Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1916-05-09

Once every mile or so huge, sheet
iron building raises its head. 1t might
be big grain elevator ten stories
high. In reality 1t Is breaker"
Near 1t is a shaft that leads deep into
the earth and from which tunnels run
in all directions at all levels on which
there is coal UP this master shaft
the coal from all levels for mile
around Is sucked. A huge belt car
ries 1t to the very top OF the breaker.
There the great chunks of black rock
are smashed into disable sizes. The
coal passes down over screens and
through chutes, in order to sift out
the rock clean, grade and assemble
the marketable product. Twelve great
railroad systems have been built that
, the product Of these mines might BIZ
hauled to market
| 1t is remarkable community that
has been built up about these break
ers. The descendants Of the families
| who lived here as modest farmer
folks before the coal days. have most
| ly grown wealthy by selling to the
mining companies the right to what
I, lies far beneath the surface of their
lands. The tentacles of the shafts by
the breakers have reached forth and,
on dozen levels, have removed the
coal. The surface has been undis-
turbed and the original owners or
their successors still dwell quietly on
their ancestral farms.
But the complexion of the popula-
ton has greatly changed from the or
iginal mixture of English and Dutch
First the Irish and the Welsh came
into the coal fields and worked these
mines. A generation ago they began
to be displaced by Hungarians, Rus
slams, Slavs and Italians. These have
come and are still coming by tens of
thousands. Many of the workers here
have been but short time in Ameri-
ca About the mouth OF each mine
are posted Safety First" signs on
which it Is necessary that the warning
should be set forth in twenty Ian
guages. The round and globular dome
Of the Russian church Is everywhere
to be seen. The Greek church occu-
pies pinnacle here and there. There
are touches of many races. The an
thracite regions are Babels Of Ian
guages and as cosmopolitan as Con-
stantinople. .sg
! And all these peoples are prosper
GUS beyond the widest dreams of
their European peasant imaginings.
Slow witted, cow like Slavs are the
parents Of quick. bright American
boys that astonish him who attempts
to understand the racial influences of
| the new land. The sons of Polish
miners are the practicing attorneys in
4 the courts OF Scranton and Wilkes
4 barre. There is plenty in all the min
ers' homes and the public schools re-
move the hyphens. ..
| This coal field of incompatible
value is now on fire. Far beneath the
surface the flames are raging and
slowly spreading. The fire is in the
upper end of the field but is stealing
stealthily toward the greater depos.
its. It has been burning for seventy
years. It has consumed coal valued
at millions Every device that science
could conceive has been brought to
bear on these subterranean fires with
out results. Steam and water have
been forced into the workings. At
tempts have been made to smother
the fire by shutting of the air. A her
culean attempt costing hundreds OF
thousands Of dollars has recently been
completed which sought to cut the
valley in two below the fire and build
concrete wall twenty feet thick so
deep into the bowels Of the earth that
the fire would never get past It. 1t
was vastly expensive fire break and
a titanic engineering undertaking. But
the engineers have received indica-
lions that the fire is already beyond
this wall and tho problem of the burn
ling mine Is still unsolved.