Excerpt from Coal and Coke: An Account of the Holiday Excursion of the Boys and Girls Among the Coal Mines

"Coal is entitled to be considered as the mainspring of our civilization. By the power developed in its combustion all the wheels of industry are kept in motion, commerce is carried with rapidity and certainty over all portions of the earths surface, the useful metals are brought from the deep caves in which they have hidden themselves, and are purified and wrought to serve the purposes of man. By coal night is, in one sense, converted into day, winter into summer, and the life of man, measured by its fruits, greatly prolonged. Wealth, with all the comforts, the luxuries, and the triumphs it brings, is its gift. Though black, sooty, and often repulsive in its aspects, it is the embodiment of a power more potent than that attributed to the genii in Oriental tales. Its possession is therefore, the highest material boon that can be craved by a community or nation.

"Coal is also not without its poetry. It has been formed under the stimulus of the sunshine of long-past ages, and the light and power it holds are nothing else than such sunshine stored in this black casket to wait the coming and to serve the purposes of man." - Prof. J. S. New- Berry.

"Above all, we should see another instance of the wisdom and goodness of Him who hath in so wonderful a manner placed beneath our feet inexhaustless quantities, and in an imperishable form the storedup fuel of a world." - Mcfarlane.

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