This certainly speaks highly for the block coal, as well as of the superior advantages offered in Indiana for the manufacture of iron and Bessemer steel rails.

ton of pig iron at the furnace in lars and fifty cents.*

The cost of labor to make a

Indiana, is about three dol

The great Indiana coal field is less than one hundred and fifty miles, by railroad, from Chicago, Illinois, or Michigan City, in this State, from which ports the Lake Superior specular and red hermatite ores are landed from vessels that are able to run in a direct course from the ore banks. Lake Superior ore is similar in quality to that from the Iron Mountain in Missouri, and is as well adapted for making Bessemer pig. From the Iron Mountain to the block coal field, the distance is two hundred and sixty-six miles by railroad. There are five railroads running from the coal field to St. Louis, and three to Chicago, and two to Michigan City.

Any carefully thinking business man can easily observe the advantages of this immense coal field to the future prosperity of Indiana. From it untold wealth will flow into private and public treasuries. To-day it lays comparatively dormant. awaiting only the combined efforts of capital and labor to make it the centre of activity and the fountain of material prosperity.

But we must not forget the cannel coal. One of the finest seams of this coal to be found in the country is to be seen in Daviess county, Indiana. Here we have a coal five feet thick, of which the upper three and a half feet is cannel, and the lower one and a half feet is a beautiful jet-black caking coal. The two qualities are united, and show no intervening clay or shale, so that in mining, fragments of the caking coal are often found adhering to the cannel. There is no gradual change from one to the other, or blending of the varieties where united, but the change is sudden and the character of the cannel coal is homogeneous from top to bottom.

The cannel coal makes a delightful fire in open grates, and does not pop and throw off scales into the room, as is usually the case with this variety of coal. The following is Prof.

* Prof. E. T. Cox.

Cox's analysis of this coal: Specific gravity, 1.229; one cubic

Ultimate analysis of the same coal by the same gentleman:

From the above analysis it will be seen that this coal is admirably adapted to the manufacture of illuminating gas, both from the quantity it yields and its high illuminating power. One ton of two thousand pounds of this cannel coal yields ten thousand four hundred feet of gas, while the best Youghiogheny coal used at the Indianapolis gas works, yields but eight thousand six hundred and eighty cubic feet. This gas has an illuminating power of 25.2 candles, while the Youghiogheny coal gas has an illuminating power of seventeen candles.

Cannel coal is also found in great abundance in Perry, Greene, Parke and Fountain counties, where its commercial value has already been attested.

There are numerous deposits of bog iron ore in the northern part of the State, and clay iron stones and impure carbonates and brown oxides are found scattered over the vicinity of the coal fields. At some localities the beds are quite thick, and of considerable commercial value. Investigation is already showing that Indiana contains valuable ore beds, that will, at no distant day, contribute largely to her importance.

Indiana also contains immense and inexhaustible quantities of building stone, sufficient for all future purposes, of the very

best quality. Numerous quarries are already open and in successful operation.

There is an abundance of excellent lime in the State. This is gaining a wide reputation, and largely adding to the volume of the State commerce. It abounds in Huntington county in extensive beds, where numerous large kilns are kept in profitable operation.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

LAWS AND COURTS OF INDIANA.

S a work for reference, this volume would not be com

As

plete without a brief digest of the laws and courts of Indiana. Hence this chapter, in which we shall endeavor to give a complete, concise and simple exhibit of the latest revision of the State laws. We have been aided in our selection of materials for this feature by some of the leading members of the Indianapolis bar.* The last revision of the State laws was accomplished in 1852, and the latest publication of the revised code, as amended, comprises all the public acts and general laws now in force. "Practice in civil suits," says Mr. Pierce, "is under the code of 1852, in which all distinction between law and equity, and all forms of action are abolished. All defenses, except the denial of the facts alleged by the plaintiff, are pleaded specially. On the second and following days of the term, the dockets are called by the court for pleadings or defaults. Amendments to pleadings are allowed with liberality, somewhat in the discretion of the court."

Actions must be commenced by filing in the office of the clerk of the court, a complaint, in the name of the person or party interested, and the service of summons at least ten days

* We are especially indebted to Henry D. Pierce, Esq.

before the first day of the term. Service may be made by publication. "A judgment rendered on service by publication may be opened within five years, except in divorce cases, when the judgment may be opened within two years as to the subject of alimony and custody of children," and as to the merits of the divorce, when granted upon service by publication. In the latter case the party obtaining the divorce is prohibited from marrying within two years from the date of the decree.

Arrests are permitted in civil cases where the plaintiff or his attorney lodges with the clerk of the court an affidavit, specifying the right to recover existing debt or damages, and that the defendant is about to leave the State, with property, with intent to defraud the plaintiff. "An undertaking of the plaintiff must first be filed, with sufficient sureties, to pay all damages sustained by the arrest, if wrongful, not to exceed double the amount of the claim."

Attachments may be issued against the property of a defendant, when the action is for the recovery of money, at the beginning of the action, or any time thereafter, only upon the affidavit of the complainant, or his attorney, showing the exact nature of the claim, and that it is just, as also the amount to be recovered, and the existence of one of the following causes: 1. That the defendant is a non-resident, or a foreign corporation. 2. That the defendant is secretly leaving, or has left the State, with intent to defraud his creditors. 3. Or conceals himself so that summons cannot be served. 4. Removal of property out of the State. 5. That the defendant has sold or is about to sell or dispose of property with intent to defraud creditors. With certain exceptions no attachment can issue against a debtor while his wife and family remains settled in good faith within the county where the debtor's usual place of residence had been prior to his absence. All creditors share pro rata who file their claims under an original attachment before final judgment.

CLAIMS AGAINST ESTATES.

persons

In order to recover costs, claims against estates of deceased, except judgment and mortgage liens created during