The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-06-09
A MODEL COAL MINE AND
 CAMP MARVEL, ALABAMA
By ETHEL ARMIES Author s"The Story of Coal and Iron in AIabamav

I
 tains a good class of labor, is told today dollars and cents, as well as few othel results.
 This years record at Marvel shows ar actual increase of 80 per cent over its coal output of last season. and places the company at one bound almost right up in the list of the "big guns" of the Birmingham district.
 The attention of the mining men oi the state is becoming concentrated on the little 3OOO-acre block of Cahaba coal what Is beow-and what is on top. How did they get 1t?
 How do they manage to keep such an excellent and contented class of miners
 "Get out the coal? Well-just see them!'
 Best system in the country"
 "If their men ever leave them it's only for a few weeks or months. They all ways go back, and go back to stay.'
 Colonel DeBardeleben used to say that money was just good for these things To take wild piece of land-ground not fit to feed a goat on, and turn it into a settlement of men and women; to bore hill through and turn over noun tain-and get out coali
 The Roden Coal company is doing this.
 B. F. Roden, president of the Roden Coal company, and the builder of the Marvel mines and camp, is the son of one of the pioneer settlers and industrial lead CTS of Birmingham, who was associated with the late Colonel DeBardeleben in many of his later ventures. Young Ben used to prospect with the old colonel. When he came back from Columbia uni versity school of mines he buckled right down to the practical end of the coal business. The Marvel property is partic- ularly his handiwork He has put into this a large part of his fortune-and more than that-his direct personal handling, brains. heart and gumption. Spirit of Old Walt Whitman The personal quality Is all over the place. That is perhaps the first inn pression one receives-the feeling of the human hand, the human feeling "a place for human beings to live and work in-not cattle to herd, as they herd them In some of the Pennsylvania camps; not hogs to wallow In, but a place to really line in!
 That in brief Is the explanation of the success at this camp. A trip down there is worth the going, Indeed, for the stir 1t gives to action. for the satisfaction at seeing just exactly the right sort of a job.
 
 W. D. McGinnis. superintendent; Pullman. Kelley and J. B. McGinnis, mine foremen
 What were some of the first steps
 Did the operator build him a great house on a hill apart from the camp, surrounded by gardens marked NO trespassing," and hedged in by six foot wall?
 The operator in this case, together with his young wife, a Vassar grad uate, and a young woman of won derful sweetness and strength, started life at the time the miners did-some four or five years ago. They con verted a miners house in the lowest part of the camp, hard by the rail- road track and the site saved for new home at the bend in the road going over to Hickory flats, where you see the blue Cahaba hills miles and miles, and have glory of sunrise, sunset and clouds and stars and keen fresh air forever-all this they have kept for the new schoolhouse and the children's playground
 They installed water supply have a clean. healthy camp: a good brand of meat, decent foodstuffs, clothes and supplies in the commissary; provided an excellent medical and dental service; bought a moving picture machine which they installed in a huge new frame building formerly the commissary of the Alabama Fuel and Iron company, now called the auditorium. electric lighted, with theatre seats, gallery Tor the blacks, and the place of Sunday meetings, Bible classes. Christian En- deavor meetings, stereoptican lectures, lyceum courses, concerts, lectures and the like, as well as the moving picture show every Saturday night.
 In addition to this the company se- cured the services of H. B. Graves an instructor in manual training in the Birmingham High schools, to come to Marvel twice a month and teach the bows. The club Is called "The Boys and Girls Club" and every child in the camp is eligible. A start has been made in the making of a library
 So much for birdseye view of some of the facts of the camp end.
 Location of Marvel
 The Marvel mines are located down in Ribb county, about 30 miles from Birmingham, in the heart of the old Cahaba coal field. Garnsey and savage creek mines of the Galloway Coal com pany, are the nearest neighbors. while Finer and Coleanor of the Little Ca- haba Coal company and the T. c. |. workings at Blocton are just across country.
 A few hours ride on the Mineral branch of the Louisville and NashVille railroad takes one over the circuit or this particular region and, halting at a bilious looking box car depot. hard ly big enough to hold a railroad tick ct, much less an agent, one hears the name of Marvel called
 First appearances are deceiving. The company Is not responsible for the de pot" the Southern is Plans are, how ever. being made to build station this summer, as well as for some much needed track extension. The Marvel mines have the service of two railroads. the Louisville and Nashville and the Southern.
 Only fraction of the works may be seen from the main line. Nearly every thing Is way up the steep hill there and far back in the hollows. The 5000 acres of coal lands In the Roden block just here-a total area of five square miles-is as wild and rich country as there Is in Alabama. The wand runs in great waves-green breakers-and the look of it all far off is like the sea.
 It is a great country-hard perhaps to travel over, certainly tough proposi- ton to run contour lines and build houses and shops on-but it is beautiful to look at. Once you get on Broadway the road on the crest which Is one of the main roads or the camp, tnere preeze and mountain view and mist and woods city folks pay hundreds of dollars to get in summer time.
 Everything is not yet built up as it is planned to be. u is coming gradually. Much is still crude and uneven-but the basic principles are all there-the right start-and extraordinary results 1t must be confessed in very short while.
 Below and on Top
 The mine equipment at Marvel is worth