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.
Col. E. G. Sebree, Sr., was then President of the St. Bernard Coal Company, and Mr. John B. Atkinson was Vice President and General Superintendent. Col. Jo. F. Foard was President of the Hecla Company.
Gen. James H. Wilson was Superintendent of the old St. Louis and Southeastern, now the St. Louis and Henderson Divisions of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. Conductors E. H. Mann, John C. Loomis, W. M. Brady and A. S. Batch were subjects of especial thanks at the hands of the press boys.
W. J. Lampton, E. Polk Johnson, George W. Bain, Urey Woodson, J. Stoddard Johnston, I. B. Nall and E. G. Logan were among the representatives present who have attained prominence in press and public circles.
Emmett G. Logan, the orator of that meeting, now editor of the Louisville Times, wrote thus in part in the Courier-Journal about the Earlington part of the entertainment:
AN UNDERGROUND BANQUET.
Down in the Hecla the air is filled with noisome vapors, and upon emerging we were advised to take an antidote in the shape of distilled water, from a spring on which the moon had never shown, made palatable by a judicious admixture of saccharine matter and flavored with sprigs of an aromatic plant of the genus Mentha—a piece of advice that was taken with a good deal of unction. Then came the announcement that dinner would be served in the St. Bernard mine, one mile from the entrance. I acknowledge that I received this announcement with an action approximating a shudder, but as I was in a strait between two shudders—one at the thought of going to the end of a hole a mile long to get my dinner, and the other at the appalling prospect of getting no dinner at all—I determined to face the lesser shudder and went in the hole. However, as is frequently the case, proximity did not mean similarity. Though the two holes were near neighbors, there was an infinity of preference in favor of the upper one—the St. Bernard, which is located on a much higher plain and cut into an entirely different vein of coal. It is seven feet thick, and forms a segment of a hill; while the Hecla is but five feet thick and lies far down under the valleys. Here were large, clean cars, provided with clean seats for six persons, and the trains drawn over smooth, dry tracks by two large mules in tandem. There were a number of trains of six cars each, and the lights of the miners, glimmering in the distance like fireflies, made, what was to me at least, a novel and interesting spectacle. Near the point of destination the entry had been closed by a large sheet, or drop curtain, and as the train approached it was drawn aside, and disclosed to the astonished view of the upper land-lubbers a truly wonderful spectacle for such a place. There was a magnificent gallery, thee hundred yards long, some twenty feet wide and ten or twelve high, lit up by more than a thousand candles, a band of music filling these living catacombs with softest symphonies, and two long tables loaded with delicacies and presided over by fair women, spread out before that hungry crowd. It was a time for admiration and for appetite.
It was my good fortune to fall early into the hands of Mr. Robinson, General Foreman of the mines. Eight years ago the 3d of last May he and one companion stuck the first pick into what is now the Great St. Bernard, with its capital stock of one million dollars, with a fee simple to mineral privileges in thirteen thousand acres of land, and has driven thirteen and a half miles of entries, and has five miles of iron railroad underground and a mining capacity of 25,000 bushels, or 1,000 tons per day. Its total output to date is 22,500,000 bushels or 900,000 tons. Output for the year ending April 1, 1878, 4,407,500 bushels, or 173,304 tons.