Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1900-04-30
BURNED A HuNp RED YEARS.
Colorado Mountain Who; Perpetual Fire
 Cannot Be ouenched.


 Cannot Be Quenched.
 For loo 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 tewr :. 5 o'clock every evening. The Ieal.t s.le region have become so accos t,5z4 .a b it that they pay little or nc attention to the phenomenon. To the granger whereabouts, however, the glittering patches of deep red fire, where it 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 tgnited 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 eontinen= tai divide. The supposition is that the coal was ignited by a forest fire at an early date i'll the present century It has smolderea and steadily burned uns til this day. At night when the moon is dark is the best time to see the fire. Then it is that it resembles the re- giens of inferno as given us in the word painting of Dante. The earth covering the coal is 1oosened by the 1 heat and falls away, exposing the sheet of fire. The escaping gas probably as- sfsts in stripping off the rocks and dirt and wherever the vein of coal ap- breaches the surface the fire can be l seen. The first fire I SAW vas fully fifty feet square It had q peculiar red tint, while the burning gas coming up at the base of the coal vein added a bright color 10 the scene. Tn many places the surface of the mountain ha2 sunk. showing where the fire has burned out it's course. Efforts have been made to extingaish the fire. sofne time ago Q company which owns z large amount of coal land constructed 8 ditch from a point several miles above the mountain. into which it sue- eeeded in turning the water which goes to form Elk creek. Previously 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 a failure.
 HANGED FOR BURNING COAL. 1 E4r,.,... r ,xx4 xEy1,4a1. xva. xraraa fx,
 England In 1900.
 There will be an interesting function in London shortly, when the coal ex= change celebrates It's jubilee. The ocea- sion is one for recalling strange remi- niseenees: for as late as the four teenth century prohibition was Issued against the burning of coal, with se- we're penalties decreed against any per- sen who warmed his house by a coal fire Tn the early days Of Lord Mayor Wilmington the burning of coal was considered so great a public nuisance that it was made capital offense, and one man was actually hanged for in- : lulging in coal fire As 2 matter of fact this ordinance was never re- peaIed but in Dick Wilmington 8" third mayoralty 1t Is evident there was great trade in coal. and the =sugges= ton has been made that coal was brought to London in boats known =as the "cats," this was the real origin of the story of Dick Wilmington and his cat. The coal exchange, however. is l modern institution. IL is also one of the most important of London's marts. Under the shadow of it's d6med roof commercial transactions are daily car ried through of greater value than in connection with any other mercantile building in the world. Unlike the corn exchange in Mark lane, 1t is not pri- yate concern, but is city market con dneted on the same principles as the other markets opened by the city cor i poration. Opened with much ceremony in October, 1849, by the prince =eonsert. the present building Is just about to celebrate it's jubilee. But the market itself is older than the building. Up to 1897 1t was in the hands of private individuals. but in that year it was i purchased by the corporation for e25,- 600.-London Times.
 
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