formidable COM
petitor in the gas-men. Councils of
cities are asked to grant franchises to
lay mains under the streets through
which to conduct fuel gas to the fur
naces and stoves and CRATES and in
New York city, one company pledges
the cost not to exceed fifty cents a
thousand feet. Then men with a turn
for invention are racking their brains
to convert the energy in coal directly
into electricity so it's cost may be
lessened and the fluid applied to warm
ing our houses, and they are so near
success that the new century may see
us merely turning a switch to cause
the genial heat of electricity to diffuse
itself through our houses. Thus an
thracite may learn the meaning Of the
fable of the man who killed the goose
that laid the golden eggs.