i STEAM COAL - Clpdigital.org

40 THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN.
spare time to better equip himself for the twentieth
century business life. In the spring of 1893,
he entered the offices of the B. & 0. railroad at Connellsville,
Pa., as stenographer. The fall of next
year, he returned to the Pennsylvania railroad offices
in Pittsburgh, continuing there until December,
1897, when he became associated with Whitney
& Stephenson, bankers and brokers, then located
in Fourth ave., Pittsburgh. In October, 1899,
upon the formation of the Monongahela River Con
solidated Coal & Coke Co., which was organized by
George I. Whitney and Col. J. B. Finley, Mr. Barber
became secretary to Mr. Finley, continuing
in this capacity until March, 1901, when he was
appointed paymaster and clerk in the treasury
department of the river company. He was elected
assistant treasurer in October, 1904. Mr. Barber
is married and has two bright and handsome
children and a beautiful home at No. 7 Whitney
Terrace, Pittsburgh. Aside from his happy home
life, his hours away from business are largely
devoted to the recreation afforded by out door
sports. THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN desires to join
Mr. Barber's many friends in extending sincere
congraulations on his steady rise in the affairs
of one of Pittsburgh's greatest enterprises.
Certain Alabama newspapers regard as a great
joke the statement of President Smith of the
Louisville & Nashville, that furnace coal rates
will be exempt from the general 40 per cent, increase
in rates because the former cannot stand
the advance. The astute Mr. Smith has no desire
to be or appear facetious. He is simply
proving that he is too wise to kill the goose that
lays the golden eggs. There is a chilly time
coming, also, when it will behoove him not to
pluck the valuable bird quite so thoroughly as
he is preparing to do now.
—o—
James J. Great Northern Hill's remarks regarding
the "Panama ditch" are on a par with
those of the man who calls the Atlantic "the
pond," but who endures six days of sea-sickness
to get across it. If the "ditch" were open now
Mr. Hill would not be begging coal from the
United States government naval stations to get
his ships across the Pacific.
—o—
Statisticians are still busy proving that the
world will be run by natural water power fifty
years hence. This probably accounts for the
large number of coal land owners reluctantly
accepting from ten to twenty-five times the original
cost for their holdings.
—o—
Now that the coal market bear has gone into
his summer hibernation, producers and dealers
may pause between orders to consider what effect
his annual rantings might have had if anybody
had paid the slightest attention to him.
— o —
The Russians have found some more "inexhaustible
coal deposits" in Northern Manchuria,
but the official dispatches indicate strongly that
they will not be worked this year—at least by
the discoverers.
— o —
The phlegmatic Dutchman seems to have as
good an eye as the next one for a safe and profitable
investment, judging from the reports of
foreign orders for high-grade American coal stock.
— o —
Congressman Burton's statement that the Ohio
river inspection trip is a matter of business, with
the pleasure and entertainment features of minor
importance, has the right sound.
| CONSTRUCTION and DEVELOPMENT, fi!
Contracts are being awarded by the W. G. Wilkins
Co., construction engineers, for a thoroughly
modern coal and coking plant for the Struthers
Coal & Coke Co., to be located near New Salem, in
Fayette county, Pa. The Struthers company is
controlled by the Struthers Furnace Co., of
Youngstown, O.. and it is understood that the
output of the new coking plant will be consumed
by the latter concern. A battery of 160 coke
ovens will be erected. The contract for the mine
shafts has been awarded to the Dravo Contracting
Co., of Pittsburgh, and oven machinery and equipment
contracts will be awarded within the next
few days.
Since the Deepwater Railroad Co. has won the
important case involving the right of way through
Jenny's gap, W. Va.. the announcement is made
that work will be commenced immediately toward
extending that line through the great coal fields
sought to be reached, forming a connection later
with the Guyandotte VaUey railroad, which has
its terminus at Huntington. This is a part of the
general network of plans of the Wabash system to
reach the coal fields, and the legal obstacles having
been removed, the work is to be pushed with
all the energy possible.
The H. C. Frick Coke Co. has decided to erect
large and substantial machine and car shops at
Trotter and Leisenring No. 3.
Sunday in Wheeling.
Leave Pittsburgh in the morning; return in the
evening, over Pennsylvania Lines. 8.20 a. m. train
Central time from Pittsburgh Union Station has
parlor car. Returning parlor car train leaves
Wheeling 2.55 p. m., arrives Pittsburgh 5.05 p. m.