Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1900-09-28

,drge, where tbe surface of the earth
has been stripped away aud piled high
hlong the edge of the pit that formerly
held 1t. These are the "strippingS,"
where a vein Of coal running near the
surface has been simply uncovered and
mus removed, Instead of the operators
going through the more tedious. more
dangerous process of mining it by
shaft To be sure. like the slate
dumps, they are horrible disfgure-
meut to the country, for of course no
attempt Is made to replace the dirt
taken away; but, then, without the
roal the land would be of little value.
ana, with hard cash in the balance
md the fires of thousands of locomo.
tives. what matters the scenery of n
desolate region? Some of the strip
pings. notably one few miles from
Lattimer. the scene of the shooting of
the deputies few years ago. are ex-
tremely deep, sometimes several hun
dred feet, and when deep shaft is Of
ten sunk at the bottom. Most of them,
hp"NN'ls ult IlOt ONtG w vi ~ lptl III
depth, the coal at lower level than
this being mined by shaft. Indeed it
is often possible to see at the bottom
of a stripping large air holes opening
into the shafts, which have been run
underneath from other points. The
strippings are often of considerable
length. 900 or 400 yards perhaps, and
the impression which q succession of
these unnatural workings present
when seen from distance can be
readily imagined.
A closer survey of the country in one
of these valleys reveals at once other
very conspicuous features. Perhaps
the two most noticeable reminders of
the underground world that is pursu-
Ing its ceascless business far below the
feet will be found in the numerous
Gave ins" and air holes" that one
Is sure to meet at every side. Gave
ins" assume almost any size. from q
sinking of the earth few feet deep
and few yards across to great, deep
sunken holes hundred yards wide
and 80 or 40 feet deep. They are the
result of "robbing.' the process that
goes on in the mine when n certain
vein is worked out, and the pillars that
have been left to support the roof are
robbed in such manner that they
soon afterward give way, and a cave
in results. OF course cave ins are never
very deep, for the veins of coal are
never very thick, and 10 or Is feet Of
earth will generally fill them up. They
are, however. extremely frequent, and
this might be said to be one of their
chief features. No matter where one
walks, if there is mine below, there
are excellent chances of finding q cave
in within 200 or 800 yards.
The "air shafts" also very frequent
throughout the country, are of course
of little interest to one who Is used to
sometimes a mile or more from the
nearest settlement and in the midst of
a wood or wilderness Of underbrush
they possess a strong and indescriba-
bic fascination, as the breathing holes
of an underground world. They are
generally well protected and always
substantially built and strongly tim.
bered. An iron pipe eight or ten feet
In height and as many in width is
their most common termination,
though often in poorer mines they are
merely boarded " to the same
heights.
No sketch of tie general appearance
M hA II
without Il word as to the roads, whose
excellence, everything considered,
strikes one the moment he begins to
drive over the country. True, in some
parts, particularly where there is little
active mining and little attention paid
to road building they are in very bad
shape and rocky. For the most part,
however, they are constructed of the
red shale. so abundant in the neighbor-
hood, which makes the best kind of q
country road-tirm, permanent and sell
dom dusty or muddy. Indeed, for
country districts, there are no better
roads in the state, taking them all in
all. and, best of all, there are few por-
tions of the state where continuous
use of its roads will bring the traveller
upon Il greater variety of fine and COM
manding views and more interesting
scenes and people than the anthracite
coal regions upon which the eyes of
Americas workingmen are turned to-
day.
A PRETTY ROMANCE.