The Bee, No. 30, Thursday, July 25, 1901

Transcriber’s Note: New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.

TWELFTH YEAR EARLINGTON, HOPKINS COUNTY, KENTUCKY, THURSDAY, JULY 25, 1901 NO. 30
Entertained Here by the St. Bernard Coal Company in June, 1878.
COMING AGAIN THIS YEAR.
Emmett G. Logan, Then a Courier-Journal Reporter, Wrote Up the Trip.
Novel and Elegant Entertainment in the Mines Reported by Pencil Pushers.
Way back in 1878, when the editor of The Bee was a small devil in a Madisonville printing office, and before The Bee “angels” were, the Kentucky Press Association held its annual meeting at Hopkinsville, and after the “business” and a large part of the pleasure had been transacted, they accepted the invitation of the management of the St. Bernard and Hecla coal companies, and came to Earlington for a day of very novel experience in the green-clad hills and the rich coal mines of Earlington, that were then growing from their early infancy to the great magnitude and almost world-wide fame they have now attained.
The output of the St. Bernard mines in 1878, eight years after the first pick was struck in the coal, was 4,407,600 bushels; last year the output of this group of mines reached the enormous figure of 21,825,496 bushels. Then the St. Bernard and Hecla mines were the only ones in operation. Now there are numerous other large mines, and the total output of coal from Hopkins county in 1900 was 33,843,500 bushels, or nearly one-fourth the total output of the vast coal fields of the entire State.
This record of the early visit of the Kentucky newspaper men to the rich coal fields of Hopkins county is a matter affecting local history, and has been treasured in the memory of many Earlington people, as it was preserved in the writings of many an able journalist, while the memory of the experience was fresh. One writer spoke of it as “a most novel and magnificent affair.” This occurrence transpired years prior to the establishment of The Bee, and now it is timely that The Bee should reproduce somewhat of the record of that event.