WHEN COAL WAS FIRST USED.
When coal was first introduced into London as a fuel, very serious objection was taken to its use. In the beginning of the fourteenth century, the brewers and smiths of the city, finding the high price of wood pressing hardly upon their returns, resolved to experiment with coal; but immediately an outcry was raised against them by persons living near the breweries and forges, the king was petitioned, and a law passed prohibiting the burning of coal within the city. Those who tried it, however, found the new fuel so much superior to wood that they persisted in its use. But so determined was the government to suppress what was thought to be an intolerable nuisance, that a law was passed making the burning of coal a capital offense, and at least one man was executed under that law. The ladies were bitterly opposed to the use of coal for domestic purposes. They considered the smoke to be ruinous to their complexions, and would not attend parties at houses in which the objectionable fuel was used. Some persons would not eat food of any kind that had been cooked on a coal fire.—Selected.