The review. [volume] (High Point, N.C.) 1908-19??, 1914-06-25
INDIAN COAL MINE.
Picturesque Tale Told of Brave Who
Supplied Fuel.

Picturesque Tale Told OF Brave Wh
Supplied Fuel.
State Line, Mass.-Manv year
ago there lived in the old town Q
West Stockbridge. not far from Stat
Line, a blacksmith who conducted
shop that was well patroniZed b,
those OF the surrounding country, a
his work was always we'll done an
his charges reasonable. 1t was il
the early days of coal. The locomo
tive engines of the period were Woot
burners, and most of the stoves ii
the houses depended upon wood a:
their chief fuel. In those days The
railroads had not begun to haul Goa
to all parts of the country as they d.
today and as a result coal was no,
the common article of tuel that il
now is. The primitive blacksmiths
at great labor and not little expense
obtained limited amount of coal
for their FORCES but it had to be of a
certain kind to do the work demand
ed of it.
One day there came to this black
smiths shop a customer who desired
a piece OF iron welded. He came at
Just time when there was famine
in the coal supply. The smith had
coal ordered but it had not arrived
and there was no telling how long
period would elapse before it did al.
rive. He wanted to do the job but
there seemed no way that he could
do so without the proper degree Of
heat for a weld.
While he was bemoaning to the
prospective customer the scarcity of
coal which prevented his taking the
job, there came by the shop an aged
Indian of the Stockbridge tribe SELL
ing baskets. The old Indian had
fair mastery of the white mans Ian
guage and listened with interest to
the blacksmith's complaint, then he
broke into the conversation with the
remark:
"Give lnjun bag, and Injun get
um COAL"
"Where would you get coal from?"
incredulously asked the saith.
"Inju6 know. He got um place
in big mountain where heap much
coal grow. "
But with little faith in the Indians
promise, the blacksmith, however,
hunted up a stout sack and gave it
10 the redman, VINO immediately
look his departure toward the noun
aims, while the blacksmith and his
customer sat down near the forge to
await results.
Two hours passed and the watch
RS were about giving up hope Of
lgain seeing the Indian or the sach.,
when, from out of the woods of a
nearby hillside stepped the Indian.
Upon his back he carried a sack
heavily loaded. He came to the
shop, and tossing the sack at the
,lacksmith's feet, guturally re.
"Uln COAL"
The blacksmith emptied the sack
md its contents proved to be forge
,oal of the very best kind.
Where did you get this coal?"
Isked the smith.
up in um mountain, ''"said the
edman.
whereabouts in the mountains?"
lnjun know replied the redskin.
And that WAS all they could get
'ut of him. A few minutes later he
ook up his baskets and started off
While the blacksmith, lighting the
ire in his forge, was soon busy with
is toll, and found the coal that had
y strangely come to him all that
he most fastidious smith could ask.
From that day to this, efforts to
ocate the Indians coal mine in the
FOUNTAINS of that region have often
'een tried, but all in vain. There
an ancient legend, so old as a.
most to have been forgotten except
" here and there an aged resident,
which tells of lost cave somewhere
mid the mountains in the depths
f which the Indians said there was
ola. But no white man is known
o have entered its confines in many
ears and its very location is now
)st and with it the Indian coal mine.
ETDCT CIT WE'D n0TTAD