Evening star., 1916-05-12
The Anthracite Country.
By Frederic ]. Haskin.

W LILA ES- bA hRE, Pa. May ll.-Ihe
miners and operators seem to have ad-
iusted their differences at the time this
Is written. and the work of the great
anthracite mines is going forward as
usual. The threatened strike has called
attention for moment to one of the
most remarkable sections of American
industrial life. For the mining of an
thracite coal is an allAmercian story.
which had its beginning back IN the
days when the farmers of SchuyiRlli
discovered that the black rock would
burn. and which has grown great with
the nation.
A hundred and forty years ago no one
knew. of the existence of anthracite
coal. But long before that time eastern
Pennsylvania was comparatively popu-
lous and sturdy farmers titled the lands
in the valleys of the Schuylkill and the
Wyoming. The farm lands were not or
the best and there were many outcrop-
pings OF a hard, black rock that inter-
fered with their plowing.
1t was just before the revolution that
hunter was lost one night on chilly
mountainside near the Schuylkill. He
built a fire beneath stump and dozed
off. When he awoke in the morning ne
found that the stump had burned away.
but. to his surprise, the broken ledge
of black rock just above 1t had been
transformed into glowing bed OF
Goals. The rock. in fact, had caught
fire and was burning.
The hunter carried the story of the
burning rock to Obadiah Core. black
smith of Wilkes
Years Before It Is Barre, and oba-
=, diah put some of
Generally Used. the black rock of
his pasture into his forge and it
burned 1t was half generation later
that Judge Jesse Fells of Wilkes Barre
used this black rock as fuel in the
manufa cture of nails. 1t was another
half generation before local enthusiasts
fioated two barge loads of this rock
coal down to Philadelphia and offered
it for sale. 1t was tried by several
householders without success, ana
finally broken up and used for gravel
ing garden walks.
1t was less than a century ago that
these pioneers in the anthracite region
built 4 CRATE that made x possible to
get sufficient draft underneath this
hard coal to make it burn. IhlS was
the forerunner of all those hundreds of
thousands of furnaces that burn only
anthracite coal. 1t was the thing that
built an industry in which is invested
billion dollars, which yields hun
dred million a year, and which produces
freights for railroads amounting 10
half that sum annually.
1t is upon this rock that burns, TINS
coal of great hardness. that has been
built that remarkable community winch
supports such towns as Scranton,
wilkes Barre. Carbonate. Hazleton.
Pottsville, and a dozen others. All of
these towns are pitched in little val
ley which. roughly speaking. is hve
miles wide and sixty-five lons-a val
ley which probably produces more
wealth than any other similar area in
the world.
All the anthracite coal in the world
is in this little valley. During all the
ages. when the geologic forces OF the
past were working to fashion the world
of the present, there was apparently but
one spot where conditions were such as
to form this black rock that burns.
Soft coal is far-hung, but anthracite
exists here only in marketable guam
titles.
Beneath the floor of this valley there
are from eight to twelve layers of coal |,
f~n fa