sing account of the
first successful attempt of a very distinguished old gentleman, Gov.
Mifflin, to ignite a pile of stone coal. The date of the transaction,
more's the pity, has escaped us, but the facts of the case are something
after this fashion.

Gov. Mifflin, of Pennsylvania, lived and owned a fine estate in Mifflin
county, and in which county was discovered from time to time, any
quantity of black rock, as the farmers commonly called the then unknown
anthracite. Of course, the old governor knew something about stone coal,
and had a slight inkling of its character. At hours of leisure, the
governor was in the habit of experimenting upon the black rocks by
subjecting them to wood fire upon his hearths; but the hard, almost
flint-like anthracite of that region resisted, with most obdurate
pertinacity, the oft-repeated attempts of the governor to set it on
fire. It finally became a joke among the neighboring Pennsylvania Dutch
farmers, and others of the vicinity, that Gov. Mifflin was studying out
a theory to set his hills and fields on fire, and burn out the obnoxious
black rock and boulders. But, despite the jibes and jokes of his
dogmatical friends, the old governor stuck to his experiments, and the
result produced, as most generally it does through perseverance and
practice, a new and useful fact, or principle.

One cold and wintry day, Gov. Mifflin was cosily perched up in his
easy-chair, before the great roaring, blazing hickory fire, overhauling
ponderous state documents, and deeply engrossed in the affairs of the
people, when his eye caught the outline of a big black rock boulder upon
the mantle-piece before him--it was a beautiful specimen of variegated
anthracite, with all the hues of the rainbow beaming from its lacquered
angles. The governor thought "a heap" of this specimen of the black
rock, but dropping all the documents and State papers pell-mell upon the
floor, he seized the piece of anthracite, and placing it carefully upon
the blazing cross-sticks of the fire, in the most absorbed manner
watched the operation. To his great delight the black rock was soon red
hot--he called for his servant man, a sable son of Africa, or some down
South Congo--

"Isaac."

"Yes, sah, I'se heah, sah."

"Isaac, run out to the carriage-house, and get a piece of that black
rock."

"Yes, sah, I'se gone."

In a twinkling the negro had obtained a huge lump of the anthracite, and
handing it over to the governor, it