The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-02-19


-: :: saving millions of dollars worth
- l. of property from the fame he
-. :: guards Frank McGovern was
: x6ilng when he became the volcanoes care
:taker. and there's still another score and
= fire years of work for him to do, for old
:. No; . will. keep up her tantrums at least
-. THAT much longer. The roof has a way
of. failing IN occasionally; hot steam
':btirstS<from assures; the warm earth has
!. a .parboiled smell; the fire crops out along
= the galleries, and at night streaks the
T. xnolintain with bands red and ugly against
:: the wtthered sides; yet the janitor, cheer
3. full ard content, threads his way along the
: Inner circle of the inferno committed to
" his charge.
=: You need only travel to Wilkesbarre,
: Pa. to see all this. The volcano is in
the city limits and there are houses close
TO the rim of its activity. The PennsyI-
Naria city is so accustomed to having II
there, that it has been almost forgotten
-: You remember the story of the Traveller
=. who climbed up one of the Alps to the
cottage of a peasant near the summit.
=: land you admire this view!" exclaimed
=. the peasant when the tourist had ex-
: hajrst6d his adjective magazine. How
>: STRANGE 1t has always been here.
=: That. is much the kind of experience
: :1,o{ij. will have when you go to Wilkes
-. barre in quest of a volcano and It's Keep
..er. II YOU inquire about the burning mine
~: the hotel the boniface will look at you
dir: mild wonder and say that you must
: he: mistaken. He doesn't know anything
about the mines. He couldn't be expect
ed to. since he lives over them and the
:: eitAt is trimmed with coal breakers and
tl9ek: dust heaps. The policemen will
& look at you in dazed way when you seek
.-;fso-r6at ton about EtnaS, and every troll
= ~ car conductor in the square will d.
rect YOU to another line. 1 stood the other
DIV close enough to the volcano TO feel
4Le' sofes of my shoes growing unpleas-
. ari,tr,,swarn1 and asked a man II he knew
3: .T::Tere fsrnight find the burning mine.
..'fF do not know he said; i nave not
lived here long.
III Is very warm to-day" L ventured.
p 5..5Fps % he said. at is warm"
- noticed as he went his way that the
,cay7y he carried was charred at the end
- This volcano was started on January .,
1874 The famous Baltimore VEN had Deeh
tanned 'orIv a few years before, and the
20 T1ela1yares and Hudson Canal Company re-
3oiced The vein was twenty feet thick
~, many places, which meant twenty feet
of good. ciean coal-no slate, rock ana
. eartf7. There was an interior slope In the
mine from which the coal was taken IN
Gears drawn up by means OF engines. Inc
=. boilers for the engines were at the foot OF
fife slope. The roof caved in on the boil
.eEs one night and the vein of coal was ig-
s1fited- from the furnace fires. This was the
beginning of the fire. The Wflkesbarre
volcano is responsible for the PennsylVa-
ria. law which did away with the use OF
boilers in mines and made 1T compulsory
to have all steam sent from the surface
through bore holes.
Three hundred men, IN short shifts,
fought that fire for a month. They were
driven back by the intense heat. Many of
them were overcome and had to be car
ried away by their comrades. That first
month: of fire fighting cost the company
'~fl96 100. It was found impossible to ex-
oInguish' the flames, although the water
kept them under control.
Their. ten acres of one of the richest coal
veins in the world was set aside to burn
until the last spark should die in ashes.
Aronnd:, the fire was carved out a great
RafigYay.. On one side of the passage,
protected by a few feet of wall, the fire
burns TO this day. Sometimes it tries to
creep out from the restraining wall, and
Their the janitor and his assistant drive
back the head into the place beyond the
facing of coal.
It's a rough road to the volcano. It's
a>dodging among coal cars and passing
around an ebon breaker. Then there is a
narrow railroad track which crawls
around the hillside. 1t is a region of red
banks Of earth and disintegrating rock
Below is a raVine through which runs a
brook with the washing of coal dust
along its slippery banks. A bit of the
iron stained rock drops occasionally from
.he top of an overhanging bank. There
are cuttings in the mountain side which
hands of men never made. On either side
are depressions which show that earth
and rock slip from the foundations be-
meath.
Around the curve of the undulating
tramcar track is the pumping station,
where by means of siphon the water is
drawn off from a pond into the brook
below. On the right is sheer wall Of red
shale. There is winding path which
leads to the top of the hill.
The winter has placed a heavy hand
upon@yegetation, but 1t does not take more
An a. glance to know that the trees on
that hili are dead. They have the appear
ance Of the petrifed trees in some I'M
dersround forest. There are branches