coal trade bulletin - Clpdigital.org

42 THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN.
The West Virginia Coal Mining Institute begins
its sessions this morning in a very serious mood.
Our estimable Secretary, Prof. E. N. Zern. has
arranged to lead you through a maze of profound
discussions relating to chemistry, salesmanship,
the influence of Public Sentiment. Scientific min­
ing ancl the enforcement of the Prohibition law;
we will travel to Panama with former Governor
MacCorkle; Hon. Lee Ott will tell us the story
of the humane compensation law: and Governor
Hatfield, for many years a distinguished medical
practioner, will speak on Sanitation ancl the pro­
tection of health in mine villages.
A few years ago Institutes were unknown in
our state. Our gatherings were limited to political
conventions, meetings of various Grand Lodges
and occasional camp-meetings. The individual
manager ancl operator never visited the plant of
his neighbor. It would have been regarded as
impolite—possibly as spying. There was very
littie traveling to the so-called backwoods or "up
the creek." The operator journeyed from the
mine to the banking town for a pay roll and
sometimes visited the general office of a railroad
to sell some fuel. The motive power at a mine
was a mule; the best mining machine was Irish
and for ventilation we sometimes lighted a fire
at the bottom of a mud-daubed frame stack proudly
called a furnace.
It would be interesting to trace the develop­
ment of the mining industry from these crude
beginnings and make a contrast with the goal
which the eminent men in our profession an-
now seeking to attain, but 1 prefer to carry you
away for a few minutes from the symbols of
chemistry, the wonders of electricity ancl the constructional
WORK OF .MAX
for a little journey to the lands beyond "the
head of the creek."
I count it as a bit of rare good fortune that
professional duties called me into the mountains
while the men and women there were still natural,
the spinning wheel in use, handmade rifles
in service, good old sorghum served in coffee, and
celluloid collars and patent leather shoes un­
known. There was always a cordial welcome
for the stranger and many a time the head of
(be house has called from the door of a cabin,
"Get off your horse ancl come in and warm up—
you know pore folks have pore ways but we're
glad to see you."
Once 1 entered a field that had evidently been
•Presidents address West Virginia Coal Mining Institute
Charleston. W. Va.. Dec 8. 1913.
THE MINERAL MAN 5
By Mr. Neil Robinson
visited by several coal seekers, for the following
loudly shouted conversation took place. The man
who owned the coal opening I was endeavoring
to locate was ploughing far down on a hillside
below the ridge road:
"Hello! Are you Mr. Frank?"
"Yes; ancl who mout you be?"
"I am Mr. Robinson from over at Charleston
in Kanawha County."
Mr. Frank made a megaphone of his hands and
literally yelled back:
"Air you one of them dern mineral men what
goes through the country a lookin' at coal seams
and a Ieavin' down fences?"
Of course it was useless to deny my guilt and
we finally compromised by* his election as boss
of (he rail fence gang with the right to discharge
himself if the work was not well done. No one
was discharged.
Two days later I came to the clearing of an
old settler who had been there "ever sence it
was a case of
ONE 1)1.AZE FROM HOME
and two blazes fer home." The cabin was without
a window ancl as we sat by the log fire our
light from the open door was cut off by a tre­
mendously large woman, barefooted and smoking
a pipe, who stood on the step watching some kittens
at play. My local guide looked up in some
surprise and said: "Why, Mr. Lotts. I did not
realize that your wife was so big—1 thought she
was a thin woman." The old man put his hand
to the side of his mouth and said: "Smith, I
reckon you're thinkin' of the t'other one. That
'un was a powerful worker but she was thin es a
fence rail, but you know I traded her 'n a rifle
for this 'un an a coon dog—an' 'fore God, Smith,
I jes wish you could see that coon dog."
Many times in my travels I have met men who
tinder more favorable circumstances might have
graced the highest courts in our land or have
become masters in the world of commerce and
finance. These really great men in many in­
stances were lost to the great world through a
fine sense of duty to dependent women and children
in their little world. As the poet has said,
"Full many a flower is born to blush unseen and
waste its sweetness on the desert air"—and many
acts of devotion in the depths of the mountains
are unknown to mankind. Let us hope that they
are recorded in the Great Book of Life.
The typical mountaineer of the older school is
nearly always logical in his
PROCESSES OF REASONING.
He reaches his conclusions without mental fines-