Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1897-08-01

the earth before they knew that coal wa.
good 10 burn. All the iron made before tbs
Gays OF the middle ages was with charcoal
ana a fairy tale is told in EeigiUm Of how
I poor blacksmith discovered the irst blacI
6iamonds. He found that he could not eel
along. for il took so much time TO maxi
his charcoal fer his furnace. He was jas
about to commit suicide when a white
bearded cid man appeared at his shop an
told him to go TO the mountains near bS
and dig out the black earth and burn IL
lie did so. and was able to make a horse
IhOe at one forging. This Is the Belgian
Etory Of tho discovery CT coal. The drsI
roal found in America was near Ottawa
III. II IS mentioned by Father Hennepiu
y French explorer. who visited there ir
1853. The first mines worked were about
Richmond. Va. This coal was discovered
by boy while out fishing.
lie was hunting OF crabs FOR bait In q
small creek. and thus tumbled upon the
outcroppinEs OF the James river coal bed.
our anthracite coal fields have perhaps
paid better than any other coal fields OF
the world. They were discovered by a
hunter named Nicho Allen, when George
Washington was president. Allen cnCarBD-
ed one night in the SchuylkiD regions. kind
ling his FIRE upon some black stones. lie
awoke to find himself almost roasted. The
stones were on fire. ard anthracite was
burning for the first time. Shortly after
this "a company was gotten up to sell an
thracitC coal. II was taken around to the
blacksmiths, but they did not know how to
use IL. and IL was very unpopular. Some Of
n was rh!uped to Philadelphia by a Colonel
Shoemaker and sold there. Il was not at
all satisfactory, and a writ was gotten out
from the city authorities d-enouncing the
colonel as a knave and ~scOundrel for try
ing to impose rocks upon them as coal. Still
Philadelphia has largely been built up by
anthracite coal. and 5).D0Q.00 tons of this
coal were taken out OF the Pennsylvania
delds in 1896.
Since then some Of these coal lands have
been sold as high as Sl.aO an acre. and the
philadelphia & Reading company in 1SI
paid &O.O01U0O fer 10000 acres of coal land
I'm this region. AS a sample Of the amount
Of business done in anthracite coal. the
Delaware and Hudson Canal Company paid
100000 I'm one year for mining. and their
roal sales that year amounted to more than
~f10.cO.0OO.
We Beat the World.
It Is hard TO estimate the enormous
amount Of money the United States makes
out Of its coal. We get more than three
times as much out Of our coal mines as
out OF our gold mines. and the silver metal
j. not in IL with the black diamonds. There
& a little region in Eastern Pennsylvania
about rs miles from Philadelphia and not
more than go miles from New York. which
produces every year coal to a greater value
than oil the gold mines OF the Rockies.
Canada and Alaska. 1t Is our anthracite
coal fields which turn out between 100000
and 6aGoo,g0 tons Of anthracite every wear.
We have in addition TO this a hundred and
thirty odd million tons of bituminous coal
annually. We have. in short. the biggest
and hest coal measures on the globe. II
Is estimated that our coal east Of the Rocky
mountains covers $4,000 square miles. and
found In many parts Of the far West. Col
orado will eventually be n great manu-
featuring state on account OF its coal.
Utah has large coal fields. and so have
the states OF Montana, Washington and
Wyoming. We are now getting something
Xix 100000 tons Of coal a year out OF In.
diana. kentucky and Illinois. and the great
Appalachian field produces more than four
times this amount. There Is more good
urnable earth in the Appalachian noun
tains than anywhere else in the world. THE
coal is easy to get at. the veins are thick
and in some mines they are almost on the
top OF the ground. They are better than
any other coal fields in this respect. with
one single exception. This is the new coal
survey men tells me, comes right out over