The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1906-08-11

cENTRALEA, Pa, Aug. M--ThissHps
he anthracite town Just under the
clouds ID suffering from too much ad7
vertising AM notoriety This is the
practically unanimous opinion Of Its
leading citizens. The town has trors
bIes Of lis own That IS fully admit
ted. But It thinks itself well able. Il.
iIet alone, to work these out in Its
Town way. centraIia IS built over a
local basin, and is experiencing sur
face Disturbances which here and else
where afe the normal results of the
taking out Of coal. This is q chronic
trouble. from which the town has suf-
Tered more or less. almost from the be-
ginning o. its history, as other min
ling towns have. The notoriety is a
new and acute attack, and tustat pres
ent centralia is more disturbed over
1.-The latter than the former.
Reduced to .heir daylight propor=
tions&the facts about Centra1ia are in
teresttng, but not sensational. Under
living the town is a basin containing
ten workable anthracite yeins,a all trtb-
Eutary to the Centralia colliery. of the
Lehigh Valley Coal Company. The
collicry is very old, and many of
the lower veins have been practically
worked out, leaving the uppermost'
the Primrose vein and the Holmes
vein, as the most available sources
of supply. First mining in the Holmes
lvein has been completed, and with the
"robbing" OF the pillars in the ordi-
naryp scientific progress Of second
mining. some. surface Disturbances,
are sure to follow. The pitch'o of the
Primrose vein, moreover, is almost
perpendicular. The top rock at the
outcrop is insignificant, and when the
coal begins to run, that fs. whenever
the vein is worked, considerable por-
Etfons of surface along the line Of the
outcrops are unavoidably pulled in.
H~ouseholders Only Own Surface.
The coal lands of Centralia are. and
long have beens owned by the Locust
Mountain Coal Company. AS early as
1856 this company began selling lots
in what is now Centralia, chiefly to
miners on partial payments, for home
building purposes. In all the deeds,
the Locust Mountain Company care
fully reserved to itself the right to
mine the coal, that is, to undermine
the property. and protected itself by
specific clauses in the deeds, against
liability for injuries to the surface re.
suIting therefrom. In other words
1T. sold the surface, but refrained from
selling with it what is known In law
as the fright of support" The prices
received for the land were small pre-
stlmably because of the limited nature
of the grant.
During the mining of the lower
veins. the surface was not affected.
except by the customary settling With
which oil coal towns r familiar. Ev-
cry now and then there would be a
squeeze" as it Is called, and some
householder would find the doors or
window sashes out of plumb, or his
plasterfng might crack OF ever fall.
These things are accepted p%hlloso-
phical1y in the mining regions. But
with the working Of the uppernost
veins the disturbances became nee
essarily greater. Michael Madden,
the holder Of one of the deeds men.
toned, brought suit for damages, ana
his case was pending for a long time.
He was denied damages in the lower
court, and this decision was affirmed
by the Supreme Court of Pennsylva-
mia, the court of last resort, on tho
ground that an express reservation OF
ali mining privileges. together with
the right of support, was a valid lImi-
tation of the grant, and the parties
must Aide by their bargain.
w Earnings of Danger.
Mining in the Primrose and Holmes
-."E 80. 49, --.z-,-gRtN n oVN1 /