Evening star., 1905-10-24

to make his foundations and lay his super
st: ucture upon them. He does not buy Ito
the center of the earth" as in other cases.
He owns nothing below his lowest founda-
ton course, and he takes all the risk of
settlement in case the earth snould tumble
in to fill up abandoned mine. This is
the established custom of the region as well
d the letter of the laws covering mineral
lights. In city like Scranton, built en-
tirely over old mine workings, the question
of foundations thus becomes serious. The
great city hail. beautiful structure, stand
ing in the middle of large square, Is
wholly undermined, and in order to secure
support for 1t the chambers of the mine
beneath were solidly built up with masonry.
That is also the case with other large
buildings.
Scranton boasts of one of the best hotels
in Pennsylvania, and it stands securely
over old coal mine, the foundations
having been prepared at heavy cost in this
manner.
No man ever buys real estate in this sec
tion without first consulting the mine maps,
to see what there Is underneath. The
pillars that are left in the mines are as
carefully plotted as are the water mains
and gas pipes. and thus the wise purchaser
will select plot of ground we'll dotted with
pillars, and will then make certain, by
covenants, that these pillars will never be
disturbed. Otherwise he may wake up some
morning to find that the pillars have been
robbed" by the mine owners, and his house
has SettleQ twenty 1eet, OF, as WAS tUe tdSS
with u drug store in Dunmore a suburb of
Scranton, split bodily in twain. If these
covenants are not made part of the pur-
chase deed it is possible for the mine owner
to sell the old workings without passing
the verbal agreement, and for the new
ow ner to rob the pillars and leave the
householder above with neither foundation
nor grounds for damages.
A Veritable Pillar of the Church.
At Pittston, a few miles south of Scran-
ton, is to be found literal pillar of the
church." The Catholic church of that VIII
ege, a large, beautiful structure, stands
upon one solid shaft of coal many yards IN
diameter. In the deed to the property is
perpetual covenant that this pillar, which
contains several thousand dollars worth of
good coal, shall never be removed or
robbed"
But there is not always such strict regard
for the conventions. Within a few days
was reported an effort on the part of Ger
tain citizens of Wilkes-Barre to restrain by
Injunction the operators of mine from
re lbing the pillars stanGing beneath Il GEM
etery. The burial plots have already be-
gun to sink and there is a serious fear that
if the irreverent process is not checked
in a short time the bones of the departed
will have been deposited in the old work
irEs, forty or fifty feet below the surface
One morning. a few years ago, q portly
woman went into her back yard to hang
up her wash. Suddenly. without the
slightest warning, the ground opened be-
meath her feet and her three hundred
pounds We're swallowed neatly as
though she were the assistant of a stage
magician doing a disappearance" trick.
Her terror-stricken household gave an
alarm the fire bells were rung and the
valiant crews came trooping to the rescue.
This is part of the duty of the firemen in
this section. They had to work carefully,
lest the earth cave in with rush and
bury the woman beyond recovery. BY
dint of skillful labors they mana ged. in the
course of a couple of hours, to extricate
the victim from her uncomfortable sta
tion dozen feet below the surface. Save
for few scratches she was unhurt, and
regarded her Imprisonment as merely a
phase of life in the hard-coal belt.
Endurance of the Supply.
In some parts of the anthracite district