Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1900-05-01
BURNED A HuNDRED YEARS.
Colorado Mountain Whoi e Perpetual Fire
 Cannot Be Quenched.

Cannot Be Quenched.
 For 100 years and perhaps much longer a mountain in Colorado has been on fire. It is situated but short distance west of Newcastle, and the shadow of it's smoke envelopes the town z! , o'clock every evening. The pe6iie s.s 1as region have become so accust1.l ea 10 it that they pay little or no attention to the phenomenon. To the stranger thereabouts, however, the glittering patches of deep red fire, where 1t breaks out on the side of the | mountain and is exposed to view. there Is nothing in all the state quite it's | equal The fire is fed by big vein of coal which the mountain contains. Just how the coal became ignited IS. not known. The oldest resident says it was on fire when he came and the Ute Indians, who once lived there, say it was burning many years before the first white man crossed the continen- tai divide. The supposition is that the coal was ignited by a forest fire at an early date in the present century. It 1 has smoldered and steadily burned un- til this day. At night when the moon Is dark is the best time to see the fire. Then 1t is that it resembles the re- 1 gions of inferno as given us in the
 word painting of Dante The earth
 covering the coal is loosened by the i heat and falls away, exposing the sheet of fire. The escaping gas probably as- sists in stripping off the rocks and dirt and wherever the vein of coal ap-
 breaches the surface the fire can be seen. The first fire I saw was fully fifty feet square. It had peculiar red
 tint, while the burning gas coming up at the base Of the coal vein added
 bright color to the scene. In many places the surface of the mountain ha7 sunk, showing where the fire hts
 burned out it's course. Efforts have been made to extinguish the fire Some
 time ago company which owns . large amount of coal land constructed ditch from a point several miles above the mountain, into which it suc- eeeded In turning the water which goes to form Elk creek Previously a shaft had been sunk in the mountain, and into this shaft the water was permitted to flow. The shaft was soon filled, but the fire was above the level of the water, aud the effort was failure.
 HANGED FOR BURNING COAL. Strange Law Which Was in Force in England in I5o0.
 There will be an interesting function In London shortly, when the coal ex- change celebrates it's jubilee. The oeca- sion is one for recalling strange remi- niscences: for as late as the four teenth century prohibition was issued against the burning of coal, with se- we're penalties deereed against any per son who warmed his house by a coal fire. In the early days of Lord Mayor Wilmington the burning of coal was considered so great a public nuisance that 1t was made a capital offense, and one man was actually hanged for in dulging in coal fire. As a matter Of fact, this ordinance was never re- pealed, but in Dick Whittington's" third mayoralty 1t Is evident there was a great trade in coal, and the sugges- ton has been made that coal was brought to London in boats known as the eats, this was the real origin of the story of Dick Wilmington and his cat. The coal exchange, however. is a modern institution. It is also one of the most important of Londou's marts. Under the shadow of it's domed roof commercial transactions are daily car ried through of greater value than in connection with any other mercantile building in the world. Unlis ' the corn exchange in Mark lane, 1t is not a pri- vate concern, but Is city market con- ducted on the same principles as the other markets opened by the city cor peration. Opened with much ceremony in October 1S49, by the prince eonsort. the present building Is just about to celebrate its jubilee. But the market itself is older than the building. Up to 1907 it was in the hands Of private individuals, but in that year 1t was purchased by the corporation for e25.- 600,-London Times.