Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 April 1886 — A Story to Tell Foreigners. [ARTICLE]

A Story to Tell Foreigners.

“I suppose you never heard of burning snow for fuel, did you ?” said a man who is in Omaha talking up -ironworks, as he leaned across the corner of the bar at Paxton the other night, and chewed reflectively on a piece of lemon rind he had fished out of the bottom of a glass. “Well, it’s a fact. I live in Pittsburg, you know, and in the winter, when it gets mighty cold—and seems to me it gets colder there at the same degree of temperature than any other place I have ever been —but, as I was saying, when it gets mighty cold there, and there’s a heavy fall of snow, you can see people out all over the city with baskets the next day, gathering blocks of snow to burn. You see, there’s so much coal smoke from the great iron furnaces in Pittsburg that when the snow reaches the ground it’s almost black, - and there’s really more coal cinders than snow. It drums almost as well as soft coal, - and: a great deal of suffering among the poor is thus prevented. That’s other great argument in favor of ironworks.” And he called for another piece of lemon in the bottom of a glass. —Omaha Bee.