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JOHN SKBLTON WILLIAMS, (Of John L. Williams & Sons, Bankers, Ricbmond, Va.) PRESIDENT OF THE GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY CO. THE Southern States. JANUARY, 1897. THE GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. Bv Albert Phenis. During 1896 there was hardly a more interesting or important railroad event in the South than the infusion of new life into the property now known as the Georgia & Alabama Railway. Built upon the ruins of the old "S. A. M." road, the line had no sooner passed into the hands of the new or-ganization than a spirit of enterprise was manifested which has already placed the Georgia & Alabama well in the ranks of those roads which are helping the whole South while imme-diately benefitting themselves by vig-orouslv aiding the development of the country through which they run. The Manufacturers' Record of August 2, 1895, contained this an-nouncement and prophecy : 'The work of reorganizing the Sa-vannah, Americus & Montgomery under the title of the Georgia & Ala-bama is at last practically completed by the election of Mr. John Skelton Williams, of Richmond, as president; Cecil Gabbett, vice-president and gen-eral manager; J. Willcox Brown, treasurer, and W. W. Mackall, of Sa-vannah, secretary. Among the direc-tors are Mr. Adolph Ladenburg, of the banking and foreign-exchange firm of Ladenburg, Thalmann & Co., of New York; C. Svdney Shepard, of New York ; J. W.' Middendorf, of Midden-dorf, Oliver & Co., Baltimore bankers; R. B. Sperry, Baltimore; John Flan-nery and John K. Garnet,, of Savan-nah; James D. Stetson, of Macon, and S. A. Carter, of Columbus, Ga. Mr. Williams, who is a member of the banking firm of John L. Williams & Sons, of Richmond, has been at work upon the reorganization of the prop-erty for some months, and is w^ell known as a gentleman of ability and energy, also as an expert financier. Mr. \\^illcox Brown is president of the Maryland Trust Co. of Baltimore, while the majority of the other direc-tors are connected with prominent banking or business institutions. Th.e IManufacturers' Record believes that under the present management the road will be operated for the best in-terests of its stockholders and the sec-tion of the South which it traverses. "The Manufacturers' Record is in-formed that the company will extend its system into Savannah at once. With Savannah as a terminus, the Georgia & Alabama will be the short-est and most direct route between Sa-vannah and Montgomery. There is every reason to believe that with the through traffic which it will receive by forming the direct route between these cities, and added to its local traffic, the earnings will materially increase this year." Not onl}- has every expectation here hazarded been fully realized, but the activity of the new management has greatly exceeded the measure here put upon it. One of the first things the new company did was to secure by perpetual lease from the Central of Georgia Railway Company the fifty-eight miles of road extending from the 449 450 GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. terminus of the Georgia & Alabama tracks at Lyons eastward to Meldrim and to effect a traffic arrangement on the seventeen miles from Meldrim to Savannah by which the Georgia & Al-abama secures the full benefit of the Central's splendid terminals at Savan-nah. Early in the year the Abbeville & Waycross road was bought and ex-tended to Fitzgerald. The entire main line is being overhauled, and by cut-ting down grades, straightening the line where feasible, reballasting where necessary and relaying a number of sections with heavier steel rails, the physical condition of the road is being brought up to a high standard of ex-cellence. The train service was also immediately improved, the running time between Montgomery and Sa-vannah reduced to eleven hours and an additional train put on, so there is now a double daily passenger service, with parlor cars and Pullman sleepers and every comfort and convenience provided by the best-equipped roads in the country. Energetically reach-ing out after business of all kinds, pas-senger and freight, through and local, there is every probability, from gains so far made, that the company's gross earnings for the first year since its en-trance into Savannah—April i—will exceed $1,000,000, which is 100 per cent, increase over the previous year's business. The line is by seventy-two miles the shortest between Montgom-ery and Savannah, and this fact, in connection with its excellent train ser-vice, is attracting an ever-increasing volume of through business, both freight and passenger. It is becoming a favorite route for the metal and min-eral products of Alabama and for gen-eral Western products seeking ship-ment through the port of Savannah, and has become immensely popular with the traveling public, who are af-forded at Savannah the choice of a sea voyage to Eastern cities on the splen-did boats of the Ocean Steamship Co. and the Merchants & Miners' Trans-portation Co., or, if time is a special object, connection may be made with either of the two trunk lines that oper-ate from Savannah north. In addition to the Pullman car service now oper-ated between Montgomery and Sa-vannah, preparations are being made to put on a through Pullman to run from the cities of the Northwest via the Georgia & Alabama through Sa-vannah to Florida, giving passengers in transit from six to twelve hours, if desired, to view the many attractions possessed by Savannah. Enterprise marks every feature of the management, and is conspicuously manifested in the policy of giving every assistance possible to the work of developing the varied resources of the territory through which the road runs and to securing immigration to occupy the hundreds of thousands of vacant or but partially tilled acres that are embraced in its tributary territory. Immigration agents, in person and by literature, canvass the West and Northwest; statistics and interesting facts concerning the attractions and business opportunities existing in the various towns and cities along its line are disseminated, and widely-adver-tised homeseekers' excursions are run at various times throughout the year. It may be readily seen, therefore, that this road is destined to play an import-ant part in the development of a por-tion of the South rich in a great va-riety of natural resources and abound-ing in opportunities for the establish-ment of many enterprises; and it is furthermore a road which will be found a factor of growing importance in the handling of transcontinental business. The historical and beautiful old city of Montgomery, the western terminus of the Georgia & Alabama Railroad and the junction point of some of the most important roads in the South, is interesting in many ways to the inves-tigator of Southern conditions. It is located at a bend in the Alabama river, its site is pleasingly broken, while not precipitously hilly, and its broad ave-nues and tree-lined thoroughfares lend a charming grace and dignity to its aspect. Hardly anywhere can be found a more noble prospect than is GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. 451 presented by the sweeping stretch of Dexter avenue from the imposing-fountain up to the gUttering old white capitol on the hill. It is in miniature, it is true, compared with the Champs Elysees or our own Pennsylvania ave-nue, but within its limitations it is well nigh a perfect picture, and to its beauty is added the interest which attaches to scenes of mighty conflict, for this house at the end of the avenue was the first capitol of the Confederacy, was where Jefiferson Davis took his oath of ofiice as President, was long neatness not too frequently met with in Southern cities. And as first im-pressions are strong ones, such work as has been done by Montgomery is of unquestionable value wherever any effort is to be made to attract outside men and money. There is an air of solid, substantial prosperity about Montgomery, and in-vestigation shows it to be an import-ant business point, as well as a desir-able place for residence. It is in the midst of a particularly rich agricul-tural section, and the vast mineral and ^ l^ji % till Muiiii;(iiiiciy, Ahi.: State Capitol ami CoiilViltTaU' MdiiUuici as the First Capitol of the Confefleracy. and .lefli iuaun-tirated as I'resideiit here. This iliiililiii.u \\a? 11 Ihivis was known as "the White House of the Confederacy," and as if to forever fix this romantic interest, to identify in-dissolubly the part it played in the struggle of the "Lost Cause,'' there has been erected by its side a towering monument to soldiers of the Southern armies who fell in defense of the gov-ernment here first set up. The visitor to Montgomery will be first attracted by its well-paved streets and its smooth stone sidewalks, which cover all the main business portion of the town and give an air of thrift and other natural resources of Alabama make possible a very large industrial development here. The foundations laid are broad and permanent. A per-fect system of sanitary sewerage is in operation, artesian wells supply a prac-tically inexhaustible supply of pure water, and the health-rate is conse-quently so high that deaths, white and black, average only a total of thirteen to the thousand per annum. As Montgomery is an old place, coming into existence in 1819, and having been incorporated ever since 452 GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. 1837, it goes without saying that so-cial conditions are all that are ex-pected of well-established Southern cities. It has been the State capital MontgojiH'iy. Ala.: Courthouse. since 1846, and for more than half a century has been a centre of graciovis hospitalit}', culture and refinement. Aside from the advantages of geo-graphical position and the wealth of its agricultural resources, Montgom-ery has been aided in becoming an im-portant point by the excellence of its transportation facilities. The union depot system, so convenient and ad-vantageous to a city in e\^ery respect, is established here, and the benefits of quick and direct connection with roads radiating in every direction is thus ob-tained. Work is at present under way on an imposing and spacious union passenger station, and a mammoth union freight depot is nearing comple-tion. Transportation facilities are su-perlatively excellent, some of the best roads in the South centering here. The Louisville & Nashville is here, giving quick communication with Mobile, Pensacola and New Orleans on the south, and with Memphis, St. Louis, Nashville, Evansville, Louisville, Cin-cinnati and points beyond in the west and north. The Western & Alabama and Atlanta & West Point, which runs from Selma via Montgomery to At-lanta, enjoys a close traffic arrange-ment with the Southern Railway, whose passenger trains are now run solid from New York via Atlanta, Montgomery and New Orleans to Galveston. The Plant system is here through its Alabama A'lidland line, and runs through trains to Savannah, Charleston and all Florida points. A branch of the Central of Georgia ter-minates here, and thus, with the quick and direct route via the Georgia & Alabama to Savannah, it is seen that the railway transportation facilities are complete in every direction. And in addition to the railroad transportation there is the Alabama river, on which boats run regularly to Mobile, thus in-suring forever the lowest possible rates on freight in and out of Mont-gomery. To a degree, Montgomery enjoys natural advantages over any possible rival somewhat similar to those of Memphis. Within a large surround-ing section it is practically without a rival, and in an area of 25,000 square miles the local trade is preferably done at Montgomery. Out of these condi-tions a large jobbing trade has been built up, which gives Montgomery a place second only to Memphis as the leading wholesale grocery point in the South; and in other lines Montgom-ery's jobbing trade is large and con-stantly increasing. The wholesale houses already include boots and shoes, hats and caps, notions, dry goods and liquors. The total annual trade of Montgom-ery is about $40,000,000, and it has for years shown a constant and steady in-crease. The average amount of sales of staples marketed at Montgomery is $23,000,000; the average yearly sales of merchandise consumed in the terri-tory trading here, about $12,000,000. Without any excitement or the em-ployment of other than the most con- Montgonier.T, Ala. : Federal Buildiiu (rostollice aud I''. S. Court.') GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. 453 servative business methods, IMont- The banking capital of Montgomery gomery is steadily marching on to the is about $2,000,000. In addition to fulfilment of her destiny as one of the national and State banks, there are most important trading and manufac- banks for savings, showing large de-turing cities of the interior South. posits, and for the further benefit of With the snap and push of Atlanta, people of small means there are num-for instance, she might have made a erous national and local building and greater noise in the world, and might loan associations. have secured more than the 35,000 peo- Owing to the fertility of the lands pie with which she is now credited, but surrounding Montgomery it is natur-her people are proud of the fact that alh" a large market for cotton, corn, no backward steps have been taken, hav, oats, potatoes, as well as fruits and that all of her development has and small vegetables. In cotton re-been along natural lines, has been sub- ceipts it is one of the leading inland stantial and permanent. With so much markets of the world. The receipts cotton at her doors, it would occur to bv years since 1887 are: the casual observer that cotton mills }'^Jl^'- §qI®«o , , . , , ISS i 99,5dJ ougnt to be more extensively estab- isss 107,508 lished here, but in addition to the mill i^po '.'.'.'.'.'.'.]'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'..'.'.'.'.'.'.'. '. '. '.'.'..'.'.'.'. i45,'o45 now in successful operation, tiiere is i|^^ 157187 being constructed a new $200,000 mill, isos '.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.['.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'. iiojio with 10,000 spindles and 320 looms, 1S95 ;;;;;;:;;;;;;;;;;;;;'. .;;.';.".;;;;; ; i23iooo which will be in complete order and " qJ^' ^.^ount of its transportation fa-ready to start by the first of next May. ^^-^^^ ^^^^ ^1^^ ^ ^^1^^^^^^ ^^ b^3i_ That the citizens o Montgomery are ^^^^^ transacted, Montgomerv is a par-not. indififerent to their opportunities, ticularly good cotton market, and and are proceeding to utilize tnem is -.^^^ ^^^^^^ ^ l^i 1^^^. j^^^^ ^^^^ -^ shown m the fact that this new mill IS ^j^^ -^^^^^.-^^ ^-^-^^ ^^^^ ^^^^,^^^_ The entirely a local enterprise, and the ,^^^ij. ^f -^ -^^ ^^ ^^^^^^^^ ^^3^^ -^^ the Stock was subscribed by the home ij-,,n,ense compresses of the city and P^2P shipped to Eastern and foreign ports. The various manufacturing estab- Through bills of lading are issued at hshments of Montgomery show a wide Montgomerv through either the Gulf use of the resources of the section al- or South and North Atlantic ports to ready. There are some 130 establish- all ports or markets of Europe, ments of various kinds, employing While surrounding Montgomery 2700 hands and turning out annually there are no vast tracts of unoccupied products of about $10,000,000 value. lands, so that colonization enterprises The articles include cotton goods of in the immediate vicinity are impos-all kinds, cottonseed oil, fertilizers, sible, yet there are plenty of farms, soap, sash, doors and blinds, brick, large and small, which are obtainable barrels, staves, spokes and handles, in every direction and at reasonable beer, whiskey, crackers, candies, ci- prices. Desirable farming lands near gars, flour, ice, drugs, brooms, cloth- Montgomery can be bought for from ing, jeans pants, carriages, lumber, $6 to $25 an acre, and most any kind and there are planing mills, extensive of soil can be had, from gray oak and boiler w^orks and one of the best hickory lands to alluvial bottom lands equipped foundry and machine shops and the black, waxy prairie lands, be-in the South. So that, while there still ginning south of the city. In exist great opportunities for industrial this variety of soils, literally about development, it is evident that the field everything required for the sustenance has been by no means entirely over- and comfort of man and beast may be looked either by home people or raised, and while cotton will doubtless Northern men looking for a desirable still hold its sway here as elsewhere in Southern field. the South, there is a growing disposi- 454 GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. tion to supply all local demands with home-grown products. There is al-ways an excellent market at Mont-gomery for all agricultural products, and within recent years it has become a big market for horses, mules and cattle. Dairy farming and stock-rais-ing have been more extensively en-gaged in recently, there being some twenty-five farms near Montgomery principally devoted to these undertak-ing's and all with marked success. But Truck farming and fruit-i"aising have been demonstrated to be highly successful and remunerative, and not only is the local market supplied, but large quantities of fruits, vegetables, melons and berries are shipped from here to Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, New York and other States. A well-equipped commercial and industrial association is undertaking to foster immigration and industrial growth for Montgomery citv and iMontgomery, Ala.: Dexter A\'eiuie. leadiiij;- to State Capitol. the supply of these products is as yet not nearly equal to the demand. The great variety of grasses which grow-luxuriantly here, the equable climate, the reliable rainfall (about 54 inches annually) and the certainty of a de-mand for all products raised offer strong inducements to a much greater expansion of these industries. A remarkably good and extensive system of county roads is a factor in the development of the agricultural in-terest of this section, which must prove to be of ever-increasing benefit and importance. county, and backed b}^ the railroads and an adequate degree of co-opera-tion on the part of the citizens it would seem that the interested attention of homeseekers and investors should be attracted to the superior advantages possessed in so many directions by the city and county of Montgomery. Along the line of the Georgia & Al-al^ ama Railway, proceeding eastward from Montgomery, are some of the most fertile and highly-cultivated farms in Alabama. Statistics concern-ing the counties of Alabama traversed GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. 455 by the road are as follows (census of 1890): OJ o o 2'"' 'S^T'O 9!a M?>p <0 G O s52 5 O M ,972 ,220 ,971 Montgomery ...740 56,172 45,860 739,516 55 Macon 630 18,937 19,099 316,365 47 Russell 670 20,521 20,721 318,550 54 While largely devoted to cotton-raising, it will be seen from the fig-ures given that these lands are well adapted to general agricultural pur-poses, and that grain-growing is al-ready extensively engaged in. As the Chattahoochee river is approached the character of the lands changes somewhat, and while not so produc-tive as the black prairie lands around Montgomery, they are still very fer-tile and well adapted to general agri-culture, stock-raising and fruit-grow-ing, grapes especially doing well. There are large quantities of hard-wood timber along the streams in this section, oak, hickory, poplar and ash predominating, and a considerable in-dustry is being developed in sawing and shipping this timber for manufac-turing purposes to various parts of the country. As the more rolling and broken lands of Eastern Alabama are reached an increasing growth of yel-low pine is encountered. These roll-ing timbered lands are generally with-out undergrowth, and are especially adapted to stock-raising. Beef cattle from this section are now shipped to Montgomery, Atlanta, Charleston, Savannah and Jacksonville. The splendid grazing afforded by these lands, in connection with proximity to cottonseed-oil works, makes stock-raising very profitable, and it is largely engaged in. After grazing all summer and fall the stock are put up and read-ily brought to marketable condition by being fattened on cottonseed meal. Although not yet specially engaged in, a large portion of this section is well adapted to hog-raising, the quan-tities of acorns and other nuts provid-ing an abundantly nutritious mast. There is some sheep-raising, and the number of living streams, abundance of shade and g"ood grasses afford ad-mirable conditions for a large develop-ment of this industry. It is noteworthy that few sections anywhere have better railway facilities than this portion of Alabama, through which the Georgia & Alabama road runs. Four lines of railroad traverse this section, so that no farm along the line is more than ten miles from a com-peting road, which gives assurance of equitable freight rates and is a pledge that each road will do all in its power to encourage the upbuilding of the territory that is immediately tributary to it. Another item, outside of the advantage obtained through having at Hurtsboro a connection with a branch of the Georgia Central, is the fact that the Chattahoochee is navigable be-tween Columbus and Apalacliicola all the year round. An evidence of the healthfulness of the country, as well as the fertility of the lands in the section between Mont-gomery and the Chattahoochee, is fur-nished in the fact that twelve flourish-ing towns and small trading centres have sprung into existence along the line of the Georgia & Alabama Railway since the construction of the road six years ago. Immediately on crossing the State line between Alabama and Georgia a difference is noted in the character of the country. After passing over the magnificent steel bridge which spans the Chattahoochee a two-mile stretch of fertile bottom lands is struck, not exceeded in fertility by those of any section. Running right up to the tracks are the lands of Mr. E. M. McLendon, who has success-fully demonstrated the capabilities of this section in a way interesting" to all. His tract contains 1700 acres of the famous Chattahoochee river bottom lands, and he is successful on a big scale as a dairyman, a stock-raiser, a scientific farmer and a cotton-raiser. Two miles east of the river is the flourishing trading centre of Omaha, another new town built up since the railroad was completed. It is a grow-ing cotton market, and boasts of one of the finest water-powers of the State. 456 GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. obtained from the Hamahatchee river. This power is utilized to drive one of the best equipped hulling- and ginning plants in the South. Here is also found one of the best beds of brick clay in Montgomery, Ala.: City Hall. the country. All the brick used by the I'ailroad company is made here, and the Omaha brick have been used ex-tensively by builders elsewhere, nota-bly in the handsome new courthouse at Lumpkin, the county- seat of Stew-art county. Proceeding eastward from Omaha the lands become more broken. The country is well watered by living streams, and along these streams are some of the best farms in this section. Attention is devoted to general ae'ri-culture, cotton predominating, but di-versitied farming is the rule instead of the exception. On the highest point between the Chattahoochee river and Savannah is situated the town of Lumpkin, a thriv-ing business centre of 1500 people and one of the healthiest points in the South. Before the war the wealthiest planters of this region lived at Lump-kin, and there was more money here than at almost any other point in the State. The people are still noted for their culture, relinementand hospitality, and it is believed that when the advan-tages possessed by the country around Lumpkin have become more generally known it will become one of the most thickly settled portions of the State. It is better watered by living streams than any other county in the State, and is not exceeded for stock-raising and fruits. It is somewhat hilly, but when the hills are set in Bermuda grass and planted in orchards it will become very like a paradise. Being above the frost-line, the finest of peaches are here a reasonably certain crop, and there is inevitably bound to be a large development of the fruit in-dustry here. It is a srood cotton mar- Mdiituoiiicry. Ala.: Court Scinarc and Ciiuuiicrce Street. GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. 457 ket, between 6000 and 7000 bales being-marketed here annually. Xot far from Lumpkm is the new town of Richland, at the junction of the Georgia & Alabama with the Co-lumbus Southern, a comparatively new^ road, running from Columbus to Alban}', a distance of eighty-two miles. This road has just been purchased by the Georgia & Alabama, and that part of the road between Richland and Columbus will hereafter be known as the Columbus division of the Georgia & Alabama, and the part between Richland and Albany as the Albany division. In accordance with the characteristic enterprise of the Georgia & Alabama, the old schedule on the Columbus Southern was at once re-vised and another train added, so as to give three trains each way daily, and this is now the quickest and best route between Columbus and Albany and all points on the Georgia & Alabama Railway. Richland is a substantially-built town of about 1000 inhabitants, hav-ing brick business blocks and a grow-ing trade. Around here for a radius of ten miles in every direction is a sec-tion of red chocolate lands, the same as characterize the country about Fort Valley, Ga., in the centre of the Georgia Peach Belt. As an evidence of the spe-cial adaptability of these lands to peaches it may be mentioned that the finest carload of peaches ever marketed in Chicago was taken from a three-year- old orchard located within the citv limits of Richland. Grapes also do exceedingly well here, and so great has the demand become that Richland-grown grapes are sold before ripen-ing on their reputation alone. Richland is in the centre of Stewart county, and is a very excellent trading and distributing point. Here all agri-cultural products do exceedingly well, and the cheapness of the lands, from $5 to $15 an acre, gives opportunity for substantial profits in farming en-terprises. Within this section of ten miles in diameter is grown a peculiar cotton of long fibre and unusually silkv texture, coming nearer the long staple than any other not the long staple, and being in great demand at enhanced prices by manufacturers of cotton thread. In Columbus the Georgia & Ala-bama acquires as a feeder a manu-facturing centre of great import-ance, and Columbus considers it a for-tunate thing to have become identified with this enterprising railroad. Colum- I3US, with a population now in city and suburbs of some 33,000, seems des-tined to become a manufacturing city of the first importance, being sur-rounded by a wealth of natural re-sources and having within a distance of two and one-half miles along the Chattahoochee river water-power ca-pable of developing an average of 40,000 to 50,000 horse-power during ten months in the year, with a mini-mum of 20,000 horse-power at the lowest stage the river ever reaches. While Columbus is already a manufac-turing town, distinctively, with numer-ous and varied industries of large mag-nitude, so small a part of the splendid water-power has as yet been utilized that what has been done seems more of a promise than a fulfillment. There are but two developed water-powers, both in the city limits, and with a total of only about 6000 horse-power. Of the 115 feet of fall within two and one-half miles, eighty-two feet are as yet undeveloped. Some years ago an as-sociation was formed to develop the upper falls. A tract of 355 acres of land, known as North Highlands, ly-ing along the river, and including one of the most important of the falls, was platted for factory sites and residences. The electric cars were extended to it, a fine casino and music pavilion were constructed and a grand boulevard built around the high, overhanging cliffs. Plans were all but consum-mated for building a dam and develop-ing this as well as other powers in the vicinity when the hard times brought the negotiations to a standstill and practical disintegration followed. The boulevard is still a picturesque drive and popular the year round, and the casino and the rustic grounds swarm 45S GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. with merrymakers during a good portion of the year, but the commercial aspect of the situation is in abeyance, wait-ing the advent of means and men who will seize the sin-gular opportunity to utilize a power greater than Colum-bus yet possesses, greater than is possible at almost any other spot in the country within two miles of the junc-tion point of seven railroads. But the power already in use puts Columbus well in the forefront of Southern manufacturing cities. The famous Eagle and Phenix Mills, the oldest and the largest, has a minimum of 4000 horse-power, with which it operates three cotton mills and one woolen mill, and the city mills (flouring) will have 2000 horse power when im-proAcments at present under way are completed. In addition to running the mills, this power is utilized to the vast advantage of the whole city by the Brush Electric Light & Power Co., a corporation of which Mr. John F. Flournoy, of Colum-bus, is president, and in which his etforts have secured the investment of some $500,000 of Phila-delphia money. M r . Flournov is also president of the Columbus Railway Co., and these companies operations ha\e the mule from car, consolidated into one system, literally covers the provided a system rhich by their banished the street the lines which town ; of electric lightinj^ by March i will compre-hend all the arc and incan-descent service in the city, and still reserving ample power to rent to factories of all kinds. The newspaper offices, several clothing fac- GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. 459 tories and others are now using this power, and its adaptabiHty to every kind of industry is demonstrated in a contract recently made by which a meat dealer gets the transmitted elec-tric power applied to his sausage grinder. To many manufacturers, large and small, it is a big thing to be relieved of the expense of putting in boilers and engines, and this feature of the industrial situation at Columbus must prove a strong factor in attract-ing outsiders. The railroad company has done an-other thing which, next to the availa-bility of cheap and abundant power, gives Columbus pre-eminence among desirable factory locations. Included in the twenty miles of road operated by the company is a belt line, which connects with all the roads entering the city. Its tracks are laid wherever there is an industry or a jobbing house doing any business of importance, so that cars are loaded and unloaded at their very doors, and the former dray-age charges of $5 to $8 a car are elimi-nated. To the discerning observer it is patent that these two features of power and house tracks are alone suffi-cient to insure the industrial and com-mercial development of Columbus to proportions far beyond those of the present. But numerous other ele-ments of expansion exist, among which is proximity to the coalfields of Alabama, which makes fuel so cheap that some of the factories at Columbus are successfully operated by steam. The list of industries at Columbus includes six cotton mills, with 79,992 spindles and 2822 looms, of which the Eagle and Phenix Mills have 47,496 spindles and 1600 looms. The prod-uct of the mills includes almost every variety of manufactured cotton goods, from the coarsest sheetings to the finest print goods, which are marketed all over the world. There are also woolen mills, four clothing factories, three iron and machine shops, very ex-tensive plow works, two cottonseed-oil mills, two of the largest flouring mills in the South, one fertilizer factory in operation and another much larger one being built, four ice factories, two barrel factories and various smaller in-dustries. There is an abundance of raw material of all kinds, and plants for the manufacture of cotton, iron and wooden products are certain to in-crease in number. There are 150,000 bales of cotton handled in Columbus annually, much of it an extra fine staple, so that a choice at minimum prices is afforded the manufacturer. Columbus is an old and wealthy city, and contains a number of citizens of conspicuous enterprise. There are five banking institutions, which afford ample money for the needs of the mer-chants and manufacturers of the city. Here is located the Georgia Home In-surance Co., one of the most success-ful and extensive companies in the South. The history of this company is full of interest and value to anyone investigating Southern institutions and financial opportunities. Organ-ized in 1859 to do life, fire and marine insurance, with a capital of $300,000, 5000 shares at $60 par value, it had hardly got started before the war came on, and though continuing in busi-ness, the end of the war found the company in a somewhat involved con-dition. Soon after the war the com-pany passed into the control of Mr. J. Rhodes Browne, a Northern man of tact, ability and enterprise, and under his judicious management it was soon put upon a paying basis, doing a fire insurance business alone. The stock had depreciated till it had but little value, and 2000 shares were bought by the company and cancelled and the value of the remaining 3000 shares raised to $100 a share. The capital stock has never been increased, re-maining still at $300,000, but the com-pany has steadily prospered, until to-day it has a list of gilt-edged assets aggregating $1,157,902, and its stock can't be bought in any quantity even at a price largely in advance of par value. For many years past the com-pany has paid an annual dividend of 12 per cent., which is of itself an achievement equaled by mighty few corporations South or anywhere else. 46o GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY and yet the institution is a peculiarly Southern one. While it covers a wide range of country, and in its field is well and favorably known and largely patronized, no attempt is made to go outside the South, the limits of its op-erations being the Potomac and the Rio Grande. It has achieved an envi-able record for prompt and fair deal-ing, and wherever known is looked upon as one of the progressive and en-during institutions of the country. Of incidental interest is the fact that Mr. Lambert Spencer, father of the South-ern Railway president, Air. Samuel Spencer, was secretary of the company their capacity with tourists, who, find-ing excellent accommodations at hand, choose this mode of getting into Floridian waters and among the islands and coast resorts which are so famous for the superexcellence of the shooting and fishing they afford. A fine agricultural country fur-nishes a basis for development which, mdependently of the industrial feat-ures, would go far toward creating an important trading centre here. Good lands, a rich sandy loam predominat-ing, are characteristic of Muscogee county, and with a high health rate, an equable climate, adaptability to a great variety of crops and cheap prices for lands, a large immigration movement will undoubtedl}^ be attracted. The first colony settlement in the vicinity of Columbus has just been made by for many years and until his death in 1880, when he was succeeded by Mr. Wm. C. Coart, the present sec-retary. In addition to its other enterprises, Columbus has a large jobbing business, cover-ing eleven Southern States, and representing dry goods, clothing, boots and shoes, groceries, etc. O'f course, river transportation the year round must be reckoned as one of the strong points Columbus pos-sesses. Four lines of steamboats ply the Chattahoochee between Columbus and Apalachicola. These water lines get the trade on both sides of the river from thirty to fifty miles back, and, in-cluding Columbus, make connections with fifteen railroads at various points along the river. A feature of interest in connection with steamboating is the fact that these boats are frequently crowded to Cohmibiis. Ga.: Undeveloped Water-Powers above the City. a society of professional men, me-chanics and farmers, with their fami-lies, on a looo-acre tract twelve miles from Columbus. The present mem-bership of the colony amounts to about 300, but it is expected that con-siderable accessions to this number will be made from time to time, as this settlement is the outcome of a move-ment inaugurated by a society in Chicago some time ago, and the mem-bership of the society includes repre-sentatives in nearly every State in the Union. The place chosen for the set-tlement was selected bv a locating GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. 461 committee acting for the society, and had in its membership one man from Ohio, one from Canada and one from Florida. A great deal of time was spent in looking for a desirable place, and the people of Columbus and Mus-cogee county consider the selection a substantial recognition of their advan-tages. While this is the only colony move-ment to this vicinity, there has been individual immigration from many outside places for years, and some of the most successful farmers, dairy-men, fruit-raisers and truck-growers here are immigrants. Dairying on a scientific plan was first introduced by men from Iowa and Ohio, and is now engaged in by a number of people with good profits. Fruit, grapes, melons and truck are being raised more and more each year, and the profits warrant a much more extensive prosecution of these industries. From thirty to fifty carloads of Concord and other grapes are annually shipped on roads running out of Columbus; 1500 carloads of melons are handled through Columbus, some of the melons weighing from forty to sixty pounds; turnips are raised weighing fourteen pounds, from two and one-half to three pounds being by no means an uncommon weight, and sweet potatoes, tomatoes, beans, etc., are thrifty and profitable crops. Pearl or cat tail millet, Kaffir corn, milo maize, amber cane and other forage plants thrive like native grasses. An interesting example of what en-terprise and ability may do here is fur-nished in the achievements of a Frenchman named D. Liefrank, who, ten years ago, took a badly-washed hillside farm of fifty acres four miles from Columbus and set it out in scup-pernong grapes. The place was hardly considered worth $5 an acre when he took hold of it. He now has 4000 bear-ing plants, which yield all the way from two and one-half to four and one-half bushels of grapes to the plant, and he gets three gallons of wine to the bushel, or a total annual yield of some 50,000 gallons of wine. As he under-stands how to treat the wine, produc-ing an article infinitely superior to the oversweet, insipid stufT most fre-quently encountered under the name of scuppernong wine, he is enabled to sell his entire product in New York and Philadelphia at figures which yield him an exceedingly handsome profit on his labor and investment, which, by the way, are greater than might at first appear, as he never mar-kets his wine till four years old. Of course, it takes knowledge and pa-tience to accomplish such results, but that they have been accomplished es-tablishes the capacity of the soil and climate. What is being done in a smaller way all over this section, Mr. H. L. A\^ood-ruff, a wealthy flouring-mill man of Columbus, is attempting on a broad scale on his farm of 607 acres fourteen miles south of the city. He has set out 11,000 peach trees, 1000 KeifTer pear trees, 1450 apple trees, 2500 paper-shell pecan trees, 650 wild-goose plum trees, 150 Botan plums, which he pro-poses to increase to 11,000, besides a number of English walnuts and mul-berry trees. He has 1000 scupper-nong grape vines and 45,000 straw-berry plants, which he expects to double in number by spring. This ex-tensive place he has been carefully cul-tivating for a number of years purely as a commercial venture, and results so far justify him in expecting profits of 25 to 30 per cent, on the investment. Throughout its length the country traversed by the Columbus Southern is a fine agricultural and fruit section, and its speedy development may now be confidently expected. Outside of Richland, the important towns on the line are Dawson, a thriving town of 2500 people, where a connection is made with the Central of Georgia Railroad, and Albany, the terminus, which is one of the best cities of South-west Georgia. Here connections are made with the Plant system of roads, the Central and with the boat lines which ply the Flint river. Albany has 7000 population, fine schools, broad, well laid-out streets, numerous fac- 462 GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. Columbus, Ga.: City Mills and Water-I'ower. tories and the largest wholesale gro-cery house in Southwest Georgia. The country around Albany presents a va-riety of attractions to the agriculturist, the fruit-grower and the truck-raiser, and it has received a good share of the immigration secured by Southwest Georgia. Its location, its excellent railway facilities, its river transporta-tion, its healthfulness, its fine artesian water—these added to the advantages of climate and soil give to Albany and its tributary country the promise of a development of large importance. Coming back to the main line, shortly after leaving Richland, going east, Webster county is entered, which, according to its size, is one of the best cotton and corn counties in the State. Here the lands break off into gray pine and oak. This county likewise offers excellent inducements for stock-raising, which is successfully pur-sued by many of the best farm-ers in the county. A number of large streams flow through the countv, completing the conditions favorable to stock-raising. Preston, the county-seat of Webster, is a thriv-ing town, enjoying a good trade and building up with the growth of its tributary country. No other town is reached until after passing into Sumter county, the ban-ner county of Southwest Georgia. It has a greater variety of soils than any other county through which the Geor-gia & Alabama road runs, and is con-sequently adapted to a wider range of products, and it has moreover utilized and developed its resources to a greater extent than has almost any other county in the State. It stands easily first in number of bales of cot-ton produced, in bushels of corn raised and in other grains grown, as evidenced by the census report of 1890 on counties in Georgia through which the Georgia & Alabama road runs : •- cjan oJOO OJSo OJtHa ^ g- -Sg^ %-o^ ^^1 a %B MS2 |"2 5?E Stewart 440 15,682 19,351 34.3,243 65,478 Webster 230 5,695 6,895 158,212 18,340 Sumter 520 22,107 22,448 421,238 78,330 Dooly 780 18,146 15,780 363,880 38,543 Wilcox 500 7,980 2,595 100,758 17,046 Dodge 581 11,452 4,952 128,378 11,365 Telfair 420 5,477 2,007 41,787 65,036 Montgomery .. 720 9.248 2,215 168,865 23,428 Tattnall 1,100 10,253 2,957 157,587 10,562 Bryan 400 55,520 684 58,120 12,638 Cliatham 400 57,740 9 37,675 2,733 The fruit lands of Sumter are iden-tical in character with those which have made the Fort Valley district fa-mous, and its list of profitable crops includes about everything in the way of grain, fruit and grasses grown in the temperate zone. All kinds of stock can be raised with advantage, and it is furthermore a comfortable and healthy place to live, the range of tempera-ture being about 70° on an average, providing against extremes both in winter and summer. It has also some good timber, the southeast corner es-pecially containing a large tract of long-leaf yellow pine, while along the Flint and other rivers are quantities of hai'd wood, oak, poplar, ash, gum, etc. An enumeration of the various products of Sumter county resembles somewhat a pag-e from the Agricul-tural Department's report for the whole country. While changing conditions in the GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. 463 South show every year an increasing departure from the pernicious "one-crop" practice formerly so generally in vogue, cotton is still the king of money crops, as it must ever continue to be, for this is the one product which commands money anywhere and at all times. Constant agitation of the sub-ject, and disaster attending some years of abnormally low prices, have quite generally induced planters through- Farm Home in the Pine r.ell. out the South to engage in more di-versified farming, so that food sup-plies are more nearly produced at home than formerly, but large cotton crops are likely to continue to be raised in sections adapted to this staple. According to the census figures of 1890 there were 22,448 bales of cotton raised in Sumter county, an average of more than a bale to each inhabitant of the county, and the ratio is about the same each year. The corn crop of Sumter county is about 500,000 bushels a year, and comes next in importance to the cot-ton crop. The yield per acre is from twenty to forty bushels, and it is, as a rule, a certain and profitable crop. Wheat is raised to some extent, and where given proper care and attention may be expected to yield from twenty to thirty bushels to the acre, but it is unlikely that it will be raised largely on a commercial basis, such as is grown being generally for home con-sumption. Certain varieties of oats give an abundant and reliable yield, ranging from twenty-five to as high as seventy-five bushels to the acre, and maturing-early enough for a second crop on the same land. The usual Southern forage crops of field peas, Bermuda and other grasses give abundantly satisfactory results, as do red and white clover, German millet, etc. Some experiments in al-falfa have shown quite marvelous re-sults. On a 50-acre patch near Amer-icus seven tons to the acre were raised during the past year, and on a portion of it seventeen cuttings were made which yielded fourteen tons to the acre. As the crop sells for $17 a ton, and costs only about $4 to raise, there ^vas an exceedingly handsome profit in the undertaking. The land on which it was raised, by the way, re-cently sold for $8 an acre, and prob-ably couldn't command more than double that price today, simply be-cause of the large area of uncultivated land. Melons, truck and fruit must con-tinue to receive increased attention,, particularly at the hands of new-comers to this section. The Georgia watermelon has long' l:)een a well-known visitor to the Northern markets, and Sumter county's quota is already very large. With soil and climate perfectl}^ adapted to their growth, and because of the small expense raising them en-tails, there is a further large field for developing- this industry. Two crops of sweet potatoes can be raised each season at small expense and with little care, and conditions are entirely favorable to the equally suc-cessful cultivation of the Irish potato. An industry which, while not repre-senting a ver}^ large volume of busi-ness, still shows such profits as seem to promise extensive development, is the growing of sugar-cane, of which some farmers in Sumter county have raised as much as $300 worth of cane and syrup to the acre. On the bills of fare of many Southern hotels will be found Georgia cane syrup, and the in-quirer will be informed that by many people it is regarded as superior to maple syrup. Another use of the cane, AMERICUS, GA.: REPRESENTATIVE HOMES. 2. Mr. W. C. Carter. 1. Mr. Luther Bell. 4. Mr. W. B. Harrold. 3. Mr. G. W. Glover. GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. 465 which presents a novel sight to the Northern visitor, is made by children chiefly, and consists of peeling the stalk and chewing the pith. For this purpose all the grocery stores in this region will be found to keep a supply of stalks throughout the season. There are no extensive sugar-cane plantations, like those of the Missis-sippi river bottoms, and none of the syrup is made into sugar, but where a yield of $300 can be obtained off $15 an acre land it would seem that its more extensive cultivation is merely a matter of time. In fruits, and especially peaches, pears and grapes, the soil and climate, as well as the results of efforts hereto-fore made, justify the expectation that fruit-growing on an extensive scale for the Northern markets will increase in magnitude and importance. The raising of horses and mules is engaged in to some extent, and condi-tions and results are such as to en-courage more extensive undertakings in this line. Dairy cattle thrive as well as any-where, and in time will doubtless con-tribute an important addition to the products of the county. The range of prices of Sumter county farms is from $2 to $25, but the average prices for such places as would suit the immigrant and home-seeker are from $7 to $15. The character of the soils along the line of the Georgia & xA-labama road in Sumter county are red chocolate lands, red clay lands, oak and hickory gray lands, pine gray lands and red lime lands, all good and adapted to peaches, pears, grapes, grain, cotton and grasses. The first town reached after leaving Webster county is Plains, so named from being situated in a perfectly level tract extending six or seven miles in every direction. Here are again found the strong red chocolate lands, adapted to all farm products and of the same character as the lands around Richland. Cotton is an im-portant item of farm products here, there being some 6000 bales of cotton marketed at Plains annually. Two miles north of here is situated Magnolia Springs, a famous and still popular health resort, which in ante-bellum days was an attracting point for the wealth and fashion of a large portion of the South. It is still much frequented on account of the virtues of its waters, and a movement is on foot to put in adequate accommoda-tions for summer visitors. The next town on the line is Ameri-cus, the county-seat of Sumter county, the headquarters of the Georgia & Al-abama Railway and the most thriving city of Central Georgia south of Ma-con. Though laid out in 1832, the principal growth of Americus dates back but a few years, 4000 of its 8000 inhabitants having been gained within the past ten years. It is today a busy and ambitious trading centre, and is developing along lines which promise continued growth. There are market-ed in Americus from 30,000 to 35,000 bales of cotton annually, and including those handled by the compresses the total foots up some 60,000 bales an-nually. There are three wholesale grocery houses, doing a combined business of about $1,500,000 a year, and covering a territory extending from Americiis in various directions thirty to 100 miles. Other mercantile establishments include a large whole-sale and retail hardware house and numerous well-equipped retail stores. Industrial enterprises are repre-sented by a cottonseed-oil mill, ferti-lizer works, foundry and machine shops, variety works and planing mill, two cotton compresses, ice plant, marble-yard and minor industries. There is no cotton mill there at pres-ent, but the abundance of long and short-staple cotton raised in this vicin-ity suggests the inevitable develop-ment of this industry ultimately. The particularly strong points in favor of Americus are its transporta-tion facilities, its healthfulness, its pleasing physical features and the abundant resources of the countr\- tributary to it. AMERICUS, GA.: 1. Jail. 2. Typical Old-Time Home, now used a& 3. Courthouse. Sanitarium. 4. City Hall and Water Tower. GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. 467 Americus is the junction point of the Georgia & Alabama and the Cen-tral of Georgia Railroad systems. It was the enterprise of Americus citi-zens that inaugurated the undertak-ing which has since become the Georgia & Alabama road, and though in the receivership and reorganization which followed a great many of the projectors and promoters lost a good deal of money, it is unquestionably to the building of that road that Ameri-cus owes the impetus which has doubled her population. Besides giv-ing the important connections at Montgomery and the ocean outlet at Savannah, the Georgia & Alabama insures competitive freight rates to and from all points. The Central has two branches at Americus, one line running between Americus and Columbus and the other from Albany to Atlanta via Macon. So Americus is in touch with every railway system in the State. The conspicuous healthfulness of Americus, as evidenced by mortuary statistics, is due hardly less to natural causes than to the measures adopted by her people to give the city the best sanitation possible. A complete sew-erage system was established a num-ber of years ago, and the city is fur-nished with artesian water of absolute purity. It was of incalculable benefit to the South that the feasibility of ar-tesian wells here was demonstrated. Col. John P. Fort, of Albany, is cred-ited with having been the first to dis-cover that this section may find the purest of water by boring down from 600 to 1000 feet, and this discovery has been utilized to the greatest advantage all over South Georgia. The water supply of Americus, which is distrib-uted from an immense stand-pipe in the centre of the city, has resulted in practically eliminating the fevers which formerly prevailed at certain seasons of the year when water was taken from shallow wells. A tribute to the healthfulness of Americus and the salubrity of its cli-mate is furnished by the location here of a perfectly-appointed sanitarium, which especially aims to provide an attractive retreat for patients who de-sire to escape the discomforts of a more rigorous climate. The winter temperature here is much higher than at Atlanta, for instance, being about similar to that which has made of Thomasville a popular winter resort. Americus was selected by the founder because of its natural healthful-ness, excellent sanitary condition, its pure artesian water and con-venience of location at the junction of two important railroad systems, which afTord direct communication with every section of the country. The country about Americus is ele-vated and rolling, and the city itself is built upon a series of undulations or hills. The general elevation is 450 feet above sea level, but there are dif-ferences of 100 feet in elevations within the city limits. A striking feature of Americus is the number of handsome homes and the beauty of the tree-lined residence streets. These evidences of taste and refinement almost never seen outside of old-established communities at once commend Americus to the favorable consideration of the visitor and the homeseeker. When there shall have been a more general adoption of street paving and sidewalk improvements the conditions will be complete for making Americus one of the most at-tractive cities of South Georgia. In its public buildings, too, Ameri-cus furnishes a conspicuous example of the improved conditions which have come to the South within the past few years. Surrounding a park square are a number of buildings which would do credit to a place much greater in size than Americus. The imposing Wind-sor hotel, in a striking variety of Romanesque architecture, marble-tiled and lavishly finished throughout in hard wood, occupies a full half block. This fine hotel, one of the hand-somest, architecturally, in the South, was designed by an Atlanta archi-tect, Mr. G. L. Norrman. Across the square, in a row, are the 200-foot water tower, the city hall, the most pictur- 468 GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY esque and inviting jail an "outsider" ever viewed and the substantial county courthouse, completed not long since at a cost of $40,000. Social conditions are all that misfht m 111 ii'^! Ill 'IB '-Hi ^1 ' C r Aiuericus. Ga.: PostnfDcc in Jolinson iSc Ilarrold Building. be expected of a Southern city of sixty years' standing, and furnish a charming addition to the attractions the homeseeker would here find. The denominations are well represented in the numerous churches established here, and the free public school system IS entirely adequate and liberally main-tained. Americus has two daily newspapers, morning and evening, creditable to a town of its size and which are alive to the importance of securing immigra-tion. Indeed, it may be said that the spirit of the entire community is dis-tinctly favorable to the work of inter-esting Northern people in the city and its vicinity, and numerous efforts along this line in the past have been warmly seconded by the press and the people. Naturally the Georgia & Alabama Railway takes an interest in the prog-ress of Americus. Here are its general offices, and there is now nearing com-pletion here a new and handsome pas-senger station, such as cannot be found at many places three or four times larger than Americus. Adjoining Sumter is Dooley, one of the most remarkable counties in the State and a conspicuous illustration of the notable development following the construction of the Georgia & Ala-bama Railway. Ten years ago there was not a village in the county with over fifty people in it; today it contains fifteen thriving towns, with popula-tions running from 100 to 3500; has at least 25,000 inhabitants in it; has a taxable valuation of over $3,100,000, with a continued, unbroken increase, even 1896 showing an increase over the previous year of $182,000. The primary basis for this exceptional de-velopment is found in the enormous timber resources of this section. Be-ginning at the Flint river, on the west-ern limits of Dooley county, and con-tinuing in an unbroken stretch to Mel-drim, 148 miles eastward, and extend-ing from an average of twenty miles north of the Georgia & Alabama road to the Gulf coast on the south, there was a long-leaf vellow-pine forest, which, up to a few years ago, had never been cut into. Although much has been done toward developing the great wealth of resources this area contains, it has as yet been hardly more than touched, and is today the Americus, Ga.: Johnson & Harrold Ware-honse and Yard for Cotton Storage. largest body of standing long-leaf yel-low pine in the world. The lands of this forest, in their adaptability to agricultural purposes, i GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. 469 are a surprise to everyone. They were generally supposed to be absolutely worthless, and have until within recent years sold at fifty cents an acre. It has now been demonstrated that ev-erything that grows in the South will grow to perfection on these lands, and where the saw timber has been cut off and the lands put in cultivation there are today some of the finest farms in the South. These lands are largely settled by native Georgians, who have here grown independent. And yet the whole section was, until the construc-tion of this road, an unbroken, unset-tled pine forest. Outside of their fitness for general agriculture, these lands appear to be peculiarly adapted to fruit-raising, as is shown by the extensive and emi-nently successful orchards at Tifton, which place, while not on this road, has identically the same character of lands. At Tifton they got at it first. but the same results are expected to follow efforts made elsewhere in the district. Immediately along the rail-road the timber, being accessible, was cut first, and in its place are now farms and peach orchards. Along the line many thriving towns have sprung up, there being between Coney and Mel-drim thirty-five towns, all new. This entire region seems destined to become one vast orchard, the cheap-ness of the lands and the ease and small expense at which an orchard can be put out being altogether in favor of this section. With the exception of lands near the stations, these lands can be bought for $3 an acre after the millmen have cut over them. There remains standing there timber it doesn't pay them to cut sufficient to do all fencing and, in some instances, to furnish all buildings. A man with $500 can go into the country anywhere east of Cordele, get 100 acres of land, fit it for tenancy, and start to farming, and have on hand a debt of not over $200. And he can arrange the pay-ments on his lands just about to suit his convenience. Immediately following the construc-tion of the Georgia & Alabama and other roads through this section the lumber and naval stores industries be-gan to be extensively developed, and now form a very large portion of the business of the roads. On the line of the Georgia & Alabama road alone there are 100 saw mills, big and little, many of which are among the largest in the world, ecjuipped with the best machinery, having electric plants, their own railroads and every facility for the economical manufacture of lum-ber in its various shapes. These mills have a capacity of about 1,500,000 feet of sawn timber daily, the product of which is shipped to all parts of the globe. The tariffs the Georgia & Al-abama road furnishes for transporting the output of these mills cover 6000 points in the West and 8000 in the Middle and Eastern States, and all of these 14,000 points are used; that is, lumber is shipped to everyone of them from one or another of the mills in this list. There are eighty-one naval store plants along this road, producing an-nually 600,000 barrels of rosin, 200.- 000 barrels of spirits of turpentine and large quantities of tar and kindlings in addition. The naval stores are almost exclu-sively marketed at Savannah, which has for some years been the leading naval stores market of the world, and its influence in developing the re-sources of this section, so thoroughly covered by the Georgia & Alabama road and its connections, is a power-ful factor in the situation. What has been accomplished in the long-leaf pine section of South Georgia, largely through the influence of the Georgia & Alabama Railway. is one of the most interesting and im-portant features of Southern develop-ment of the past few years. Not only have numerous vast and valuable en-terprises been inaugurated, but town-building has followed on an extensive scale, and in no other section have there been more successful efforts made at colonization and immigration movements. The settlement of the Old Soldiers' colony at Fitzgerald is the 470 GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. most conspicuous example in this line, but all along the Georgia & Alabama road new towns have sprung up and old ones received a revivifying im-pulse. A good illustration of this is fur-nished in the case of Cordele, in Dooley county. Though not the county-seat, it is the most important point in the county, and is the largest town on the main line of the Georgia & Alabama between Americus and Savannah. Yet eight years ago its site was an old field, which contained onlv a single house. Todav it has tel, the Suwanee House, would, with its private baths and other comforts, be a credit to a much larger town, and its advantages in every way, commer-cially, industrially, socially and edu-cationally, are superior to those of most cities of 10,000 inhabitants. This is so conspicuously true as to excite the comment of even the casual ob-server. "Cordele is a typical illustra-tion of the industrial conditions in what is called the new South," said one visitor recently. And all this has been accomplished without any land boom. It is simply Amei'icus, Ga. : Windsor Hotel. three independent lines of railroad, has sanitary sewerage, waterworks, electric lights, an independent telephone sys-tem, with connections taking in all the towns for twenty miles around and fur-nishing service at cost; it has a cotton mill with 3600 spindles, foundry and machine shops, cooperage works, fer-tilizer works, variety works, bottling works, ice factory, planing mills and other smaller industries ; it has a large and growing jobbing trade in the gro-cery line ; has ample banking facilities, and is in every respect equipped as an important trade centre. Its chief ho-the legitimate resvdts of an energetic development of resources on business lines alone. Today there is not even a real estate agent in Cordele, and while real estate values have steadily increased, so that no one who has bought property there is unable to sell it at a profit, such sales as are made are not for speculative purposes, and prices have consequently remained on a conservative basis. Cordele's present railroads are the Georgia & Alabama, the Georgia Southern & Florida and the Albany & Northern. The Wavcross Air Line GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. 471 is now building to Cordele, and there are other possibihties. A Hnk of thirty-five miles between Cordele and Hawkinsville would give Augusta an outlet into Southwest Georgia, and an extension of forty-two miles would bring the Atlanta & Florida from Fort Valley and thus give that road the ben-efit of the connecting lines now enter-ing at Cordele. The timber and naval stores inter-ests of Dooley county bring a cash trade to Cordele the year round, which is largely responsible for her continued prosperity. The fourteen important mills in the county have a capacity of some 350,000 feet of sawn timber per day, and it is all "bill stuff" for cars, bridges, buildings, etc. They don't cut "stock stuff," as a rule. In addition to these interests, Cor-dele is surrounded by a rich agricul-tural section, producing abundantly corn, long and short-staple cotton, sugar-cane, peas, rye, oats, wheat and hay. According to the last census re-turns, Dooley county was in corn pro-duction second to Sumter only of all the counties in Georgia through which the Georgia & Alabama road runs, her product being 363,880 bushels, and she was third as to cotton, with 15,780 bales. The soil is also excellent for fruits of all kinds, and especially for watermelons and grapes. It is inter-esting to note that good lands, acces-sible to railroads, can be bought for from $3 to $15 an acre. People who are looking at Southern places from the standpoint of their de-sirability for a residence will care to know that Cordele lays claim to excep-tional healthfulness on account of its excellent water works and sewerage system and favorable climate condi-tions. It is stated that in summer the thermometer seldom shows above 90° heat, and that for a winter resort it possesses all the virtues accredited to the favorite spots in the Georgia pine belt. Being situated in what is called the "rain zone," this section is not af-flicted with the long droughts which are common to many places during the summer months. Outside of the $65,000 hotel, the $22,- 000 opera-house, numerous churches and excellent schools, there is a moral atmosphere about Cordele which will as strongly commend itself to many homeseekers as will any of these in-ducements. There has never been any whiskey sold in Cordele, and the peo-ple do not desire that it ever shall be sold in the town. The enterprising character of the people of Cordele is evidenced by three achievements of the past year. First, it has within the year secured competitive freight rates, and enjoys the advantage of being what is termed by the railroads a "basing point" for freight rates, which means that it has the same rates as Americus, Albany and other competitive points. As a result of this achievement Cordele al-ready has four wholesale houses, and others are coming. The second stride forward this year is one that saves thousands of dollars annually to merchants and property-owners. It is a reduction in fire insur-ance rates, Cordele now being placed on the second-class basis for insur-ance rates, jumping at one bound from fourth to second place. This classifi-cation speaks for itself, and proclaims the excellence of the city's water works and fire protection. The third progressive step for the year has been the establishment of a first-class system of free pub-lic schools, which are now in success-ful operation. All these improvements have been made without any increase in the tax rate of the city, which is only I per cent., a rather uncommonly low rate for new cities anywhere. Cordele is a bright, clean town, and its people are enterprising and indus-trious. With its railroad facilities, its timber and agricultural resources, and its general attractiveness, it seems al-together reasonable to expect a fulfill-ment of its people's prophesy, that it will control the trade between the FHnt and Ocmulgee rivers and will 472 GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. double its population within the next five years. After leaving Cordele the next point of more than passing interest is Abbe-ville, practically at the head of naviga-tion of the Ocmulgee river and the junction point of the Abbeville & Waycross division of the Georgia & Alabama Railroad. Although Hawkinsville is the ac-tual head of navigation, at some sea-sons boats run no farther up than Abbeville. This place of some 1500 population is receiving the benefit of immigration, as are other portions of Wilcox county, to which is being at-tracted a thrifty class of settlers from the West. At the corn and cotton ex-position at Fitzgerald in September the exhibit of Wilcox county products was one of the most interesting and in-structive of anything there seen. To illustrate the adaptability of lands Cordele, Ga. : Suwanee Hotel. liereabout to any crops it may be men-tioned that there is within five miles of Abbeville a farmer who is growing rich, devoting himself to the exclusive raising of hay. He puts in from 300 to 500 acres annually, uses the latest im-proved first-class machinery and sells all he can raise right at home to local trade at about $15 a ton. He cultivates a mixture of native grass and German millet, which is preferred to timothy. The fruit industry is already being developed in this section. Three miles from Abbeville is an orchard from which the owner last season netted $350 on 100 crates of peaches, a con-clusive evidence of the excellence of his fruit, the usual price per crate of average Georgia peaches being only about $1.50. The hard-wood timber interests of this section are very large. There is standing within a distance of twenty-five miles north and south of Abbe-ville, in the swamps of the Ocmulgee river, cypress, ash, hickory, white oak, elm, sycamore, sweet gum, etc., worth fully $3,000,000. The oak and cypress have been cut for years, but the supply is still practically undiminished. At Abbeville there are two big mills engaged exclusively in the manufac-ture of shingles and porch columns, which are shipped to all parts of the country. There is here a first-class brick-yard, with a capacity of 40,000 brick a day, which are pronounced as good as any made in the country—so good, in-deed, that they have been in demand at long distances from home, they having been used even at Jackson-ville in the new government building there. There will hardly be further oc-casion to ship them away, however, as it is expected that Fitzgerald alone will consume the output for some time to come. Extending from Abbeville to Fitz-gerald, a distance of twenty-two miles, is the Abbeville & Waycross division of the Georgia & Alabama Railroad. This road, prior to its purchase by the Georgia & Alabama, was nothing but a poorly-constructed, indifferently-managed country railroad. The loca-tion at Swan of the colony city of Fitzgerald made it necessary for this road to be put in good shape and ex-tended some seven miles to that point. The Georgia & Alabama bought the road January 28 last, and on Febru-ary 14 ran freight trains into Fitzger-ald, and in ninety days from that date had delivered 700 carloads of immi-grants' movables, stock, provisions and other freight. A large force was then put to work rebuilding the road. Cuts were set back, fills widened out. right of Avay cleared back, trestles re-built and a telegraph line erected, and today this division is in as good shape as any road in the State. In Fitzgerald the handsomest passenger station in the State was erected, the design of GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAIUVAY AND ITS TERRITORY. 473 native pine logs, hewn and polished, being strikingly unique. A freight station and platform, capable of hold-ing I GO carloads of freight, was erected, and a freight-yard laid off that will hold 200 carloads of freight. A double daily service is operated on this branch, making the service as most casual reference to the work of Southern development, for nowhere in recent history of migration has a more interesting event occurred than the coming of the veterans of the North-ern armies to this section of the far South. Indian reservations suddenly thrown open to white settlement have FITZGERALD, GA.; 1. Block of Brick Stores. 2. G. & A. Ry. Freight Depot. 3. G. & A. Ry. Passenger Station. good as that on the main line. Being the shortest and most direct line from all Southern and Western points, it is a favorite route for colonists and their freight destined to Fitzgerald. About Fitzgerald itself more than a passing word is deserved in even a shown some unique examples of or-ganized, hereditary land-hunger, but there has been no parallel to this invasion of South Georgia by the members of the old soldiers' colony. When the government offers a body of land to homeseekers nowadavs the 474 GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. event becomes dramatic, because of the ensuing scramble to get the pick of the lands at the price which Uncle Sam, singularly enough, puts upon all his acres, good, bad and indifferent. But here is a case where some 10,000 settlers simply moved in, quietly, un-ostentatiously, without excitement and with no stronger inducement than the advantages of contiguous lands at a cheap price and in a locality possessing promising agricultural possibilities and with mild and healthful climate. They came by wagon and by train from all over the Middle West and Northwest, and within a year have built a flourishing city in the midst of what was till then an unbroken pine forest. It is not to be imagined that the col-ony is composed of war-worn and decrepit old soldiers. It is, on the contrary, a community of active, alert, industrious, energetic citizens from all parts of the country. There is the element of romance in the settlement of this colony. Its lo-cation here is directly attributable to a suggestion of Mr. Richard H. Ed-monds, editor of the Manufacturers" Record. In the fall of 1894 a failure of crops had brought want and suffer-ing to many farmers of Nebraska and other portions of the Northwest. The South had that year been blessed with an abundant harvest of grain, and to Mr. Edmonds occurred the idea of sending to that drought-stricken sec-tion a portion of the bounty which the South so universally enjoyed. The idea was embodied in an interview, which was sent out broadcast by the Associated Press. Following this, Mr. Edmonds appealed to the presidents of Southern railroads, the governors of the Southern States and others in authority. The suggestion was re-ceived as an inspiration, and the ap-peal was immediately and heartily re-sponded to. Governors of Southern States telegraphed their hearty in-dorsement of the proposition, and rail-way presidents volunteered their ser-vices in collecting and distributing the contributions. The result was that trainloads of supplies were collected and transported to the needy North-west, and the eyes of the whole coun-try were opened to the agricultural possibilities of the South. Mr. P. H. Fitzgerald, of Indianapolis, had or-ganized a plan to found a colony of veterans of the Union army, and on seeing this exhibit of Southern re-sources a locating committee was sent South. After much investigation, it was finally, in the fall of 1895, deter-mined to make a selection of some hundred thousand acres located in the pine forests of Wilcox and Irwin counties, Georgia, and to this wilder-ness the settlers soon began to wend their way. The plan of the enterprise provided for an allotment to share-holders in the company of town lots and farms of five, ten, twenty and forty acres, and none but stockholders were eligible as original settlers. At the time of selection the company num-bered about 50,000 members, scattered all over the North and West, the scheme of the organization providing for benefits, somewhat on the building and loan association plan, not only to intending colonists, but to all share-holders as well. Within the first three months after the site had been selected 1500 people had arrived at the place which became known as Fitzgerald. It was a typical pioneer town, and for some time the inhabitants endured all the hardships and discomforts which attend conditions of primitive civiliza-tion. There was no railroad running into the town until several months after the location had been made, and tents and "shacks" furnished all the hospitality enjoyed by visitors and settlers alike. Out of the chaos, how-ever, order was speedily resolved. With the energy of a veritable "boom" town or prosperous mining camp con-ditions were evolved which trans-formed the "Shacktown," as it was called, into a habitable city of about 5000 souls. The Georgia & Alabama road came in from the north and the Tifton & Northeastern from the south, and enterprise was the watch-word of the hour. Todav, after an ex- GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. 475 istence of practically only a year, there is in the city and on the adjacent lands of the colony a population of some 10,000 people, and accessions are be-ing made continuously. The city has a number of brick business houses, ev-ery branch of mercantile enterprise is represented, and a considerable start has been made in the establishment of manufactures. There are thirteen saw mills on the colony grounds cut-ting timber both for home consump-tion and for the market. There are four planing mills and two mills which manufacture doors, sash, blinds and general mill work; there are cornice works which compete with the largest firms in their line in the South; there are two ice plants, a cotton gin, two bottling works and a bed-spring fac-tory; a cotton mill to employ 11 00 hands is under negotiation, and a can-ning factory is to be established in the spring. The colony company has spent some $30,000 for street improve-ments, grading, etc., has built and equipped two schoolhouses at a cost of $6000, and is now finishing a four-story hotel, with 128 feet frontage, which will cost when complete aboul $35,000. It will be provided with every comfort known to modern hotel ex-istence, and will cater to the tourist business, which annually invades the South. Until the present Georgia leg-islature convened the city was without a charter, but with incorporation a number of public improvements—^ar-tesian water, sewers, street paving, etc.—are expected to be introduced without delay. The spirit of the people of Fitzger-ald v/as manifested in a striking man-ner by the inauguration of a corn and cotton exposition during last Septem-ber. Almost literally an entirely ex-temporaneous afifair, being thrown open to the public within ninety days from the time it was first thought of, it was a remarkable showing for a town of barely nine months' existence, and it is doubtful if, under like cir-cumstances, any such an exposition was ever before seen. The adapta-bility of the pine forest soil to any kind of crop was demonstrated in a striking manner by the displays made at this exposition, for it would be impossible to find finer cotton, corn, oats, grasses, cane, fruit and vegetables than were collected hert irom farms in this im-mediate vicinity. Ahhuugli the soil is light and sandy, it responds readily to proper treatment. In this district, an area extending, by the way, from Se-ville down to the coast, long-staple cotton is produced, and already 50,000 bales are annually shipped over the Georgia & Alabama Railway to Sa-vannah, where it brings from fourteen to sixteen cents per pound. Truck farming, grain-growing and fruit-raising will all be profitably en-gaged in, and various lines of manu-facturing will be established. There are, as may be expected in this as in all communities, some dissatisfied per-sons. These come and go, and, going, their places are taken by those who, not looking backward, put their shoul-ders to the wheel and cast their for-tunes with their fellow-workers. The colony is growing continually, and the people are well pleased to have es-caped the rigors of a Northern climate, where nine months' work was required to provide the mere necessities of food, clothing and shelter. Thousands of new acquisitions are expected in the city and on the colony farming lands yet unallotted, and the colony com-pany feels certain that before the close of 1897 there will be such an increase in population and such a substantial development of the interests and re-sources of the community that its es-tablishment on a permanent basis of prosperity will be universally con-ceded. This colony enterprise is an exceed-ingly interesting experiment, and its progress will be watched all over the Union. While it has been the subject of considerable adverse criticism, and some writers have publicly predicted its ultimate failure, there is no doubt whatever in the minds of its friends and of entirely impartial investigators that conditions make possible the most abundant success. While early in the 476 GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. spring there was a good deal of sick-ness in the colony, a general clearing up, and the adoption of sanitary re-forms, were followed by a degree of health not far behind that of the most favored communities. An artesian well has solved the problem of pure water supply, and soon the city will have a system of water works which will give her permanent immunity from liability to such mild types of sickness as have existed there. From the records of the health offi-cer and the keeper of mortuary rec-ords, the officials of the Georgia & Alabama Railway have compiled the following statement of deaths and causes of death at Fitzgerald during the twelve months ending August 15, 1896, this being the first year of the city's existence: The total number of deaths was 107; the number under ten years of age was thirty-nine, and over tifty years of age, fifteen. The num-ber dying from accidents or from old and incurable diseases was twenty-six ; from cholera infantum and child-birth, twelve; from dysentery and malarial causes, twenty, and from other diseases, forty-nine. Along the eastern section of the line an important element of strength of the Georgia & Alabama road is the volume of business secured from trib-utary lines, short roads and tramways, which furnish contributions of lumber, naval stores and farm products seek-ing shipment through Savannah. The change from the conditions which ex-isted in this section a few years ago is really remarkable. There are some thirty towns between Abbeville and Savannah, and all of them are pro-ducers of business, so much so that most any day a freight train which leaves Abbeville with ten cars will have grown to sixty by the time it gets to Savannah. At Pitts, a road comes in from Haw-kinsville, bringing valuable consign-ments of lumber and naval stores. At Collins there is the Stillmore Air Line, reaching the prosperous towns of Still-more and Swainsboro, and bringing to the Georgia & Alabama the prod-ucts of one of the best sections of Georgia, a territory which annually produces from 10,000 to 20,000 bales of Sea-Island long-staple cotton. Here also the Collins & Reidsville road makes a contribution of valuable freight destined for the port of Savan-nah. At Cuyler, the Cuyler & Woodburn road contributes not only naval stores and lumber, but also hundreds of car-loads of watermelons and vegetables consigned to Eastern markets. On this line, though only twelve miles long, there are raised annually 200 car-loads of watermelons and large quan-tities of Irish potatoes, beans and other early vegetables. A valuable connection is also made at Helena, where the road crosses the line of the Southern Railway, afford-ing communication with Macon, At-lanta and the Northwest, and on the South with the seaport of Brunswick, the South Atlantic coast and Florida points. Reference has been made to the splendid terminal facilities enjoyed bv the Georgia & Alabama at Savannah and its connections with North and South trunk railroads, the ocean steamship lines to Baltimore, Philadel-phia, New York and Boston, and the recently-established direct lines to Europe. Savannah, the most import-ant South Atlantic seaport, the fore-most market in the world for naval stores, the third largest cotton port and one of the most interesting cities of the South to visitors, has secured an ally in the Georgia & Alabama which will be of immense and increasing value. This splendidh'^-managed road, with its alert officers and pronounced geographical advantages, will draw new trade from the Northwest, will de-velop the country through which it runs and will be found a most import-ant factor in swelling the export trade and the commercial importance of the city of Savannah. THE REMAKING OF THE SOUTH.* By Henry M. HoUaday. (Continued from Last Number.) In reviewing the progress of the South for the past thirty years two important difhculties which she has had to overcome and with which the North and West did not have to con-tend should be borne in mind. For fifty years abundant capital has poured into the West, and with it or preced-ing it, what is of far more importance, millions of men—men of bone and brawn, of energy, of skill, of education and of genius. Into the West has gone in large measure the very flower of the manhood of New England and the North. The South has made the fight for life and prosperity with little outside help. Capital long turned from her. Immigrants passed her by. It is still a subject of remark when a man born in the new West rises to dis-tinction. It is equally rare to hear of one in the South who is not a son of the soil. Another fact is worthy of note in considering Southern progress. The textile industries of New England and the iron industries of Pennsylvania re-quired the fostering care of a high tariff to protect them from European competition. The South has had to meet the competition of New England and Pennsylvania in an open market. In capital, in skilled labor and in ex-perience in manufacturing and trad-ing the disparity was not less between the South and the North than between the latter and Europe. The South has enjoyed no such immunity as that which has placed New England and Pennsylvania among the richest and most populous communities of mod-ern times. But it is no longer denied that the North cannot maintain a mo- *Copyrighted, 1896, by Henry M. Holladay. nopoly of the iron and textile indus-tries in America. It is even doubtful whether their supremacy must not pass from them. This is true not be-cause these industries of New Eng-land and Pennsylvania are likely to decrease or even cease to grow; but because the natural and healthy de-velopment of the South must, at a day wdiich is not far distant, put her upon an equality with New England and Pennsylvania in manufactures of cot-ton and iron. This is not a political essay, and we have nothing whatever to do with the bearing of the development of the Southern cotton-textile and iron in-dustries upon the question of a tariff. To the free-trader the facts which are now universally admitted may seem convincing evidence of the truth of his belief. The protectionist may find in them proof that nature, in a fit of unwonted generosity, has lavished bounties upon the South in sun and air and soil and mineral wealth which energy and enterprise are fast con-verting into a Chinese wall of protec-tion. Whatever theory may best serve the whim of the doctrinaire, the schemes of the politician or the pur-pose of the practical man of business, the one fact which concerns us here cannot be denied. This broken, con-quered, war-swept, poverty-stricken land—this home of "ignorant, brutal and degraded negroes and slothful, efTete and degenerate white men" — has for the past thirty years produced cotton in abounding quantity, sufifi-cient to clothe more than half the world and to sustain far from the land where the staple is grown one of the largest manufacturing industries upon 478 THE REMAKING OF THE SOUTH which modern civilization is depend-ent. More than this, it has won from the heart and the hps of the most pro-gressive, the most energetic, the most inventive, and, in an industrial sense, the most aggressive community of the nineteenth century a recognition and acknowledgment of the South's ca-pacity to meet any and all competitors in the production of pig iron and the coarser grades of cotton textiles. The facts which have been briefly and imperfectly set forth in the pre-ceding pages give cause for pride and hope to all patriotic Americans. They show that the growth of the South has been steady and healthy. They afford evidence of a kindly sun and a generous soil, of balmy air and plen-teous showers, of vast mineral wealth and of inestimable natural advantages for agricultural and manufacturing industries. They clearly indicate that the South has now reached a stage of development when her people may avail themselves of these advantages and draw freely upon the treasures which nature has provided. But bet-ter than this, what has been accom-plished shows the awakening of hope, enterprise, emulation and self-confi-dence in her people. The facts we have noted testify to the sturdy virtues and the true metal of her men. They evidence a willingness to comprehend new conditions, adaptability to meet them and the determination to make the best of them. In frankness it must be said that they have much to be desired. Al-though the growth and progress of the South has been great, although the aggregate value of cotton which she has produced in the past thirty years has brought a vast fund of wealth into her borders, the South is still poor. She is far to the rear of the most progressive communities. At best many years must pass before she can hope to rival or even approach them in wealth, in the comforts of life, in educational advantages or in liter-ary, scientific and artistic attainments. Before her are long years of plodding labor, of untiring energy, of syste-matic effort, of patient self-control, of infinite self-denial, of prudent fore-thought, and, above everything else, of small economies and cultivation of habits of thrift. But without losing sight of the diffi-culties which lie before her people, of the weaknesses they must conquer, of the sins they must amend, there is still good cause for faith in her future. In her faults she is distinctive, but not pe-culiar. From sin and from folly no people is exempt. We may trust in the benign effect of natural law upon freemen as they grow in w^ealth and enjoy better educational advantages. The best idea of the possibilities of the future for the South may be ob-tained from a glance at the advan-tages she enjoys. Without pausing to prove what is self-evident, or to dem-onstrate what is recognized and ac-knowledged by the common consent of well-informed men, these may be briefly stated: 1. A mild and equable climate re-duces the cost of dwellings, fuel, clothing and food to a minimum; and farming, milling, manufacturing, com-merce and other industries are unin-terrupted by winter. Thus several months are added to the working year under less trying conditions than in more northern latitudes. For the same reasons the South possesses ex-ceptional advantages for breeding and fattening live stock and for producing milk, butter and cheese. 2. The South produces all the rice grown in this country; 75 per cent, of the tobacco, and 93 per cent, of the sugar. Her capacity to increase her production of these crops is practi-cally unlimited. Mr. J. R. Dodge, the statistician of the Department of Ag-riculture, in 1891 said: "One-tenth of the area of Florida is fifteen times the entire breadth of the sugar-cane area in the United States in 1880, situated sev-eral degrees of latitude south of ex-isting plantations, requiring only a system of drainage to become the best cane lands of the United States." 3. The production of sub-tropical fruits and nuts and the early fruits of the temperate zone are already large industries, and with the growth of the THE REMAKING OF THE SOUTH. 479 country and better, quicker and cheaper facilities for transportation must become of great importance. 4. Extending- over a wider territory and giving employment to a greater number of laborers is the trucking in-dustry. The fields in which early veg-etables and melons are grown for the N^orthern markets stretch from Ches-apeake bay to the Gulf and from the Atlantic to the Mississippi. In thirty years this industry has grown to di-mensions which greatly affect com-merce and transportation, and its fu-ture is limited only by the growth and wealth of more northern States. 5. The South is now richer in tim-ber than any other part of the Union, and a great development in the lum-ber trade and in manufactures of wood is inevitable. 6. The production of cotton is a source of wealth, the future of which may be judged by the past. It need only be mentioned here. 7. It is now an accepted fact that the South enjoys unrivalled advan-tages for the cheap manufacture of the coarser grades of cotton textiles. The growth of this industry is, at this time, the most striking feature in the devel-opment of the South. Naturally and in due season will follow manufactures of the finer grades of cotton textiles and the growth of kindred industries which group themselves about the parent industry. 8. The growth of the Southern iron industry has been shown in the pre-ceding pages. Its vigor and continued growth are beyond doubt or cavil, and, following the production of pig iron, must come the development of the iron and steel industries in all their varied and manifold forms. 9. The South is known to be rich in many minerals besides iron and coal, such as salt, sulphur, phosphate rock, building stone, clay, manganese and gold, and the industries to which these must give rise will have an im-portant bearing upon her develop-ment. 10. The mountain range of the Al-leghanies, extending from the Vir-ginias to Alabama, with a vast number of streams falling from 1000 to 2000 feet from the plateau to tidewater, gives the South water-power widely distributed, easily harnessed and of in-calculable value. This one resource, as yet practically untouched, is suffi-cient to give a development and diver-sification to the industries of the South which should make her rich. 11. For purposes of navigation and trade the greater portion of the South is a vast peninsula across the neck of which a line may be drawn from Washington to Wheeling. From Chesapeake bay to the mouth of the Mississippi the ocean washes her shores, penetrates far inland with many estuaries, and affords facilities, for a vast coast trade. The opening of the Chicago drainage canal will mark a new era in the development of the great central valley of the Union.. The Mississippi and its tributaries, must in a few years become the great-est of all traffic-bearing waterways. This will bring the South into close business relations with and give her cheap transportation to the best mar-kets of the world. The possibilities of this great enterprise are too vast for more than mention here. The opening of our inland waterways to commerce means much to the whole' country, but to no section does it mean so much as to the South. 12. A ship canal uniting the xA.t-lantic and the Pacific is a national ne-cessity. Public opinion is fast crys-tallizing on the subject and will not brook many years' delay. This canal will put Southern seaports close upon the route of commerce flowing be-tween the Occident and the Orient. It will make the opportunities and the advantages of the South for trade equal to the advantages which she now enjoys for agriculture and for manufacturing. 13. The South is fast becoming the great winter resort for invalids, tour-ists and men and women of leisure and fashion. A line of luxurious hos-telries now stretches from Hampton Roads to Punta Gorda in Southern Florida. Winter homes built b\ Northern people are becoming a feat- 480 THE REMAKING OF THE SOUTH. ure of Southern life, and the tide of visitors steadily rises as wealth in-creases and the conditions of life be-come easier. Man is growing as mi-gratory "as the birds, and follows in their wake when they wing their flight southward at the approach of winter. The money which is thus brought into the South is not to be overlooked, but vastly more import-ant are results less apparent to the casual observer. The better knowl-edge which the people of the North and the South obtain of one another leads to closer business and social re-lations and to broader and more lib-eral ideas upon both sides. 14. In an area so vast as the terri-tory embraced by the Southern States and so sparsely settled, new sources of wealth, as yet unthought of, must in-evitably come to light and give rise to new enterprises and new industries. Upon this we may rely as confidently in this age of invention and discovery as upon the assured growth of the cotton crop. The future growth of the South in wealth and population must have an important meaning to the whole country. But no true idea can be formed of how vitally this subject con-cerns the nation unless we keep con-stantly in mind the vastness of the area embraced by the Southern States. This can be appreciated only after a comparison with the territory of other States of the Union and with the great powers of Europe. The thirteen Southern States have an area of 818,065 square miles. The States of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Con-necticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylva-nia, Delaware, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin have an area of 386,690 square miles and a popula-tion of 30,000,000. When the popula-tion of the South becomes as dense as that of the Northern States which have been named it will have a popu-lation equal to the present number of inhabitants of the whole Union. France covers an area of 204,177 square miles, or about one-fourth as much as the South. Its population is 38,218,903. If the South were as pop-ulous it would have more than 150,- 000,000 inhabitants. The area of the German Empire is 211,108 square miles, a little more than one-fourth as great as that of the South. Its population is 49,421,064. If the South were as densely settled it would have more than 190,000,000 people. Austria-Hungary has an area of 201,591 square miles, and its popula-tion is 41,827,700. With the same number of people to the square mile the South would have 169,000,000. The area of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland is 120,973 square miles, and its population is now more than 38,000,000. ' If the South were as densely settled it would have 256,000,000 inhabitants. The kingdom of Italy embraces an area of 110,665 square miles, and its population is 29,699,000. If the South had as many people to the square mile its inhabitants would number 219.- 000,000. The area of the Netherlands is 12,680 square miles; the population is 4,450,870. If the South were as densely populated it would have 287,- 000,000 people living within its bor-ders. Belgium has an area of 11,373 square miles, and its population is 6,030,043. If the South had as many people to the square mile as Belgium its population would be more than 430,000,000. Now, if we take six of these coun-tries and sum up their aggregate area and population we have the following result: Sq. M. Population. France 204.177 38,218.000 German Empire 211,108 40.421,000 Austria-Hunsarv 201,591 41.827,000 United Kinsdora 120,97.3 .38,000,000 The Netlierlands 12.680 4,450,000 Belffinm 11.37.3 6,030,000 Total 761,902 177.946,000 Here we have six countries whose aggregate territory is many thousand square miles less than the area cov-ered by the Southern States, but whose population is 177.000,000. These countries are divided by laws, by language, by race and by national THE REMAKING OE THE SOUTH. 481 rivalry, jealousy and traditional ani-mosity. Most of them are heavily taxed to support vast armies and to pay the interest upon tremendous national debts. They are handicapped by an-cient laws, customs and social tradi-tions. But they continue to grow in wealth and population. The condi-tion of their people is steadily rising, and life with them undoubtedly be-comes easier instead of harder. It is inevitable that the South must increase in population and grow in wealth from this time forward as it never grew before. He who questions this must deny that the hand which smote the shackles from the limbs of the slave set free the soul of the mas-ter. He must show that there are natural causes which place the South at a disadvantage as compared with the Northern States and with all the countries of Europe, or he must prove that Southern men are inferior to their American and European contempor-aries in the nobler attributes of man-hood. The facts and figures which have been cited in this paper leave no room to question the substantial progress of the South in the development and diversification of- its industries under difficult and trying circumstances. Remembering the difficulties which the South has overcome, and the suf-ferings it has survived, the outlook to-day is altogether hopeful. The State governments are in the hands of Southern men. The South has an equal voice with the North and the West in the councils of the nation, and upon it rests an equal responsibility and interest in shaping the destiny of the Union. Its people possess as fair a land as was ever blessed with the benediction of heaven, imperial in domain, unlimited in mineral wealth and unsurpassed in natural advan-tages. Its young men, reared in the stern school of adversity, have been hardened and strengthened in the sturdy virtues of their race and blood. Year by year they grow in knowledge of the opportunities to which they were born and in faith in the future. THE SOUTHERN STATES. THE Southern States. AN ILLUSTRATED MONTHLY MAGAZINb. DEVOTED TO THE SOUTH. Published by the Manufacturers' Record Publishing Co. Manutacturers' Record Building, BALTIMORE, MD. SUBSCRIPTION, ... $1.50 a Year. WILLIAM H. EDMONDS, Editor and Manager. BALTIMORE, JANUARY, 1897. The SOUTHERN STATES is an exponent of the immigration and Real Estate Interests and general advancement of the South, and a journal of accurate and comprehensive information about Southern resources and progress. Its purpose is to set forth accurately and conservatively from month to month the reasons why the South is, for the farmer, the settler, the home seeker, the investor, incomparably the most attractive section of this country. Honor to Whom Honor is Due. The Houston Post recently published the following: "That man used to be regarded as a valu-able citizen and a public benefactor who made two blades of grass grow where but one grew before. Under such a measure of public utility ex-Governor W. J. Nor-then, of Georgia, is entitled to the distinc-tion of being today the most useful citizen in Georgia, for he is causing more new acres to be cultivated in that State than is caused by any other man there. "The town of Fitzgerald, containing now some 8000 population, is the result of ex- Governor Northen's enterprise, and the terri-tory around Fitzgerald is being rapidly filled with a hardy and progressive class of immi-grants from the North and Northwest. The Savannah News says 150 families are ready to start for Georgia from the country about Duluth, Minn., and that this is only the 'advance guard of a host of immigrants' ex-pected before the spring. One man has thus been the instrumentality of starting an immigration into Georgia that will be worth millions of money to that State. But the good does not stop there, for the tide started in the Northwest is running strongly to-ward Alabama and Florida as well as Geor-gia. Twenty wagon loads of newcomers from Wisconsin located the other day near Huntsville, Ala. Incidents like this are mentioned almost daily in the Post's South-ern exchanges." This was reproduced in the Atlanta Jour-nal, with this comment: "This is high praise, indeed, but it does not go beyond the deserts of Governor Northen." In the interest of truth, and in justice to many able and successful immigration workers in the South, the "Southern States" feels constrained to point out some inaccu-racies in the foregoing article. We have no desire in the world to detract from the work that ex-Governor Northen has done. He has accomplished large results, and not only the State of Georgia, but the whole South, will be benefited by his immigration and colonization undertakings. But it is not a fact, as would be inferred from the article we have quoted, that the tide of immigra-tion now "running strongly toward Ala-bama and -Florida, as well as Georgia." is an outcome of the Fitzgerald colony, or of any work ex-Governor Northen has done, or that the flow of immigration into Geor-gia was started through this instrumen-tality. This "tide" was "running strongly towards Alabama and Florida, as well as Georgia" and other Southern States, long-before ex-Governor Northen entered upon his immigration work. For several years before he had undertaken such an enter-prise, ]\Iajor W. L. Glessner, as commis-sioner of immigration of the Georgia 482 EDITORIAL. 483 Southern & Florida, under the progressive management of Mr. W. L. Sparks, had been engaged in vigorous, aggressive and suc-cessful immigration effort, and hundreds of thrifty and industrious families from the North were settled upon thousands of acres in what had been largely an undeveloped wilderness. The 150 families referred to as starting from Duluth for Georgia were specifically stated in the dispatches to be part of a colon}^ to be settled at Sibley, Ga. This is a station on the Georgia Southern & Flor-ida Railroad. The formation of this colony is a result of Major Glessner's work, and had no relation whatever to the Fitzgerald colony, or to the work of its projectors. In other Southern States the flow of im-migration was well advanced, and was in-creasing rapidly in volume before ex-Gov-ernor Northen had even entered upon his term of office as governor, which preceded the initiation of his immigration undertak-ings. Through the efforts of Mr. E. E. Posey, general passenger agent of the Mo-bile & Ohio, and Mr. Henry Fonde, of Mo-bile, president of the Alabama Land Co., many hundreds of Northern families had been settled in Alabama and Mississippi along the line of the Mobile & Ohio. The Illinois Central road, through E. P. Skene, land commissioner; J. F. Merry, passenger agent, and other officials, had populated with Northern farmers vast areas of unoccupied lands and built up thriving towns and com-munities in jNIississippi and Louisiana, made up wholly of Northern settlers. W. W. Duson & Bro., of Crowley, La., had been instrumental in procuring the settlement in Southwest Louisiana of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of immigrants from Iowa, Min-nesota, Michigan, Wisconsin and other Western and Northwestern States. Col. J. B. Killebrew, immigration commissioner of the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway, had been conspicuously successful in bringing about the settlement of North-ern farmers in Tennessee and Northern Alabama. The State of Arkansas had re-ceived many thousands of agricultural im-migrants through the work of the State land commissioner, Hon. W. G. Vincenheller and the railroads that traverse the State, notably the St. Louis Southwestern, the St. Louis & Iron ^Mountain and the Missouri Pacific. And besides these particularly notable examples, we might name dozens of minor instrumentalities that had been doing effec-tive immigration work in Georgia and all the Southern States long before ex-Gov-ernor Northen's agency had any existence. We repeat that we have no purpose to be-little the great work the ex-Governor of Georgia is doing. On the contrary, we should contradict any statement unfair to him as readily as we have sought in this instance to correct an unfair impression as to those who were in advance of him in suc-cessful immigration work, and who, along with him, are peopling the untilled acres of the South with thrifty and successful farm-ers from the North. What they are accom-plishing in this direction is not at all a re-sult of anything he has done; rather might it be said that the pioneer work they have been doing has made easier the accomplish-ment of what he has been able to do. We are quite sure that none will be more ready to acknowledge the justice of all we have said than ex-Governor Northen himself. Real Estate the Best Investment. We publish elsewhere an interesting and significant article from the London Agricul-tural Gazette. The belief of the English "millionaire financier" that land is a far safer investment than shares in companies at the mercy of directors and subject to ac-cidents of good or bad trade has striking enforcement in a recent utterance of an American millionaire financier. This gen-tleman, a resident of Baltimore, for many EDITORIAL. years a large investor in railroad and other securities, at one time associated with the active management of one of the largest railroad systems in the country, and owner of stocks and bonds to the value of many hundreds of thousands of dollars, said not long ago that in future he would buy no stocks of any sort, but would make all his investments in real estate. And where else on the globe can there be found such opportunities for real-estate in-vestment as in the Southern States? With its supreme advantages for manufacturing, for agriculture, for health, and its wealth in all that goes to make life worth living, and with its rapid increase in factories and in agricultural population, it is safe to say that its farm, timber and mineral lands will never in the future sell for prices as low as they may be bought for now. This is particu-larly true of large undeveloped areas, which may be bought now at almost nominal prices, but which, with continued railroad expansion, will bring fortunes to those who may be fortunate enough and far-seeing enough to capture them now. Benefits of Agricultural Immigration. Unquestionably the greatest need of the South today is immigration—thrifty, indus-trious agriculturists. The benefits of such im_migration are difficult to enumerate, so thoroughly do they permeate the well-being of the entire community and section. When it is pointed out that increased population means greater wealth, and a consequent de-crease in the individual burden of taxation, an important benefit is stated, and one which of itself is sufficient incentive to the South to work for desirable immigration; but that is merely one of many almost equally important. Who can calculate the benefits that would come to the whole na-tion if the present population of the South were doubled, were augmented by thrifty agriculturists to the number of the people now in the South? And yet the popula-tion of the South would not then be nearly so dense as that of Massachusetts—would still lack some 200 persons to the square mile of being so thickly populated as is the not conspicuously fertile Bay State. That the South, with its unparalleled variety of soil, climate and resources, could easily support a population ten times its present density no well-informed man is likely to question; so that it should be a matter of comparatively easy achievement to secure double the present population. More people would mean more and bet-ter schools, more good roads and every other comfort and convenience of modern civilization. It would mean more develop-ment of the unmeasured resources of the South, a reduction in the cost of many of the articles necessary to life and to com-merce, and by enriching the South would add to the riches and prosperity of the na-tion. Much less than double the present population, if they were of the right sort, would mean an increase in the value of Southern property amounting to at least double the present valuation. It would mean more and larger cities, more and greater manufacturing centres and more importance in the industrial and commer-cial world. The incentive is so strong, the benefits so well-nigh illimitable, that it would seem the v.'hole South, as if one man, would make it the particular and unceasing business of life to seek to fill up the waste places, to tenant the tenantless farm lands, and to thus bring an era of prosperity greater than that ever heretofore enjoyed by any nation of the earth. General Notes. A Northern Capitalist Revises His Opin= ions of the South After Investigation. Mr. J. K. Ridgely, passenger agent of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad at Chi-cago, recently induced Mr. Davitt D. Chid-ester, a capitalist of New Waterford, Ohio, to go South on a trip of investigation. After he had gotten back he wrote to Mr. Ridgely about his trip, and his letter is given below. It is valuable testimony, because of the fact that the writer of it is a man of means and influence and is a large owner of farm lands in the West: "New Waterford, Ohio, Nov. 30, 1896. "J. K. Ridgely, Passenger Agent L. & N. R. R., Chicago, 111.: "My Dear Sii'—In accordance with my promise, I write you briefly my impressions of the South. "I was much pleased with what I saw in the section of the South visited, and confess to have been greatly surprised and agree-ably so by the wealth of resources it seems to have in the way of soil, climate, minerals, timber, etc. It impressed me as being a vast but undeveloped empire, needing only Northern thrift and energy to promote it into the most productive and the wealthiest section of the whole country. "I confess also to have gone there with a great deal of prejudice. I think that, in common with most Northern men, I had the idea that the 'South' was a land of dark and dismal forests of cypress and malarious rice swamps and canebrakes; a land of torrid summers and malarial wet seasons. "On the contrary, so far as I could learn by careful investigation and inquiry of both the natives and of Northern men who have been living in the South for years, I find the climate of that part of Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia which I visited to be exceed-ingly healthful, in fact unsurpassed by any part of the North. While their summers are long, they are never so hot as we have them in the North, nor are they subject to the sudden changes in temperature which we have in the North. "I think it is only a question of making the great advantages of this section of the United States known to the Northern peo-ple to have a great tide of immigration set in, for certainly it has every advantage over the Northwest in every way. The farmer there does not have to work eighteen hours a day during the summer in order to get enough to keep himself in food and cloth-ing and to keep warm and to feed his stock during the winter, as they do in the West-ern and Northwestern States. He can live twice as well with half the work, if all I heard and saw is true. He runs no risk of droughts or of blizzards, which are practi-cally unknown in the South. When I am again in your city I may call and talk with you personally about the South. Mean-while, I am, yours very truly, "DAVITT D. CHIDESTER.*' From Ohio to Georgia. Mr. G. W. Shults, recently of Ohio, writes to the "Southern States'" from Glenmore, Ga. : "We left Columbus, Ohio, a few days ago in bitter cold weather. Arriving here, we found the weather perfectly delightful. The gardens are about as they are in Ohio in May and June. Strawberries are in bloom, new potatoes about the size of walnuts. I cannot understand why so many people will stay in the North and freeze to death and raise, or attempt to raise, but one crop a year, when down in this country they can have some crop maturing every month in the year and realize a better price, with much less labor." The rapid rise of the pineapple industry in Florida since the freeze is shown by a report of Capt. W. J. Jarvis, general freight agent of the Florida East Coast Railway, as to the number of crates of pineapples hauled 485 486 GENERAL NOTES. over his road in the last three seasons. In 1894 there were 35,931 crates; in 1895, as a result of the freeze, the number was re-duced to 4127 crates, but in 1896 the ship-ments reached 43,012 crates. The Georgia & Alabama. At the annual meeting of the Georgia & Alabama Railway Co., held December 16 at Americus, Ga., the following gentlemen were elected directors: John Skelton Wil-liams, of Richmond; J. Willcox Brown, J. W. Middendorf and R. B. Sperry, of Balti-more; W. F. Cochran, Ernest Thallman and C. Sydney Shepard, of New York; John D. Stetson, of Macon; S. A. Carter, of Co-lumbus; W. W. Williamson, John Flan-nery, C. D. Baldwin and W. W. McKall, of Savannah; Cecil Gabbett and J. W. Sheffield, of Americus. The new board of directors immediately organized and elected the following officers: John Skelton Williams, president; Cecil Gabbett, first vice-president and general manager; John W. Middendorf, second vice-president; J. Willcox Brown, treas-urer; W. W. McKall, secretary. The Columbus Southern Railroad was recently bought for the Georgia & Ala-bama and will be operated as a part of that system after January i. A New Yorker Buys a Fine Farm in Virginia. Mr. A. L. Washburne, of New York, has bought, through the Southern Farm Agency, of Ljmchburg, Va., the fine estate known as "Homewood," on Hog Island in the James river. It contains 3200 acres of land, with fine buildings and extensive farm-ing equipment. The price paid is said to have been $180,000. It is said that the purchaser will further improve the estate, and will bring down to it from New York specialists in gardening, dairying, butter-making, horticulture and general farming. South Georgia's Winter Products. Here the seasons are all blended into each other, and butterflies and bees sip honey from the flowers which never fade from frost and cold. During last week snap beans, radishes and other vegetables of the kind were served from gardens here on the dinner tables of our citizens. Yesterday the Times had an invitation to a watermelon cutting which is to take place at a country home near Valdosta on Christmas day. All over this section there is room for frugal citizens, and in no section of the country are there brighter prospects for the future or better surroundings for the present. Come South, young man, if you really want to see the garden spot of the world.—Val-dosta, Ga., Times. Artesian Water in the South. The city of Augusta, Ga., is discussing plans for increasing its water supply. A writer in the Chronicle advocates the boring of artesian wells, and in support of his sug-gestion he writes as follows about the im-proved healthfulness of communities that have adopted artesian w.ater: "I have this much to say for the artesian wells, it has been proven to be the healthiest and largest and most inexhaust-ible supply of fresh water that a city like Augusta or Memphis, or Thomasville or Savannah and innumerable small places can obtain. "Look what it has done for the lower counties, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee. Why, in certain sections of these States it used to be impossible for a white man to live in them on account of the malaria. Now, these wells, giving health, life and vigor wherever the water is used, liave caused the waste places to be populated with a people whose energy equals those of our Northern States, and, in fact, hundreds of these people have moved down in Florida and around Thomasville, Ga., and make it their homes the year round, and land that could have been bought for a song a few years ago cannot now be had at twice the price. "Take our own suburbs and outskirts, the Hickman and Phinizy farms. White men who would dare spend the nights on these farms a few years back during the warm months simply took their lives in their own hands. Now since they have gotten artesian water they live there the whole year round with their children, and malarial fevers are almost a stranger to them. "From Savannah to Tennille, on the Cen-tral Railroad, malaria used to be so thick and deadlv that there was little or no white GENERAL NOTES. 487 population. Now look at the population of the towns and the fame of their w^ells. Water is being hauled from Alillen everj^ day for drinking purposes in Augusta. So much might be said for the health-giving qualities of this water that it would weary the reader and I will desist. I only ask the people to consider for a moment the inesti-mable good it would do us to be supplied with this water.'" Another Georgia Colony. A co-operative colony has been started in Muscogee county, Georgia, near Colum-bus. The colony is said to number be-tvv- een 300 and 400 members, and about fifty have already settled on the colony prop-crt}'. The colony calls itself "The Chris-tian Commonwealth," and the town to be started as a centre will be named Common-wealth. The Central of Georgia Railway has established a station for the colony with that name. The managers are Rev. Ralph Albert-son, a Congregational minister, and Mr. W. C. Damon. The leaders in the move-ment are George Howard Gibson, Lincoln, Neb., and John Chipman. Tallahassee. Fla. Mr'. Chipman writes the "Southern States'" as follows in regard to the enter-prise: " 'The Christian Commonwealth' has purchased about 1000 acres of land at Wim-berly Station, on the Georgia Central Rail-road, about ten miles northeast of Colum-bus, Ga., and near Midland, their present postoffice, on the Southern Railroad be-tween Atlanta and Columbus. They have on the grovind between forty and fifty colo-nists, and more are constantly arriving. They expect to erect saw mill, planer and woodworking machinery very soon, and a canning factorj^ in the spring for the sum-mer's work, and such other machinery as they can make use of—grist mill, gin, etc. "Their plan is to be self-sustaining and mutually helpful. They hold their prop-erty in common, and are strictly co-ope-rative. "They are a religious society, but are not a 'new church.' Members from every de-nomination are welcomed, and are not re-quired to sever themselves from their com-munion. But the basis of the 'Christian Commonwealth' is mutual helpfulness and work, consecrated to the redemption of the workers of the world from industrial slavery.'" Cuban Tobacco in Florida. A correspondent at Fort Meade, Fla., sends the "Southern States" the following interesting account of the successful at-tempt to grow the best Cuban tobacco in that locality: "Fort Meade is situated in Polk county, Florida, about half-way down the penin-sula and almost equidistant between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic ocean. It is a small town of 500 inhabitants on the Plant System of railroads, and was for-merly a post of some importance to the United States forces engaged in the war with the Seminole Indians. Peace creek runs through the town, and it was on the banks of this stream that General Meade, from whom the place takes it name, signed the treaty of peace that ended the desultory war that had been carried on with the Semi-noles for some years. Later it became a large oi^ange and phosphate-shipping and cattle-trading centre, but the freeze of two years ago, added to the prevalent hard times of the last three years, deprived it of much oi its prosperity. The present rebellion in Cuba has driven from its shores the men who have been the mainstay of that Island, the tobacco-growers of the far-famed Yuelta-Abajo district of Cuba. These men, cut off from their homes, plantations and the industry in which they have been en-gaged for years, and in the evening of their lives forced to emigrate to a foreign coun-try, and left nearly penniless, naturally turn their thoughts and energies towards
Object Description
Description
Title | Southern States. |
Date | 1897 |
Release Date | 1896 |
Subjects |
Agriculture--Southern States--Periodicals Industries--Southern States--Periodicals Southern States--Periodicals |
Place |
North Carolina, United States Georgia, United States South Carolina, United States Florida, United States Tennessee, United States Louisiana, United States Alabama, United States Mississippi, United States Texas, United States |
Time Period | (1876-1900) Gilded Age |
Description | An illustrated monthly magazine devoted to the South.; Apr. 1893 not issued. |
Publisher | Baltimore,Manufacturers' Record Pub. Co. |
Rights | Public Domain see http://digital.ncdcr.gov/u?/p249901coll22,63753 |
Physical Characteristics | 5 v. : ill., ports.; 25 cm. |
Collection | State Library of North Carolina |
Type | text |
Language | English |
Format | Periodicals |
Digital Characteristics-A | 4782 KB |
Digital Collection | General Collection |
Digital Format | application/pdf |
Title Replaced By | Southern States farm magazine |
Title Replaces | Manufacturers' record magazine |
Audience | All |
Pres File Name-M | gen_bm_serial_southernstates011897.pdf |
Full Text | JOHN SKBLTON WILLIAMS, (Of John L. Williams & Sons, Bankers, Ricbmond, Va.) PRESIDENT OF THE GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY CO. THE Southern States. JANUARY, 1897. THE GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. Bv Albert Phenis. During 1896 there was hardly a more interesting or important railroad event in the South than the infusion of new life into the property now known as the Georgia & Alabama Railway. Built upon the ruins of the old "S. A. M." road, the line had no sooner passed into the hands of the new or-ganization than a spirit of enterprise was manifested which has already placed the Georgia & Alabama well in the ranks of those roads which are helping the whole South while imme-diately benefitting themselves by vig-orouslv aiding the development of the country through which they run. The Manufacturers' Record of August 2, 1895, contained this an-nouncement and prophecy : 'The work of reorganizing the Sa-vannah, Americus & Montgomery under the title of the Georgia & Ala-bama is at last practically completed by the election of Mr. John Skelton Williams, of Richmond, as president; Cecil Gabbett, vice-president and gen-eral manager; J. Willcox Brown, treasurer, and W. W. Mackall, of Sa-vannah, secretary. Among the direc-tors are Mr. Adolph Ladenburg, of the banking and foreign-exchange firm of Ladenburg, Thalmann & Co., of New York; C. Svdney Shepard, of New York ; J. W.' Middendorf, of Midden-dorf, Oliver & Co., Baltimore bankers; R. B. Sperry, Baltimore; John Flan-nery and John K. Garnet,, of Savan-nah; James D. Stetson, of Macon, and S. A. Carter, of Columbus, Ga. Mr. Williams, who is a member of the banking firm of John L. Williams & Sons, of Richmond, has been at work upon the reorganization of the prop-erty for some months, and is w^ell known as a gentleman of ability and energy, also as an expert financier. Mr. \\^illcox Brown is president of the Maryland Trust Co. of Baltimore, while the majority of the other direc-tors are connected with prominent banking or business institutions. Th.e IManufacturers' Record believes that under the present management the road will be operated for the best in-terests of its stockholders and the sec-tion of the South which it traverses. "The Manufacturers' Record is in-formed that the company will extend its system into Savannah at once. With Savannah as a terminus, the Georgia & Alabama will be the short-est and most direct route between Sa-vannah and Montgomery. There is every reason to believe that with the through traffic which it will receive by forming the direct route between these cities, and added to its local traffic, the earnings will materially increase this year." Not onl}- has every expectation here hazarded been fully realized, but the activity of the new management has greatly exceeded the measure here put upon it. One of the first things the new company did was to secure by perpetual lease from the Central of Georgia Railway Company the fifty-eight miles of road extending from the 449 450 GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. terminus of the Georgia & Alabama tracks at Lyons eastward to Meldrim and to effect a traffic arrangement on the seventeen miles from Meldrim to Savannah by which the Georgia & Al-abama secures the full benefit of the Central's splendid terminals at Savan-nah. Early in the year the Abbeville & Waycross road was bought and ex-tended to Fitzgerald. The entire main line is being overhauled, and by cut-ting down grades, straightening the line where feasible, reballasting where necessary and relaying a number of sections with heavier steel rails, the physical condition of the road is being brought up to a high standard of ex-cellence. The train service was also immediately improved, the running time between Montgomery and Sa-vannah reduced to eleven hours and an additional train put on, so there is now a double daily passenger service, with parlor cars and Pullman sleepers and every comfort and convenience provided by the best-equipped roads in the country. Energetically reach-ing out after business of all kinds, pas-senger and freight, through and local, there is every probability, from gains so far made, that the company's gross earnings for the first year since its en-trance into Savannah—April i—will exceed $1,000,000, which is 100 per cent, increase over the previous year's business. The line is by seventy-two miles the shortest between Montgom-ery and Savannah, and this fact, in connection with its excellent train ser-vice, is attracting an ever-increasing volume of through business, both freight and passenger. It is becoming a favorite route for the metal and min-eral products of Alabama and for gen-eral Western products seeking ship-ment through the port of Savannah, and has become immensely popular with the traveling public, who are af-forded at Savannah the choice of a sea voyage to Eastern cities on the splen-did boats of the Ocean Steamship Co. and the Merchants & Miners' Trans-portation Co., or, if time is a special object, connection may be made with either of the two trunk lines that oper-ate from Savannah north. In addition to the Pullman car service now oper-ated between Montgomery and Sa-vannah, preparations are being made to put on a through Pullman to run from the cities of the Northwest via the Georgia & Alabama through Sa-vannah to Florida, giving passengers in transit from six to twelve hours, if desired, to view the many attractions possessed by Savannah. Enterprise marks every feature of the management, and is conspicuously manifested in the policy of giving every assistance possible to the work of developing the varied resources of the territory through which the road runs and to securing immigration to occupy the hundreds of thousands of vacant or but partially tilled acres that are embraced in its tributary territory. Immigration agents, in person and by literature, canvass the West and Northwest; statistics and interesting facts concerning the attractions and business opportunities existing in the various towns and cities along its line are disseminated, and widely-adver-tised homeseekers' excursions are run at various times throughout the year. It may be readily seen, therefore, that this road is destined to play an import-ant part in the development of a por-tion of the South rich in a great va-riety of natural resources and abound-ing in opportunities for the establish-ment of many enterprises; and it is furthermore a road which will be found a factor of growing importance in the handling of transcontinental business. The historical and beautiful old city of Montgomery, the western terminus of the Georgia & Alabama Railroad and the junction point of some of the most important roads in the South, is interesting in many ways to the inves-tigator of Southern conditions. It is located at a bend in the Alabama river, its site is pleasingly broken, while not precipitously hilly, and its broad ave-nues and tree-lined thoroughfares lend a charming grace and dignity to its aspect. Hardly anywhere can be found a more noble prospect than is GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. 451 presented by the sweeping stretch of Dexter avenue from the imposing-fountain up to the gUttering old white capitol on the hill. It is in miniature, it is true, compared with the Champs Elysees or our own Pennsylvania ave-nue, but within its limitations it is well nigh a perfect picture, and to its beauty is added the interest which attaches to scenes of mighty conflict, for this house at the end of the avenue was the first capitol of the Confederacy, was where Jefiferson Davis took his oath of ofiice as President, was long neatness not too frequently met with in Southern cities. And as first im-pressions are strong ones, such work as has been done by Montgomery is of unquestionable value wherever any effort is to be made to attract outside men and money. There is an air of solid, substantial prosperity about Montgomery, and in-vestigation shows it to be an import-ant business point, as well as a desir-able place for residence. It is in the midst of a particularly rich agricul-tural section, and the vast mineral and ^ l^ji % till Muiiii;(iiiiciy, Ahi.: State Capitol ami CoiilViltTaU' MdiiUuici as the First Capitol of the Confefleracy. and .lefli iuaun-tirated as I'resideiit here. This iliiililiii.u \\a? 11 Ihivis was known as "the White House of the Confederacy," and as if to forever fix this romantic interest, to identify in-dissolubly the part it played in the struggle of the "Lost Cause,'' there has been erected by its side a towering monument to soldiers of the Southern armies who fell in defense of the gov-ernment here first set up. The visitor to Montgomery will be first attracted by its well-paved streets and its smooth stone sidewalks, which cover all the main business portion of the town and give an air of thrift and other natural resources of Alabama make possible a very large industrial development here. The foundations laid are broad and permanent. A per-fect system of sanitary sewerage is in operation, artesian wells supply a prac-tically inexhaustible supply of pure water, and the health-rate is conse-quently so high that deaths, white and black, average only a total of thirteen to the thousand per annum. As Montgomery is an old place, coming into existence in 1819, and having been incorporated ever since 452 GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. 1837, it goes without saying that so-cial conditions are all that are ex-pected of well-established Southern cities. It has been the State capital MontgojiH'iy. Ala.: Courthouse. since 1846, and for more than half a century has been a centre of graciovis hospitalit}', culture and refinement. Aside from the advantages of geo-graphical position and the wealth of its agricultural resources, Montgom-ery has been aided in becoming an im-portant point by the excellence of its transportation facilities. The union depot system, so convenient and ad-vantageous to a city in e\^ery respect, is established here, and the benefits of quick and direct connection with roads radiating in every direction is thus ob-tained. Work is at present under way on an imposing and spacious union passenger station, and a mammoth union freight depot is nearing comple-tion. Transportation facilities are su-perlatively excellent, some of the best roads in the South centering here. The Louisville & Nashville is here, giving quick communication with Mobile, Pensacola and New Orleans on the south, and with Memphis, St. Louis, Nashville, Evansville, Louisville, Cin-cinnati and points beyond in the west and north. The Western & Alabama and Atlanta & West Point, which runs from Selma via Montgomery to At-lanta, enjoys a close traffic arrange-ment with the Southern Railway, whose passenger trains are now run solid from New York via Atlanta, Montgomery and New Orleans to Galveston. The Plant system is here through its Alabama A'lidland line, and runs through trains to Savannah, Charleston and all Florida points. A branch of the Central of Georgia ter-minates here, and thus, with the quick and direct route via the Georgia & Alabama to Savannah, it is seen that the railway transportation facilities are complete in every direction. And in addition to the railroad transportation there is the Alabama river, on which boats run regularly to Mobile, thus in-suring forever the lowest possible rates on freight in and out of Mont-gomery. To a degree, Montgomery enjoys natural advantages over any possible rival somewhat similar to those of Memphis. Within a large surround-ing section it is practically without a rival, and in an area of 25,000 square miles the local trade is preferably done at Montgomery. Out of these condi-tions a large jobbing trade has been built up, which gives Montgomery a place second only to Memphis as the leading wholesale grocery point in the South; and in other lines Montgom-ery's jobbing trade is large and con-stantly increasing. The wholesale houses already include boots and shoes, hats and caps, notions, dry goods and liquors. The total annual trade of Montgom-ery is about $40,000,000, and it has for years shown a constant and steady in-crease. The average amount of sales of staples marketed at Montgomery is $23,000,000; the average yearly sales of merchandise consumed in the terri-tory trading here, about $12,000,000. Without any excitement or the em-ployment of other than the most con- Montgonier.T, Ala. : Federal Buildiiu (rostollice aud I''. S. Court.') GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. 453 servative business methods, IMont- The banking capital of Montgomery gomery is steadily marching on to the is about $2,000,000. In addition to fulfilment of her destiny as one of the national and State banks, there are most important trading and manufac- banks for savings, showing large de-turing cities of the interior South. posits, and for the further benefit of With the snap and push of Atlanta, people of small means there are num-for instance, she might have made a erous national and local building and greater noise in the world, and might loan associations. have secured more than the 35,000 peo- Owing to the fertility of the lands pie with which she is now credited, but surrounding Montgomery it is natur-her people are proud of the fact that alh" a large market for cotton, corn, no backward steps have been taken, hav, oats, potatoes, as well as fruits and that all of her development has and small vegetables. In cotton re-been along natural lines, has been sub- ceipts it is one of the leading inland stantial and permanent. With so much markets of the world. The receipts cotton at her doors, it would occur to bv years since 1887 are: the casual observer that cotton mills }'^Jl^'- §qI®«o , , . , , ISS i 99,5dJ ougnt to be more extensively estab- isss 107,508 lished here, but in addition to the mill i^po '.'.'.'.'.'.'.]'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'..'.'.'.'.'.'.'. '. '. '.'.'..'.'.'.'. i45,'o45 now in successful operation, tiiere is i|^^ 157187 being constructed a new $200,000 mill, isos '.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.['.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'. iiojio with 10,000 spindles and 320 looms, 1S95 ;;;;;;:;;;;;;;;;;;;;'. .;;.';.".;;;;; ; i23iooo which will be in complete order and " qJ^' ^.^ount of its transportation fa-ready to start by the first of next May. ^^-^^^ ^^^^ ^1^^ ^ ^^1^^^^^^ ^^ b^3i_ That the citizens o Montgomery are ^^^^^ transacted, Montgomerv is a par-not. indififerent to their opportunities, ticularly good cotton market, and and are proceeding to utilize tnem is -.^^^ ^^^^^^ ^ l^i 1^^^. j^^^^ ^^^^ -^ shown m the fact that this new mill IS ^j^^ -^^^^^.-^^ ^-^-^^ ^^^^ ^^^^,^^^_ The entirely a local enterprise, and the ,^^^ij. ^f -^ -^^ ^^ ^^^^^^^^ ^^3^^ -^^ the Stock was subscribed by the home ij-,,n,ense compresses of the city and P^2P shipped to Eastern and foreign ports. The various manufacturing estab- Through bills of lading are issued at hshments of Montgomery show a wide Montgomerv through either the Gulf use of the resources of the section al- or South and North Atlantic ports to ready. There are some 130 establish- all ports or markets of Europe, ments of various kinds, employing While surrounding Montgomery 2700 hands and turning out annually there are no vast tracts of unoccupied products of about $10,000,000 value. lands, so that colonization enterprises The articles include cotton goods of in the immediate vicinity are impos-all kinds, cottonseed oil, fertilizers, sible, yet there are plenty of farms, soap, sash, doors and blinds, brick, large and small, which are obtainable barrels, staves, spokes and handles, in every direction and at reasonable beer, whiskey, crackers, candies, ci- prices. Desirable farming lands near gars, flour, ice, drugs, brooms, cloth- Montgomery can be bought for from ing, jeans pants, carriages, lumber, $6 to $25 an acre, and most any kind and there are planing mills, extensive of soil can be had, from gray oak and boiler w^orks and one of the best hickory lands to alluvial bottom lands equipped foundry and machine shops and the black, waxy prairie lands, be-in the South. So that, while there still ginning south of the city. In exist great opportunities for industrial this variety of soils, literally about development, it is evident that the field everything required for the sustenance has been by no means entirely over- and comfort of man and beast may be looked either by home people or raised, and while cotton will doubtless Northern men looking for a desirable still hold its sway here as elsewhere in Southern field. the South, there is a growing disposi- 454 GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. tion to supply all local demands with home-grown products. There is al-ways an excellent market at Mont-gomery for all agricultural products, and within recent years it has become a big market for horses, mules and cattle. Dairy farming and stock-rais-ing have been more extensively en-gaged in recently, there being some twenty-five farms near Montgomery principally devoted to these undertak-ing's and all with marked success. But Truck farming and fruit-i"aising have been demonstrated to be highly successful and remunerative, and not only is the local market supplied, but large quantities of fruits, vegetables, melons and berries are shipped from here to Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, New York and other States. A well-equipped commercial and industrial association is undertaking to foster immigration and industrial growth for Montgomery citv and iMontgomery, Ala.: Dexter A\'eiuie. leadiiij;- to State Capitol. the supply of these products is as yet not nearly equal to the demand. The great variety of grasses which grow-luxuriantly here, the equable climate, the reliable rainfall (about 54 inches annually) and the certainty of a de-mand for all products raised offer strong inducements to a much greater expansion of these industries. A remarkably good and extensive system of county roads is a factor in the development of the agricultural in-terest of this section, which must prove to be of ever-increasing benefit and importance. county, and backed b}^ the railroads and an adequate degree of co-opera-tion on the part of the citizens it would seem that the interested attention of homeseekers and investors should be attracted to the superior advantages possessed in so many directions by the city and county of Montgomery. Along the line of the Georgia & Al-al^ ama Railway, proceeding eastward from Montgomery, are some of the most fertile and highly-cultivated farms in Alabama. Statistics concern-ing the counties of Alabama traversed GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. 455 by the road are as follows (census of 1890): OJ o o 2'"' 'S^T'O 9!a M?>p <0 G O s52 5 O M ,972 ,220 ,971 Montgomery ...740 56,172 45,860 739,516 55 Macon 630 18,937 19,099 316,365 47 Russell 670 20,521 20,721 318,550 54 While largely devoted to cotton-raising, it will be seen from the fig-ures given that these lands are well adapted to general agricultural pur-poses, and that grain-growing is al-ready extensively engaged in. As the Chattahoochee river is approached the character of the lands changes somewhat, and while not so produc-tive as the black prairie lands around Montgomery, they are still very fer-tile and well adapted to general agri-culture, stock-raising and fruit-grow-ing, grapes especially doing well. There are large quantities of hard-wood timber along the streams in this section, oak, hickory, poplar and ash predominating, and a considerable in-dustry is being developed in sawing and shipping this timber for manufac-turing purposes to various parts of the country. As the more rolling and broken lands of Eastern Alabama are reached an increasing growth of yel-low pine is encountered. These roll-ing timbered lands are generally with-out undergrowth, and are especially adapted to stock-raising. Beef cattle from this section are now shipped to Montgomery, Atlanta, Charleston, Savannah and Jacksonville. The splendid grazing afforded by these lands, in connection with proximity to cottonseed-oil works, makes stock-raising very profitable, and it is largely engaged in. After grazing all summer and fall the stock are put up and read-ily brought to marketable condition by being fattened on cottonseed meal. Although not yet specially engaged in, a large portion of this section is well adapted to hog-raising, the quan-tities of acorns and other nuts provid-ing an abundantly nutritious mast. There is some sheep-raising, and the number of living streams, abundance of shade and g"ood grasses afford ad-mirable conditions for a large develop-ment of this industry. It is noteworthy that few sections anywhere have better railway facilities than this portion of Alabama, through which the Georgia & Alabama road runs. Four lines of railroad traverse this section, so that no farm along the line is more than ten miles from a com-peting road, which gives assurance of equitable freight rates and is a pledge that each road will do all in its power to encourage the upbuilding of the territory that is immediately tributary to it. Another item, outside of the advantage obtained through having at Hurtsboro a connection with a branch of the Georgia Central, is the fact that the Chattahoochee is navigable be-tween Columbus and Apalacliicola all the year round. An evidence of the healthfulness of the country, as well as the fertility of the lands in the section between Mont-gomery and the Chattahoochee, is fur-nished in the fact that twelve flourish-ing towns and small trading centres have sprung into existence along the line of the Georgia & Alabama Railway since the construction of the road six years ago. Immediately on crossing the State line between Alabama and Georgia a difference is noted in the character of the country. After passing over the magnificent steel bridge which spans the Chattahoochee a two-mile stretch of fertile bottom lands is struck, not exceeded in fertility by those of any section. Running right up to the tracks are the lands of Mr. E. M. McLendon, who has success-fully demonstrated the capabilities of this section in a way interesting" to all. His tract contains 1700 acres of the famous Chattahoochee river bottom lands, and he is successful on a big scale as a dairyman, a stock-raiser, a scientific farmer and a cotton-raiser. Two miles east of the river is the flourishing trading centre of Omaha, another new town built up since the railroad was completed. It is a grow-ing cotton market, and boasts of one of the finest water-powers of the State. 456 GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. obtained from the Hamahatchee river. This power is utilized to drive one of the best equipped hulling- and ginning plants in the South. Here is also found one of the best beds of brick clay in Montgomery, Ala.: City Hall. the country. All the brick used by the I'ailroad company is made here, and the Omaha brick have been used ex-tensively by builders elsewhere, nota-bly in the handsome new courthouse at Lumpkin, the county- seat of Stew-art county. Proceeding eastward from Omaha the lands become more broken. The country is well watered by living streams, and along these streams are some of the best farms in this section. Attention is devoted to general ae'ri-culture, cotton predominating, but di-versitied farming is the rule instead of the exception. On the highest point between the Chattahoochee river and Savannah is situated the town of Lumpkin, a thriv-ing business centre of 1500 people and one of the healthiest points in the South. Before the war the wealthiest planters of this region lived at Lump-kin, and there was more money here than at almost any other point in the State. The people are still noted for their culture, relinementand hospitality, and it is believed that when the advan-tages possessed by the country around Lumpkin have become more generally known it will become one of the most thickly settled portions of the State. It is better watered by living streams than any other county in the State, and is not exceeded for stock-raising and fruits. It is somewhat hilly, but when the hills are set in Bermuda grass and planted in orchards it will become very like a paradise. Being above the frost-line, the finest of peaches are here a reasonably certain crop, and there is inevitably bound to be a large development of the fruit in-dustry here. It is a srood cotton mar- Mdiituoiiicry. Ala.: Court Scinarc and Ciiuuiicrce Street. GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. 457 ket, between 6000 and 7000 bales being-marketed here annually. Xot far from Lumpkm is the new town of Richland, at the junction of the Georgia & Alabama with the Co-lumbus Southern, a comparatively new^ road, running from Columbus to Alban}', a distance of eighty-two miles. This road has just been purchased by the Georgia & Alabama, and that part of the road between Richland and Columbus will hereafter be known as the Columbus division of the Georgia & Alabama, and the part between Richland and Albany as the Albany division. In accordance with the characteristic enterprise of the Georgia & Alabama, the old schedule on the Columbus Southern was at once re-vised and another train added, so as to give three trains each way daily, and this is now the quickest and best route between Columbus and Albany and all points on the Georgia & Alabama Railway. Richland is a substantially-built town of about 1000 inhabitants, hav-ing brick business blocks and a grow-ing trade. Around here for a radius of ten miles in every direction is a sec-tion of red chocolate lands, the same as characterize the country about Fort Valley, Ga., in the centre of the Georgia Peach Belt. As an evidence of the spe-cial adaptability of these lands to peaches it may be mentioned that the finest carload of peaches ever marketed in Chicago was taken from a three-year- old orchard located within the citv limits of Richland. Grapes also do exceedingly well here, and so great has the demand become that Richland-grown grapes are sold before ripen-ing on their reputation alone. Richland is in the centre of Stewart county, and is a very excellent trading and distributing point. Here all agri-cultural products do exceedingly well, and the cheapness of the lands, from $5 to $15 an acre, gives opportunity for substantial profits in farming en-terprises. Within this section of ten miles in diameter is grown a peculiar cotton of long fibre and unusually silkv texture, coming nearer the long staple than any other not the long staple, and being in great demand at enhanced prices by manufacturers of cotton thread. In Columbus the Georgia & Ala-bama acquires as a feeder a manu-facturing centre of great import-ance, and Columbus considers it a for-tunate thing to have become identified with this enterprising railroad. Colum- I3US, with a population now in city and suburbs of some 33,000, seems des-tined to become a manufacturing city of the first importance, being sur-rounded by a wealth of natural re-sources and having within a distance of two and one-half miles along the Chattahoochee river water-power ca-pable of developing an average of 40,000 to 50,000 horse-power during ten months in the year, with a mini-mum of 20,000 horse-power at the lowest stage the river ever reaches. While Columbus is already a manufac-turing town, distinctively, with numer-ous and varied industries of large mag-nitude, so small a part of the splendid water-power has as yet been utilized that what has been done seems more of a promise than a fulfillment. There are but two developed water-powers, both in the city limits, and with a total of only about 6000 horse-power. Of the 115 feet of fall within two and one-half miles, eighty-two feet are as yet undeveloped. Some years ago an as-sociation was formed to develop the upper falls. A tract of 355 acres of land, known as North Highlands, ly-ing along the river, and including one of the most important of the falls, was platted for factory sites and residences. The electric cars were extended to it, a fine casino and music pavilion were constructed and a grand boulevard built around the high, overhanging cliffs. Plans were all but consum-mated for building a dam and develop-ing this as well as other powers in the vicinity when the hard times brought the negotiations to a standstill and practical disintegration followed. The boulevard is still a picturesque drive and popular the year round, and the casino and the rustic grounds swarm 45S GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. with merrymakers during a good portion of the year, but the commercial aspect of the situation is in abeyance, wait-ing the advent of means and men who will seize the sin-gular opportunity to utilize a power greater than Colum-bus yet possesses, greater than is possible at almost any other spot in the country within two miles of the junc-tion point of seven railroads. But the power already in use puts Columbus well in the forefront of Southern manufacturing cities. The famous Eagle and Phenix Mills, the oldest and the largest, has a minimum of 4000 horse-power, with which it operates three cotton mills and one woolen mill, and the city mills (flouring) will have 2000 horse power when im-proAcments at present under way are completed. In addition to running the mills, this power is utilized to the vast advantage of the whole city by the Brush Electric Light & Power Co., a corporation of which Mr. John F. Flournoy, of Colum-bus, is president, and in which his etforts have secured the investment of some $500,000 of Phila-delphia money. M r . Flournov is also president of the Columbus Railway Co., and these companies operations ha\e the mule from car, consolidated into one system, literally covers the provided a system rhich by their banished the street the lines which town ; of electric lightinj^ by March i will compre-hend all the arc and incan-descent service in the city, and still reserving ample power to rent to factories of all kinds. The newspaper offices, several clothing fac- GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. 459 tories and others are now using this power, and its adaptabiHty to every kind of industry is demonstrated in a contract recently made by which a meat dealer gets the transmitted elec-tric power applied to his sausage grinder. To many manufacturers, large and small, it is a big thing to be relieved of the expense of putting in boilers and engines, and this feature of the industrial situation at Columbus must prove a strong factor in attract-ing outsiders. The railroad company has done an-other thing which, next to the availa-bility of cheap and abundant power, gives Columbus pre-eminence among desirable factory locations. Included in the twenty miles of road operated by the company is a belt line, which connects with all the roads entering the city. Its tracks are laid wherever there is an industry or a jobbing house doing any business of importance, so that cars are loaded and unloaded at their very doors, and the former dray-age charges of $5 to $8 a car are elimi-nated. To the discerning observer it is patent that these two features of power and house tracks are alone suffi-cient to insure the industrial and com-mercial development of Columbus to proportions far beyond those of the present. But numerous other ele-ments of expansion exist, among which is proximity to the coalfields of Alabama, which makes fuel so cheap that some of the factories at Columbus are successfully operated by steam. The list of industries at Columbus includes six cotton mills, with 79,992 spindles and 2822 looms, of which the Eagle and Phenix Mills have 47,496 spindles and 1600 looms. The prod-uct of the mills includes almost every variety of manufactured cotton goods, from the coarsest sheetings to the finest print goods, which are marketed all over the world. There are also woolen mills, four clothing factories, three iron and machine shops, very ex-tensive plow works, two cottonseed-oil mills, two of the largest flouring mills in the South, one fertilizer factory in operation and another much larger one being built, four ice factories, two barrel factories and various smaller in-dustries. There is an abundance of raw material of all kinds, and plants for the manufacture of cotton, iron and wooden products are certain to in-crease in number. There are 150,000 bales of cotton handled in Columbus annually, much of it an extra fine staple, so that a choice at minimum prices is afforded the manufacturer. Columbus is an old and wealthy city, and contains a number of citizens of conspicuous enterprise. There are five banking institutions, which afford ample money for the needs of the mer-chants and manufacturers of the city. Here is located the Georgia Home In-surance Co., one of the most success-ful and extensive companies in the South. The history of this company is full of interest and value to anyone investigating Southern institutions and financial opportunities. Organ-ized in 1859 to do life, fire and marine insurance, with a capital of $300,000, 5000 shares at $60 par value, it had hardly got started before the war came on, and though continuing in busi-ness, the end of the war found the company in a somewhat involved con-dition. Soon after the war the com-pany passed into the control of Mr. J. Rhodes Browne, a Northern man of tact, ability and enterprise, and under his judicious management it was soon put upon a paying basis, doing a fire insurance business alone. The stock had depreciated till it had but little value, and 2000 shares were bought by the company and cancelled and the value of the remaining 3000 shares raised to $100 a share. The capital stock has never been increased, re-maining still at $300,000, but the com-pany has steadily prospered, until to-day it has a list of gilt-edged assets aggregating $1,157,902, and its stock can't be bought in any quantity even at a price largely in advance of par value. For many years past the com-pany has paid an annual dividend of 12 per cent., which is of itself an achievement equaled by mighty few corporations South or anywhere else. 46o GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY and yet the institution is a peculiarly Southern one. While it covers a wide range of country, and in its field is well and favorably known and largely patronized, no attempt is made to go outside the South, the limits of its op-erations being the Potomac and the Rio Grande. It has achieved an envi-able record for prompt and fair deal-ing, and wherever known is looked upon as one of the progressive and en-during institutions of the country. Of incidental interest is the fact that Mr. Lambert Spencer, father of the South-ern Railway president, Air. Samuel Spencer, was secretary of the company their capacity with tourists, who, find-ing excellent accommodations at hand, choose this mode of getting into Floridian waters and among the islands and coast resorts which are so famous for the superexcellence of the shooting and fishing they afford. A fine agricultural country fur-nishes a basis for development which, mdependently of the industrial feat-ures, would go far toward creating an important trading centre here. Good lands, a rich sandy loam predominat-ing, are characteristic of Muscogee county, and with a high health rate, an equable climate, adaptability to a great variety of crops and cheap prices for lands, a large immigration movement will undoubtedl}^ be attracted. The first colony settlement in the vicinity of Columbus has just been made by for many years and until his death in 1880, when he was succeeded by Mr. Wm. C. Coart, the present sec-retary. In addition to its other enterprises, Columbus has a large jobbing business, cover-ing eleven Southern States, and representing dry goods, clothing, boots and shoes, groceries, etc. O'f course, river transportation the year round must be reckoned as one of the strong points Columbus pos-sesses. Four lines of steamboats ply the Chattahoochee between Columbus and Apalachicola. These water lines get the trade on both sides of the river from thirty to fifty miles back, and, in-cluding Columbus, make connections with fifteen railroads at various points along the river. A feature of interest in connection with steamboating is the fact that these boats are frequently crowded to Cohmibiis. Ga.: Undeveloped Water-Powers above the City. a society of professional men, me-chanics and farmers, with their fami-lies, on a looo-acre tract twelve miles from Columbus. The present mem-bership of the colony amounts to about 300, but it is expected that con-siderable accessions to this number will be made from time to time, as this settlement is the outcome of a move-ment inaugurated by a society in Chicago some time ago, and the mem-bership of the society includes repre-sentatives in nearly every State in the Union. The place chosen for the set-tlement was selected bv a locating GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. 461 committee acting for the society, and had in its membership one man from Ohio, one from Canada and one from Florida. A great deal of time was spent in looking for a desirable place, and the people of Columbus and Mus-cogee county consider the selection a substantial recognition of their advan-tages. While this is the only colony move-ment to this vicinity, there has been individual immigration from many outside places for years, and some of the most successful farmers, dairy-men, fruit-raisers and truck-growers here are immigrants. Dairying on a scientific plan was first introduced by men from Iowa and Ohio, and is now engaged in by a number of people with good profits. Fruit, grapes, melons and truck are being raised more and more each year, and the profits warrant a much more extensive prosecution of these industries. From thirty to fifty carloads of Concord and other grapes are annually shipped on roads running out of Columbus; 1500 carloads of melons are handled through Columbus, some of the melons weighing from forty to sixty pounds; turnips are raised weighing fourteen pounds, from two and one-half to three pounds being by no means an uncommon weight, and sweet potatoes, tomatoes, beans, etc., are thrifty and profitable crops. Pearl or cat tail millet, Kaffir corn, milo maize, amber cane and other forage plants thrive like native grasses. An interesting example of what en-terprise and ability may do here is fur-nished in the achievements of a Frenchman named D. Liefrank, who, ten years ago, took a badly-washed hillside farm of fifty acres four miles from Columbus and set it out in scup-pernong grapes. The place was hardly considered worth $5 an acre when he took hold of it. He now has 4000 bear-ing plants, which yield all the way from two and one-half to four and one-half bushels of grapes to the plant, and he gets three gallons of wine to the bushel, or a total annual yield of some 50,000 gallons of wine. As he under-stands how to treat the wine, produc-ing an article infinitely superior to the oversweet, insipid stufT most fre-quently encountered under the name of scuppernong wine, he is enabled to sell his entire product in New York and Philadelphia at figures which yield him an exceedingly handsome profit on his labor and investment, which, by the way, are greater than might at first appear, as he never mar-kets his wine till four years old. Of course, it takes knowledge and pa-tience to accomplish such results, but that they have been accomplished es-tablishes the capacity of the soil and climate. What is being done in a smaller way all over this section, Mr. H. L. A\^ood-ruff, a wealthy flouring-mill man of Columbus, is attempting on a broad scale on his farm of 607 acres fourteen miles south of the city. He has set out 11,000 peach trees, 1000 KeifTer pear trees, 1450 apple trees, 2500 paper-shell pecan trees, 650 wild-goose plum trees, 150 Botan plums, which he pro-poses to increase to 11,000, besides a number of English walnuts and mul-berry trees. He has 1000 scupper-nong grape vines and 45,000 straw-berry plants, which he expects to double in number by spring. This ex-tensive place he has been carefully cul-tivating for a number of years purely as a commercial venture, and results so far justify him in expecting profits of 25 to 30 per cent, on the investment. Throughout its length the country traversed by the Columbus Southern is a fine agricultural and fruit section, and its speedy development may now be confidently expected. Outside of Richland, the important towns on the line are Dawson, a thriving town of 2500 people, where a connection is made with the Central of Georgia Railroad, and Albany, the terminus, which is one of the best cities of South-west Georgia. Here connections are made with the Plant system of roads, the Central and with the boat lines which ply the Flint river. Albany has 7000 population, fine schools, broad, well laid-out streets, numerous fac- 462 GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. Columbus, Ga.: City Mills and Water-I'ower. tories and the largest wholesale gro-cery house in Southwest Georgia. The country around Albany presents a va-riety of attractions to the agriculturist, the fruit-grower and the truck-raiser, and it has received a good share of the immigration secured by Southwest Georgia. Its location, its excellent railway facilities, its river transporta-tion, its healthfulness, its fine artesian water—these added to the advantages of climate and soil give to Albany and its tributary country the promise of a development of large importance. Coming back to the main line, shortly after leaving Richland, going east, Webster county is entered, which, according to its size, is one of the best cotton and corn counties in the State. Here the lands break off into gray pine and oak. This county likewise offers excellent inducements for stock-raising, which is successfully pur-sued by many of the best farm-ers in the county. A number of large streams flow through the countv, completing the conditions favorable to stock-raising. Preston, the county-seat of Webster, is a thriv-ing town, enjoying a good trade and building up with the growth of its tributary country. No other town is reached until after passing into Sumter county, the ban-ner county of Southwest Georgia. It has a greater variety of soils than any other county through which the Geor-gia & Alabama road runs, and is con-sequently adapted to a wider range of products, and it has moreover utilized and developed its resources to a greater extent than has almost any other county in the State. It stands easily first in number of bales of cot-ton produced, in bushels of corn raised and in other grains grown, as evidenced by the census report of 1890 on counties in Georgia through which the Georgia & Alabama road runs : •- cjan oJOO OJSo OJtHa ^ g- -Sg^ %-o^ ^^1 a %B MS2 |"2 5?E Stewart 440 15,682 19,351 34.3,243 65,478 Webster 230 5,695 6,895 158,212 18,340 Sumter 520 22,107 22,448 421,238 78,330 Dooly 780 18,146 15,780 363,880 38,543 Wilcox 500 7,980 2,595 100,758 17,046 Dodge 581 11,452 4,952 128,378 11,365 Telfair 420 5,477 2,007 41,787 65,036 Montgomery .. 720 9.248 2,215 168,865 23,428 Tattnall 1,100 10,253 2,957 157,587 10,562 Bryan 400 55,520 684 58,120 12,638 Cliatham 400 57,740 9 37,675 2,733 The fruit lands of Sumter are iden-tical in character with those which have made the Fort Valley district fa-mous, and its list of profitable crops includes about everything in the way of grain, fruit and grasses grown in the temperate zone. All kinds of stock can be raised with advantage, and it is furthermore a comfortable and healthy place to live, the range of tempera-ture being about 70° on an average, providing against extremes both in winter and summer. It has also some good timber, the southeast corner es-pecially containing a large tract of long-leaf yellow pine, while along the Flint and other rivers are quantities of hai'd wood, oak, poplar, ash, gum, etc. An enumeration of the various products of Sumter county resembles somewhat a pag-e from the Agricul-tural Department's report for the whole country. While changing conditions in the GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. 463 South show every year an increasing departure from the pernicious "one-crop" practice formerly so generally in vogue, cotton is still the king of money crops, as it must ever continue to be, for this is the one product which commands money anywhere and at all times. Constant agitation of the sub-ject, and disaster attending some years of abnormally low prices, have quite generally induced planters through- Farm Home in the Pine r.ell. out the South to engage in more di-versified farming, so that food sup-plies are more nearly produced at home than formerly, but large cotton crops are likely to continue to be raised in sections adapted to this staple. According to the census figures of 1890 there were 22,448 bales of cotton raised in Sumter county, an average of more than a bale to each inhabitant of the county, and the ratio is about the same each year. The corn crop of Sumter county is about 500,000 bushels a year, and comes next in importance to the cot-ton crop. The yield per acre is from twenty to forty bushels, and it is, as a rule, a certain and profitable crop. Wheat is raised to some extent, and where given proper care and attention may be expected to yield from twenty to thirty bushels to the acre, but it is unlikely that it will be raised largely on a commercial basis, such as is grown being generally for home con-sumption. Certain varieties of oats give an abundant and reliable yield, ranging from twenty-five to as high as seventy-five bushels to the acre, and maturing-early enough for a second crop on the same land. The usual Southern forage crops of field peas, Bermuda and other grasses give abundantly satisfactory results, as do red and white clover, German millet, etc. Some experiments in al-falfa have shown quite marvelous re-sults. On a 50-acre patch near Amer-icus seven tons to the acre were raised during the past year, and on a portion of it seventeen cuttings were made which yielded fourteen tons to the acre. As the crop sells for $17 a ton, and costs only about $4 to raise, there ^vas an exceedingly handsome profit in the undertaking. The land on which it was raised, by the way, re-cently sold for $8 an acre, and prob-ably couldn't command more than double that price today, simply be-cause of the large area of uncultivated land. Melons, truck and fruit must con-tinue to receive increased attention,, particularly at the hands of new-comers to this section. The Georgia watermelon has long' l:)een a well-known visitor to the Northern markets, and Sumter county's quota is already very large. With soil and climate perfectl}^ adapted to their growth, and because of the small expense raising them en-tails, there is a further large field for developing- this industry. Two crops of sweet potatoes can be raised each season at small expense and with little care, and conditions are entirely favorable to the equally suc-cessful cultivation of the Irish potato. An industry which, while not repre-senting a ver}^ large volume of busi-ness, still shows such profits as seem to promise extensive development, is the growing of sugar-cane, of which some farmers in Sumter county have raised as much as $300 worth of cane and syrup to the acre. On the bills of fare of many Southern hotels will be found Georgia cane syrup, and the in-quirer will be informed that by many people it is regarded as superior to maple syrup. Another use of the cane, AMERICUS, GA.: REPRESENTATIVE HOMES. 2. Mr. W. C. Carter. 1. Mr. Luther Bell. 4. Mr. W. B. Harrold. 3. Mr. G. W. Glover. GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. 465 which presents a novel sight to the Northern visitor, is made by children chiefly, and consists of peeling the stalk and chewing the pith. For this purpose all the grocery stores in this region will be found to keep a supply of stalks throughout the season. There are no extensive sugar-cane plantations, like those of the Missis-sippi river bottoms, and none of the syrup is made into sugar, but where a yield of $300 can be obtained off $15 an acre land it would seem that its more extensive cultivation is merely a matter of time. In fruits, and especially peaches, pears and grapes, the soil and climate, as well as the results of efforts hereto-fore made, justify the expectation that fruit-growing on an extensive scale for the Northern markets will increase in magnitude and importance. The raising of horses and mules is engaged in to some extent, and condi-tions and results are such as to en-courage more extensive undertakings in this line. Dairy cattle thrive as well as any-where, and in time will doubtless con-tribute an important addition to the products of the county. The range of prices of Sumter county farms is from $2 to $25, but the average prices for such places as would suit the immigrant and home-seeker are from $7 to $15. The character of the soils along the line of the Georgia & xA-labama road in Sumter county are red chocolate lands, red clay lands, oak and hickory gray lands, pine gray lands and red lime lands, all good and adapted to peaches, pears, grapes, grain, cotton and grasses. The first town reached after leaving Webster county is Plains, so named from being situated in a perfectly level tract extending six or seven miles in every direction. Here are again found the strong red chocolate lands, adapted to all farm products and of the same character as the lands around Richland. Cotton is an im-portant item of farm products here, there being some 6000 bales of cotton marketed at Plains annually. Two miles north of here is situated Magnolia Springs, a famous and still popular health resort, which in ante-bellum days was an attracting point for the wealth and fashion of a large portion of the South. It is still much frequented on account of the virtues of its waters, and a movement is on foot to put in adequate accommoda-tions for summer visitors. The next town on the line is Ameri-cus, the county-seat of Sumter county, the headquarters of the Georgia & Al-abama Railway and the most thriving city of Central Georgia south of Ma-con. Though laid out in 1832, the principal growth of Americus dates back but a few years, 4000 of its 8000 inhabitants having been gained within the past ten years. It is today a busy and ambitious trading centre, and is developing along lines which promise continued growth. There are market-ed in Americus from 30,000 to 35,000 bales of cotton annually, and including those handled by the compresses the total foots up some 60,000 bales an-nually. There are three wholesale grocery houses, doing a combined business of about $1,500,000 a year, and covering a territory extending from Americiis in various directions thirty to 100 miles. Other mercantile establishments include a large whole-sale and retail hardware house and numerous well-equipped retail stores. Industrial enterprises are repre-sented by a cottonseed-oil mill, ferti-lizer works, foundry and machine shops, variety works and planing mill, two cotton compresses, ice plant, marble-yard and minor industries. There is no cotton mill there at pres-ent, but the abundance of long and short-staple cotton raised in this vicin-ity suggests the inevitable develop-ment of this industry ultimately. The particularly strong points in favor of Americus are its transporta-tion facilities, its healthfulness, its pleasing physical features and the abundant resources of the countr\- tributary to it. AMERICUS, GA.: 1. Jail. 2. Typical Old-Time Home, now used a& 3. Courthouse. Sanitarium. 4. City Hall and Water Tower. GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. 467 Americus is the junction point of the Georgia & Alabama and the Cen-tral of Georgia Railroad systems. It was the enterprise of Americus citi-zens that inaugurated the undertak-ing which has since become the Georgia & Alabama road, and though in the receivership and reorganization which followed a great many of the projectors and promoters lost a good deal of money, it is unquestionably to the building of that road that Ameri-cus owes the impetus which has doubled her population. Besides giv-ing the important connections at Montgomery and the ocean outlet at Savannah, the Georgia & Alabama insures competitive freight rates to and from all points. The Central has two branches at Americus, one line running between Americus and Columbus and the other from Albany to Atlanta via Macon. So Americus is in touch with every railway system in the State. The conspicuous healthfulness of Americus, as evidenced by mortuary statistics, is due hardly less to natural causes than to the measures adopted by her people to give the city the best sanitation possible. A complete sew-erage system was established a num-ber of years ago, and the city is fur-nished with artesian water of absolute purity. It was of incalculable benefit to the South that the feasibility of ar-tesian wells here was demonstrated. Col. John P. Fort, of Albany, is cred-ited with having been the first to dis-cover that this section may find the purest of water by boring down from 600 to 1000 feet, and this discovery has been utilized to the greatest advantage all over South Georgia. The water supply of Americus, which is distrib-uted from an immense stand-pipe in the centre of the city, has resulted in practically eliminating the fevers which formerly prevailed at certain seasons of the year when water was taken from shallow wells. A tribute to the healthfulness of Americus and the salubrity of its cli-mate is furnished by the location here of a perfectly-appointed sanitarium, which especially aims to provide an attractive retreat for patients who de-sire to escape the discomforts of a more rigorous climate. The winter temperature here is much higher than at Atlanta, for instance, being about similar to that which has made of Thomasville a popular winter resort. Americus was selected by the founder because of its natural healthful-ness, excellent sanitary condition, its pure artesian water and con-venience of location at the junction of two important railroad systems, which afTord direct communication with every section of the country. The country about Americus is ele-vated and rolling, and the city itself is built upon a series of undulations or hills. The general elevation is 450 feet above sea level, but there are dif-ferences of 100 feet in elevations within the city limits. A striking feature of Americus is the number of handsome homes and the beauty of the tree-lined residence streets. These evidences of taste and refinement almost never seen outside of old-established communities at once commend Americus to the favorable consideration of the visitor and the homeseeker. When there shall have been a more general adoption of street paving and sidewalk improvements the conditions will be complete for making Americus one of the most at-tractive cities of South Georgia. In its public buildings, too, Ameri-cus furnishes a conspicuous example of the improved conditions which have come to the South within the past few years. Surrounding a park square are a number of buildings which would do credit to a place much greater in size than Americus. The imposing Wind-sor hotel, in a striking variety of Romanesque architecture, marble-tiled and lavishly finished throughout in hard wood, occupies a full half block. This fine hotel, one of the hand-somest, architecturally, in the South, was designed by an Atlanta archi-tect, Mr. G. L. Norrman. Across the square, in a row, are the 200-foot water tower, the city hall, the most pictur- 468 GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY esque and inviting jail an "outsider" ever viewed and the substantial county courthouse, completed not long since at a cost of $40,000. Social conditions are all that misfht m 111 ii'^! Ill 'IB '-Hi ^1 ' C r Aiuericus. Ga.: PostnfDcc in Jolinson iSc Ilarrold Building. be expected of a Southern city of sixty years' standing, and furnish a charming addition to the attractions the homeseeker would here find. The denominations are well represented in the numerous churches established here, and the free public school system IS entirely adequate and liberally main-tained. Americus has two daily newspapers, morning and evening, creditable to a town of its size and which are alive to the importance of securing immigra-tion. Indeed, it may be said that the spirit of the entire community is dis-tinctly favorable to the work of inter-esting Northern people in the city and its vicinity, and numerous efforts along this line in the past have been warmly seconded by the press and the people. Naturally the Georgia & Alabama Railway takes an interest in the prog-ress of Americus. Here are its general offices, and there is now nearing com-pletion here a new and handsome pas-senger station, such as cannot be found at many places three or four times larger than Americus. Adjoining Sumter is Dooley, one of the most remarkable counties in the State and a conspicuous illustration of the notable development following the construction of the Georgia & Ala-bama Railway. Ten years ago there was not a village in the county with over fifty people in it; today it contains fifteen thriving towns, with popula-tions running from 100 to 3500; has at least 25,000 inhabitants in it; has a taxable valuation of over $3,100,000, with a continued, unbroken increase, even 1896 showing an increase over the previous year of $182,000. The primary basis for this exceptional de-velopment is found in the enormous timber resources of this section. Be-ginning at the Flint river, on the west-ern limits of Dooley county, and con-tinuing in an unbroken stretch to Mel-drim, 148 miles eastward, and extend-ing from an average of twenty miles north of the Georgia & Alabama road to the Gulf coast on the south, there was a long-leaf vellow-pine forest, which, up to a few years ago, had never been cut into. Although much has been done toward developing the great wealth of resources this area contains, it has as yet been hardly more than touched, and is today the Americus, Ga.: Johnson & Harrold Ware-honse and Yard for Cotton Storage. largest body of standing long-leaf yel-low pine in the world. The lands of this forest, in their adaptability to agricultural purposes, i GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. 469 are a surprise to everyone. They were generally supposed to be absolutely worthless, and have until within recent years sold at fifty cents an acre. It has now been demonstrated that ev-erything that grows in the South will grow to perfection on these lands, and where the saw timber has been cut off and the lands put in cultivation there are today some of the finest farms in the South. These lands are largely settled by native Georgians, who have here grown independent. And yet the whole section was, until the construc-tion of this road, an unbroken, unset-tled pine forest. Outside of their fitness for general agriculture, these lands appear to be peculiarly adapted to fruit-raising, as is shown by the extensive and emi-nently successful orchards at Tifton, which place, while not on this road, has identically the same character of lands. At Tifton they got at it first. but the same results are expected to follow efforts made elsewhere in the district. Immediately along the rail-road the timber, being accessible, was cut first, and in its place are now farms and peach orchards. Along the line many thriving towns have sprung up, there being between Coney and Mel-drim thirty-five towns, all new. This entire region seems destined to become one vast orchard, the cheap-ness of the lands and the ease and small expense at which an orchard can be put out being altogether in favor of this section. With the exception of lands near the stations, these lands can be bought for $3 an acre after the millmen have cut over them. There remains standing there timber it doesn't pay them to cut sufficient to do all fencing and, in some instances, to furnish all buildings. A man with $500 can go into the country anywhere east of Cordele, get 100 acres of land, fit it for tenancy, and start to farming, and have on hand a debt of not over $200. And he can arrange the pay-ments on his lands just about to suit his convenience. Immediately following the construc-tion of the Georgia & Alabama and other roads through this section the lumber and naval stores industries be-gan to be extensively developed, and now form a very large portion of the business of the roads. On the line of the Georgia & Alabama road alone there are 100 saw mills, big and little, many of which are among the largest in the world, ecjuipped with the best machinery, having electric plants, their own railroads and every facility for the economical manufacture of lum-ber in its various shapes. These mills have a capacity of about 1,500,000 feet of sawn timber daily, the product of which is shipped to all parts of the globe. The tariffs the Georgia & Al-abama road furnishes for transporting the output of these mills cover 6000 points in the West and 8000 in the Middle and Eastern States, and all of these 14,000 points are used; that is, lumber is shipped to everyone of them from one or another of the mills in this list. There are eighty-one naval store plants along this road, producing an-nually 600,000 barrels of rosin, 200.- 000 barrels of spirits of turpentine and large quantities of tar and kindlings in addition. The naval stores are almost exclu-sively marketed at Savannah, which has for some years been the leading naval stores market of the world, and its influence in developing the re-sources of this section, so thoroughly covered by the Georgia & Alabama road and its connections, is a power-ful factor in the situation. What has been accomplished in the long-leaf pine section of South Georgia, largely through the influence of the Georgia & Alabama Railway. is one of the most interesting and im-portant features of Southern develop-ment of the past few years. Not only have numerous vast and valuable en-terprises been inaugurated, but town-building has followed on an extensive scale, and in no other section have there been more successful efforts made at colonization and immigration movements. The settlement of the Old Soldiers' colony at Fitzgerald is the 470 GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. most conspicuous example in this line, but all along the Georgia & Alabama road new towns have sprung up and old ones received a revivifying im-pulse. A good illustration of this is fur-nished in the case of Cordele, in Dooley county. Though not the county-seat, it is the most important point in the county, and is the largest town on the main line of the Georgia & Alabama between Americus and Savannah. Yet eight years ago its site was an old field, which contained onlv a single house. Todav it has tel, the Suwanee House, would, with its private baths and other comforts, be a credit to a much larger town, and its advantages in every way, commer-cially, industrially, socially and edu-cationally, are superior to those of most cities of 10,000 inhabitants. This is so conspicuously true as to excite the comment of even the casual ob-server. "Cordele is a typical illustra-tion of the industrial conditions in what is called the new South," said one visitor recently. And all this has been accomplished without any land boom. It is simply Amei'icus, Ga. : Windsor Hotel. three independent lines of railroad, has sanitary sewerage, waterworks, electric lights, an independent telephone sys-tem, with connections taking in all the towns for twenty miles around and fur-nishing service at cost; it has a cotton mill with 3600 spindles, foundry and machine shops, cooperage works, fer-tilizer works, variety works, bottling works, ice factory, planing mills and other smaller industries ; it has a large and growing jobbing trade in the gro-cery line ; has ample banking facilities, and is in every respect equipped as an important trade centre. Its chief ho-the legitimate resvdts of an energetic development of resources on business lines alone. Today there is not even a real estate agent in Cordele, and while real estate values have steadily increased, so that no one who has bought property there is unable to sell it at a profit, such sales as are made are not for speculative purposes, and prices have consequently remained on a conservative basis. Cordele's present railroads are the Georgia & Alabama, the Georgia Southern & Florida and the Albany & Northern. The Wavcross Air Line GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. 471 is now building to Cordele, and there are other possibihties. A Hnk of thirty-five miles between Cordele and Hawkinsville would give Augusta an outlet into Southwest Georgia, and an extension of forty-two miles would bring the Atlanta & Florida from Fort Valley and thus give that road the ben-efit of the connecting lines now enter-ing at Cordele. The timber and naval stores inter-ests of Dooley county bring a cash trade to Cordele the year round, which is largely responsible for her continued prosperity. The fourteen important mills in the county have a capacity of some 350,000 feet of sawn timber per day, and it is all "bill stuff" for cars, bridges, buildings, etc. They don't cut "stock stuff," as a rule. In addition to these interests, Cor-dele is surrounded by a rich agricul-tural section, producing abundantly corn, long and short-staple cotton, sugar-cane, peas, rye, oats, wheat and hay. According to the last census re-turns, Dooley county was in corn pro-duction second to Sumter only of all the counties in Georgia through which the Georgia & Alabama road runs, her product being 363,880 bushels, and she was third as to cotton, with 15,780 bales. The soil is also excellent for fruits of all kinds, and especially for watermelons and grapes. It is inter-esting to note that good lands, acces-sible to railroads, can be bought for from $3 to $15 an acre. People who are looking at Southern places from the standpoint of their de-sirability for a residence will care to know that Cordele lays claim to excep-tional healthfulness on account of its excellent water works and sewerage system and favorable climate condi-tions. It is stated that in summer the thermometer seldom shows above 90° heat, and that for a winter resort it possesses all the virtues accredited to the favorite spots in the Georgia pine belt. Being situated in what is called the "rain zone," this section is not af-flicted with the long droughts which are common to many places during the summer months. Outside of the $65,000 hotel, the $22,- 000 opera-house, numerous churches and excellent schools, there is a moral atmosphere about Cordele which will as strongly commend itself to many homeseekers as will any of these in-ducements. There has never been any whiskey sold in Cordele, and the peo-ple do not desire that it ever shall be sold in the town. The enterprising character of the people of Cordele is evidenced by three achievements of the past year. First, it has within the year secured competitive freight rates, and enjoys the advantage of being what is termed by the railroads a "basing point" for freight rates, which means that it has the same rates as Americus, Albany and other competitive points. As a result of this achievement Cordele al-ready has four wholesale houses, and others are coming. The second stride forward this year is one that saves thousands of dollars annually to merchants and property-owners. It is a reduction in fire insur-ance rates, Cordele now being placed on the second-class basis for insur-ance rates, jumping at one bound from fourth to second place. This classifi-cation speaks for itself, and proclaims the excellence of the city's water works and fire protection. The third progressive step for the year has been the establishment of a first-class system of free pub-lic schools, which are now in success-ful operation. All these improvements have been made without any increase in the tax rate of the city, which is only I per cent., a rather uncommonly low rate for new cities anywhere. Cordele is a bright, clean town, and its people are enterprising and indus-trious. With its railroad facilities, its timber and agricultural resources, and its general attractiveness, it seems al-together reasonable to expect a fulfill-ment of its people's prophesy, that it will control the trade between the FHnt and Ocmulgee rivers and will 472 GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. double its population within the next five years. After leaving Cordele the next point of more than passing interest is Abbe-ville, practically at the head of naviga-tion of the Ocmulgee river and the junction point of the Abbeville & Waycross division of the Georgia & Alabama Railroad. Although Hawkinsville is the ac-tual head of navigation, at some sea-sons boats run no farther up than Abbeville. This place of some 1500 population is receiving the benefit of immigration, as are other portions of Wilcox county, to which is being at-tracted a thrifty class of settlers from the West. At the corn and cotton ex-position at Fitzgerald in September the exhibit of Wilcox county products was one of the most interesting and in-structive of anything there seen. To illustrate the adaptability of lands Cordele, Ga. : Suwanee Hotel. liereabout to any crops it may be men-tioned that there is within five miles of Abbeville a farmer who is growing rich, devoting himself to the exclusive raising of hay. He puts in from 300 to 500 acres annually, uses the latest im-proved first-class machinery and sells all he can raise right at home to local trade at about $15 a ton. He cultivates a mixture of native grass and German millet, which is preferred to timothy. The fruit industry is already being developed in this section. Three miles from Abbeville is an orchard from which the owner last season netted $350 on 100 crates of peaches, a con-clusive evidence of the excellence of his fruit, the usual price per crate of average Georgia peaches being only about $1.50. The hard-wood timber interests of this section are very large. There is standing within a distance of twenty-five miles north and south of Abbe-ville, in the swamps of the Ocmulgee river, cypress, ash, hickory, white oak, elm, sycamore, sweet gum, etc., worth fully $3,000,000. The oak and cypress have been cut for years, but the supply is still practically undiminished. At Abbeville there are two big mills engaged exclusively in the manufac-ture of shingles and porch columns, which are shipped to all parts of the country. There is here a first-class brick-yard, with a capacity of 40,000 brick a day, which are pronounced as good as any made in the country—so good, in-deed, that they have been in demand at long distances from home, they having been used even at Jackson-ville in the new government building there. There will hardly be further oc-casion to ship them away, however, as it is expected that Fitzgerald alone will consume the output for some time to come. Extending from Abbeville to Fitz-gerald, a distance of twenty-two miles, is the Abbeville & Waycross division of the Georgia & Alabama Railroad. This road, prior to its purchase by the Georgia & Alabama, was nothing but a poorly-constructed, indifferently-managed country railroad. The loca-tion at Swan of the colony city of Fitzgerald made it necessary for this road to be put in good shape and ex-tended some seven miles to that point. The Georgia & Alabama bought the road January 28 last, and on Febru-ary 14 ran freight trains into Fitzger-ald, and in ninety days from that date had delivered 700 carloads of immi-grants' movables, stock, provisions and other freight. A large force was then put to work rebuilding the road. Cuts were set back, fills widened out. right of Avay cleared back, trestles re-built and a telegraph line erected, and today this division is in as good shape as any road in the State. In Fitzgerald the handsomest passenger station in the State was erected, the design of GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAIUVAY AND ITS TERRITORY. 473 native pine logs, hewn and polished, being strikingly unique. A freight station and platform, capable of hold-ing I GO carloads of freight, was erected, and a freight-yard laid off that will hold 200 carloads of freight. A double daily service is operated on this branch, making the service as most casual reference to the work of Southern development, for nowhere in recent history of migration has a more interesting event occurred than the coming of the veterans of the North-ern armies to this section of the far South. Indian reservations suddenly thrown open to white settlement have FITZGERALD, GA.; 1. Block of Brick Stores. 2. G. & A. Ry. Freight Depot. 3. G. & A. Ry. Passenger Station. good as that on the main line. Being the shortest and most direct line from all Southern and Western points, it is a favorite route for colonists and their freight destined to Fitzgerald. About Fitzgerald itself more than a passing word is deserved in even a shown some unique examples of or-ganized, hereditary land-hunger, but there has been no parallel to this invasion of South Georgia by the members of the old soldiers' colony. When the government offers a body of land to homeseekers nowadavs the 474 GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. event becomes dramatic, because of the ensuing scramble to get the pick of the lands at the price which Uncle Sam, singularly enough, puts upon all his acres, good, bad and indifferent. But here is a case where some 10,000 settlers simply moved in, quietly, un-ostentatiously, without excitement and with no stronger inducement than the advantages of contiguous lands at a cheap price and in a locality possessing promising agricultural possibilities and with mild and healthful climate. They came by wagon and by train from all over the Middle West and Northwest, and within a year have built a flourishing city in the midst of what was till then an unbroken pine forest. It is not to be imagined that the col-ony is composed of war-worn and decrepit old soldiers. It is, on the contrary, a community of active, alert, industrious, energetic citizens from all parts of the country. There is the element of romance in the settlement of this colony. Its lo-cation here is directly attributable to a suggestion of Mr. Richard H. Ed-monds, editor of the Manufacturers" Record. In the fall of 1894 a failure of crops had brought want and suffer-ing to many farmers of Nebraska and other portions of the Northwest. The South had that year been blessed with an abundant harvest of grain, and to Mr. Edmonds occurred the idea of sending to that drought-stricken sec-tion a portion of the bounty which the South so universally enjoyed. The idea was embodied in an interview, which was sent out broadcast by the Associated Press. Following this, Mr. Edmonds appealed to the presidents of Southern railroads, the governors of the Southern States and others in authority. The suggestion was re-ceived as an inspiration, and the ap-peal was immediately and heartily re-sponded to. Governors of Southern States telegraphed their hearty in-dorsement of the proposition, and rail-way presidents volunteered their ser-vices in collecting and distributing the contributions. The result was that trainloads of supplies were collected and transported to the needy North-west, and the eyes of the whole coun-try were opened to the agricultural possibilities of the South. Mr. P. H. Fitzgerald, of Indianapolis, had or-ganized a plan to found a colony of veterans of the Union army, and on seeing this exhibit of Southern re-sources a locating committee was sent South. After much investigation, it was finally, in the fall of 1895, deter-mined to make a selection of some hundred thousand acres located in the pine forests of Wilcox and Irwin counties, Georgia, and to this wilder-ness the settlers soon began to wend their way. The plan of the enterprise provided for an allotment to share-holders in the company of town lots and farms of five, ten, twenty and forty acres, and none but stockholders were eligible as original settlers. At the time of selection the company num-bered about 50,000 members, scattered all over the North and West, the scheme of the organization providing for benefits, somewhat on the building and loan association plan, not only to intending colonists, but to all share-holders as well. Within the first three months after the site had been selected 1500 people had arrived at the place which became known as Fitzgerald. It was a typical pioneer town, and for some time the inhabitants endured all the hardships and discomforts which attend conditions of primitive civiliza-tion. There was no railroad running into the town until several months after the location had been made, and tents and "shacks" furnished all the hospitality enjoyed by visitors and settlers alike. Out of the chaos, how-ever, order was speedily resolved. With the energy of a veritable "boom" town or prosperous mining camp con-ditions were evolved which trans-formed the "Shacktown," as it was called, into a habitable city of about 5000 souls. The Georgia & Alabama road came in from the north and the Tifton & Northeastern from the south, and enterprise was the watch-word of the hour. Todav, after an ex- GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. 475 istence of practically only a year, there is in the city and on the adjacent lands of the colony a population of some 10,000 people, and accessions are be-ing made continuously. The city has a number of brick business houses, ev-ery branch of mercantile enterprise is represented, and a considerable start has been made in the establishment of manufactures. There are thirteen saw mills on the colony grounds cut-ting timber both for home consump-tion and for the market. There are four planing mills and two mills which manufacture doors, sash, blinds and general mill work; there are cornice works which compete with the largest firms in their line in the South; there are two ice plants, a cotton gin, two bottling works and a bed-spring fac-tory; a cotton mill to employ 11 00 hands is under negotiation, and a can-ning factory is to be established in the spring. The colony company has spent some $30,000 for street improve-ments, grading, etc., has built and equipped two schoolhouses at a cost of $6000, and is now finishing a four-story hotel, with 128 feet frontage, which will cost when complete aboul $35,000. It will be provided with every comfort known to modern hotel ex-istence, and will cater to the tourist business, which annually invades the South. Until the present Georgia leg-islature convened the city was without a charter, but with incorporation a number of public improvements—^ar-tesian water, sewers, street paving, etc.—are expected to be introduced without delay. The spirit of the people of Fitzger-ald v/as manifested in a striking man-ner by the inauguration of a corn and cotton exposition during last Septem-ber. Almost literally an entirely ex-temporaneous afifair, being thrown open to the public within ninety days from the time it was first thought of, it was a remarkable showing for a town of barely nine months' existence, and it is doubtful if, under like cir-cumstances, any such an exposition was ever before seen. The adapta-bility of the pine forest soil to any kind of crop was demonstrated in a striking manner by the displays made at this exposition, for it would be impossible to find finer cotton, corn, oats, grasses, cane, fruit and vegetables than were collected hert irom farms in this im-mediate vicinity. Ahhuugli the soil is light and sandy, it responds readily to proper treatment. In this district, an area extending, by the way, from Se-ville down to the coast, long-staple cotton is produced, and already 50,000 bales are annually shipped over the Georgia & Alabama Railway to Sa-vannah, where it brings from fourteen to sixteen cents per pound. Truck farming, grain-growing and fruit-raising will all be profitably en-gaged in, and various lines of manu-facturing will be established. There are, as may be expected in this as in all communities, some dissatisfied per-sons. These come and go, and, going, their places are taken by those who, not looking backward, put their shoul-ders to the wheel and cast their for-tunes with their fellow-workers. The colony is growing continually, and the people are well pleased to have es-caped the rigors of a Northern climate, where nine months' work was required to provide the mere necessities of food, clothing and shelter. Thousands of new acquisitions are expected in the city and on the colony farming lands yet unallotted, and the colony com-pany feels certain that before the close of 1897 there will be such an increase in population and such a substantial development of the interests and re-sources of the community that its es-tablishment on a permanent basis of prosperity will be universally con-ceded. This colony enterprise is an exceed-ingly interesting experiment, and its progress will be watched all over the Union. While it has been the subject of considerable adverse criticism, and some writers have publicly predicted its ultimate failure, there is no doubt whatever in the minds of its friends and of entirely impartial investigators that conditions make possible the most abundant success. While early in the 476 GEORGIA & ALABAMA RAILWAY AND ITS TERRITORY. spring there was a good deal of sick-ness in the colony, a general clearing up, and the adoption of sanitary re-forms, were followed by a degree of health not far behind that of the most favored communities. An artesian well has solved the problem of pure water supply, and soon the city will have a system of water works which will give her permanent immunity from liability to such mild types of sickness as have existed there. From the records of the health offi-cer and the keeper of mortuary rec-ords, the officials of the Georgia & Alabama Railway have compiled the following statement of deaths and causes of death at Fitzgerald during the twelve months ending August 15, 1896, this being the first year of the city's existence: The total number of deaths was 107; the number under ten years of age was thirty-nine, and over tifty years of age, fifteen. The num-ber dying from accidents or from old and incurable diseases was twenty-six ; from cholera infantum and child-birth, twelve; from dysentery and malarial causes, twenty, and from other diseases, forty-nine. Along the eastern section of the line an important element of strength of the Georgia & Alabama road is the volume of business secured from trib-utary lines, short roads and tramways, which furnish contributions of lumber, naval stores and farm products seek-ing shipment through Savannah. The change from the conditions which ex-isted in this section a few years ago is really remarkable. There are some thirty towns between Abbeville and Savannah, and all of them are pro-ducers of business, so much so that most any day a freight train which leaves Abbeville with ten cars will have grown to sixty by the time it gets to Savannah. At Pitts, a road comes in from Haw-kinsville, bringing valuable consign-ments of lumber and naval stores. At Collins there is the Stillmore Air Line, reaching the prosperous towns of Still-more and Swainsboro, and bringing to the Georgia & Alabama the prod-ucts of one of the best sections of Georgia, a territory which annually produces from 10,000 to 20,000 bales of Sea-Island long-staple cotton. Here also the Collins & Reidsville road makes a contribution of valuable freight destined for the port of Savan-nah. At Cuyler, the Cuyler & Woodburn road contributes not only naval stores and lumber, but also hundreds of car-loads of watermelons and vegetables consigned to Eastern markets. On this line, though only twelve miles long, there are raised annually 200 car-loads of watermelons and large quan-tities of Irish potatoes, beans and other early vegetables. A valuable connection is also made at Helena, where the road crosses the line of the Southern Railway, afford-ing communication with Macon, At-lanta and the Northwest, and on the South with the seaport of Brunswick, the South Atlantic coast and Florida points. Reference has been made to the splendid terminal facilities enjoyed bv the Georgia & Alabama at Savannah and its connections with North and South trunk railroads, the ocean steamship lines to Baltimore, Philadel-phia, New York and Boston, and the recently-established direct lines to Europe. Savannah, the most import-ant South Atlantic seaport, the fore-most market in the world for naval stores, the third largest cotton port and one of the most interesting cities of the South to visitors, has secured an ally in the Georgia & Alabama which will be of immense and increasing value. This splendidh'^-managed road, with its alert officers and pronounced geographical advantages, will draw new trade from the Northwest, will de-velop the country through which it runs and will be found a most import-ant factor in swelling the export trade and the commercial importance of the city of Savannah. THE REMAKING OF THE SOUTH.* By Henry M. HoUaday. (Continued from Last Number.) In reviewing the progress of the South for the past thirty years two important difhculties which she has had to overcome and with which the North and West did not have to con-tend should be borne in mind. For fifty years abundant capital has poured into the West, and with it or preced-ing it, what is of far more importance, millions of men—men of bone and brawn, of energy, of skill, of education and of genius. Into the West has gone in large measure the very flower of the manhood of New England and the North. The South has made the fight for life and prosperity with little outside help. Capital long turned from her. Immigrants passed her by. It is still a subject of remark when a man born in the new West rises to dis-tinction. It is equally rare to hear of one in the South who is not a son of the soil. Another fact is worthy of note in considering Southern progress. The textile industries of New England and the iron industries of Pennsylvania re-quired the fostering care of a high tariff to protect them from European competition. The South has had to meet the competition of New England and Pennsylvania in an open market. In capital, in skilled labor and in ex-perience in manufacturing and trad-ing the disparity was not less between the South and the North than between the latter and Europe. The South has enjoyed no such immunity as that which has placed New England and Pennsylvania among the richest and most populous communities of mod-ern times. But it is no longer denied that the North cannot maintain a mo- *Copyrighted, 1896, by Henry M. Holladay. nopoly of the iron and textile indus-tries in America. It is even doubtful whether their supremacy must not pass from them. This is true not be-cause these industries of New Eng-land and Pennsylvania are likely to decrease or even cease to grow; but because the natural and healthy de-velopment of the South must, at a day wdiich is not far distant, put her upon an equality with New England and Pennsylvania in manufactures of cot-ton and iron. This is not a political essay, and we have nothing whatever to do with the bearing of the development of the Southern cotton-textile and iron in-dustries upon the question of a tariff. To the free-trader the facts which are now universally admitted may seem convincing evidence of the truth of his belief. The protectionist may find in them proof that nature, in a fit of unwonted generosity, has lavished bounties upon the South in sun and air and soil and mineral wealth which energy and enterprise are fast con-verting into a Chinese wall of protec-tion. Whatever theory may best serve the whim of the doctrinaire, the schemes of the politician or the pur-pose of the practical man of business, the one fact which concerns us here cannot be denied. This broken, con-quered, war-swept, poverty-stricken land—this home of "ignorant, brutal and degraded negroes and slothful, efTete and degenerate white men" — has for the past thirty years produced cotton in abounding quantity, sufifi-cient to clothe more than half the world and to sustain far from the land where the staple is grown one of the largest manufacturing industries upon 478 THE REMAKING OF THE SOUTH which modern civilization is depend-ent. More than this, it has won from the heart and the hps of the most pro-gressive, the most energetic, the most inventive, and, in an industrial sense, the most aggressive community of the nineteenth century a recognition and acknowledgment of the South's ca-pacity to meet any and all competitors in the production of pig iron and the coarser grades of cotton textiles. The facts which have been briefly and imperfectly set forth in the pre-ceding pages give cause for pride and hope to all patriotic Americans. They show that the growth of the South has been steady and healthy. They afford evidence of a kindly sun and a generous soil, of balmy air and plen-teous showers, of vast mineral wealth and of inestimable natural advantages for agricultural and manufacturing industries. They clearly indicate that the South has now reached a stage of development when her people may avail themselves of these advantages and draw freely upon the treasures which nature has provided. But bet-ter than this, what has been accom-plished shows the awakening of hope, enterprise, emulation and self-confi-dence in her people. The facts we have noted testify to the sturdy virtues and the true metal of her men. They evidence a willingness to comprehend new conditions, adaptability to meet them and the determination to make the best of them. In frankness it must be said that they have much to be desired. Al-though the growth and progress of the South has been great, although the aggregate value of cotton which she has produced in the past thirty years has brought a vast fund of wealth into her borders, the South is still poor. She is far to the rear of the most progressive communities. At best many years must pass before she can hope to rival or even approach them in wealth, in the comforts of life, in educational advantages or in liter-ary, scientific and artistic attainments. Before her are long years of plodding labor, of untiring energy, of syste-matic effort, of patient self-control, of infinite self-denial, of prudent fore-thought, and, above everything else, of small economies and cultivation of habits of thrift. But without losing sight of the diffi-culties which lie before her people, of the weaknesses they must conquer, of the sins they must amend, there is still good cause for faith in her future. In her faults she is distinctive, but not pe-culiar. From sin and from folly no people is exempt. We may trust in the benign effect of natural law upon freemen as they grow in w^ealth and enjoy better educational advantages. The best idea of the possibilities of the future for the South may be ob-tained from a glance at the advan-tages she enjoys. Without pausing to prove what is self-evident, or to dem-onstrate what is recognized and ac-knowledged by the common consent of well-informed men, these may be briefly stated: 1. A mild and equable climate re-duces the cost of dwellings, fuel, clothing and food to a minimum; and farming, milling, manufacturing, com-merce and other industries are unin-terrupted by winter. Thus several months are added to the working year under less trying conditions than in more northern latitudes. For the same reasons the South possesses ex-ceptional advantages for breeding and fattening live stock and for producing milk, butter and cheese. 2. The South produces all the rice grown in this country; 75 per cent, of the tobacco, and 93 per cent, of the sugar. Her capacity to increase her production of these crops is practi-cally unlimited. Mr. J. R. Dodge, the statistician of the Department of Ag-riculture, in 1891 said: "One-tenth of the area of Florida is fifteen times the entire breadth of the sugar-cane area in the United States in 1880, situated sev-eral degrees of latitude south of ex-isting plantations, requiring only a system of drainage to become the best cane lands of the United States." 3. The production of sub-tropical fruits and nuts and the early fruits of the temperate zone are already large industries, and with the growth of the THE REMAKING OF THE SOUTH. 479 country and better, quicker and cheaper facilities for transportation must become of great importance. 4. Extending- over a wider territory and giving employment to a greater number of laborers is the trucking in-dustry. The fields in which early veg-etables and melons are grown for the N^orthern markets stretch from Ches-apeake bay to the Gulf and from the Atlantic to the Mississippi. In thirty years this industry has grown to di-mensions which greatly affect com-merce and transportation, and its fu-ture is limited only by the growth and wealth of more northern States. 5. The South is now richer in tim-ber than any other part of the Union, and a great development in the lum-ber trade and in manufactures of wood is inevitable. 6. The production of cotton is a source of wealth, the future of which may be judged by the past. It need only be mentioned here. 7. It is now an accepted fact that the South enjoys unrivalled advan-tages for the cheap manufacture of the coarser grades of cotton textiles. The growth of this industry is, at this time, the most striking feature in the devel-opment of the South. Naturally and in due season will follow manufactures of the finer grades of cotton textiles and the growth of kindred industries which group themselves about the parent industry. 8. The growth of the Southern iron industry has been shown in the pre-ceding pages. Its vigor and continued growth are beyond doubt or cavil, and, following the production of pig iron, must come the development of the iron and steel industries in all their varied and manifold forms. 9. The South is known to be rich in many minerals besides iron and coal, such as salt, sulphur, phosphate rock, building stone, clay, manganese and gold, and the industries to which these must give rise will have an im-portant bearing upon her develop-ment. 10. The mountain range of the Al-leghanies, extending from the Vir-ginias to Alabama, with a vast number of streams falling from 1000 to 2000 feet from the plateau to tidewater, gives the South water-power widely distributed, easily harnessed and of in-calculable value. This one resource, as yet practically untouched, is suffi-cient to give a development and diver-sification to the industries of the South which should make her rich. 11. For purposes of navigation and trade the greater portion of the South is a vast peninsula across the neck of which a line may be drawn from Washington to Wheeling. From Chesapeake bay to the mouth of the Mississippi the ocean washes her shores, penetrates far inland with many estuaries, and affords facilities, for a vast coast trade. The opening of the Chicago drainage canal will mark a new era in the development of the great central valley of the Union.. The Mississippi and its tributaries, must in a few years become the great-est of all traffic-bearing waterways. This will bring the South into close business relations with and give her cheap transportation to the best mar-kets of the world. The possibilities of this great enterprise are too vast for more than mention here. The opening of our inland waterways to commerce means much to the whole' country, but to no section does it mean so much as to the South. 12. A ship canal uniting the xA.t-lantic and the Pacific is a national ne-cessity. Public opinion is fast crys-tallizing on the subject and will not brook many years' delay. This canal will put Southern seaports close upon the route of commerce flowing be-tween the Occident and the Orient. It will make the opportunities and the advantages of the South for trade equal to the advantages which she now enjoys for agriculture and for manufacturing. 13. The South is fast becoming the great winter resort for invalids, tour-ists and men and women of leisure and fashion. A line of luxurious hos-telries now stretches from Hampton Roads to Punta Gorda in Southern Florida. Winter homes built b\ Northern people are becoming a feat- 480 THE REMAKING OF THE SOUTH. ure of Southern life, and the tide of visitors steadily rises as wealth in-creases and the conditions of life be-come easier. Man is growing as mi-gratory "as the birds, and follows in their wake when they wing their flight southward at the approach of winter. The money which is thus brought into the South is not to be overlooked, but vastly more import-ant are results less apparent to the casual observer. The better knowl-edge which the people of the North and the South obtain of one another leads to closer business and social re-lations and to broader and more lib-eral ideas upon both sides. 14. In an area so vast as the terri-tory embraced by the Southern States and so sparsely settled, new sources of wealth, as yet unthought of, must in-evitably come to light and give rise to new enterprises and new industries. Upon this we may rely as confidently in this age of invention and discovery as upon the assured growth of the cotton crop. The future growth of the South in wealth and population must have an important meaning to the whole country. But no true idea can be formed of how vitally this subject con-cerns the nation unless we keep con-stantly in mind the vastness of the area embraced by the Southern States. This can be appreciated only after a comparison with the territory of other States of the Union and with the great powers of Europe. The thirteen Southern States have an area of 818,065 square miles. The States of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Con-necticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylva-nia, Delaware, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin have an area of 386,690 square miles and a popula-tion of 30,000,000. When the popula-tion of the South becomes as dense as that of the Northern States which have been named it will have a popu-lation equal to the present number of inhabitants of the whole Union. France covers an area of 204,177 square miles, or about one-fourth as much as the South. Its population is 38,218,903. If the South were as pop-ulous it would have more than 150,- 000,000 inhabitants. The area of the German Empire is 211,108 square miles, a little more than one-fourth as great as that of the South. Its population is 49,421,064. If the South were as densely settled it would have more than 190,000,000 people. Austria-Hungary has an area of 201,591 square miles, and its popula-tion is 41,827,700. With the same number of people to the square mile the South would have 169,000,000. The area of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland is 120,973 square miles, and its population is now more than 38,000,000. ' If the South were as densely settled it would have 256,000,000 inhabitants. The kingdom of Italy embraces an area of 110,665 square miles, and its population is 29,699,000. If the South had as many people to the square mile its inhabitants would number 219.- 000,000. The area of the Netherlands is 12,680 square miles; the population is 4,450,870. If the South were as densely populated it would have 287,- 000,000 people living within its bor-ders. Belgium has an area of 11,373 square miles, and its population is 6,030,043. If the South had as many people to the square mile as Belgium its population would be more than 430,000,000. Now, if we take six of these coun-tries and sum up their aggregate area and population we have the following result: Sq. M. Population. France 204.177 38,218.000 German Empire 211,108 40.421,000 Austria-Hunsarv 201,591 41.827,000 United Kinsdora 120,97.3 .38,000,000 The Netlierlands 12.680 4,450,000 Belffinm 11.37.3 6,030,000 Total 761,902 177.946,000 Here we have six countries whose aggregate territory is many thousand square miles less than the area cov-ered by the Southern States, but whose population is 177.000,000. These countries are divided by laws, by language, by race and by national THE REMAKING OE THE SOUTH. 481 rivalry, jealousy and traditional ani-mosity. Most of them are heavily taxed to support vast armies and to pay the interest upon tremendous national debts. They are handicapped by an-cient laws, customs and social tradi-tions. But they continue to grow in wealth and population. The condi-tion of their people is steadily rising, and life with them undoubtedly be-comes easier instead of harder. It is inevitable that the South must increase in population and grow in wealth from this time forward as it never grew before. He who questions this must deny that the hand which smote the shackles from the limbs of the slave set free the soul of the mas-ter. He must show that there are natural causes which place the South at a disadvantage as compared with the Northern States and with all the countries of Europe, or he must prove that Southern men are inferior to their American and European contempor-aries in the nobler attributes of man-hood. The facts and figures which have been cited in this paper leave no room to question the substantial progress of the South in the development and diversification of- its industries under difficult and trying circumstances. Remembering the difficulties which the South has overcome, and the suf-ferings it has survived, the outlook to-day is altogether hopeful. The State governments are in the hands of Southern men. The South has an equal voice with the North and the West in the councils of the nation, and upon it rests an equal responsibility and interest in shaping the destiny of the Union. Its people possess as fair a land as was ever blessed with the benediction of heaven, imperial in domain, unlimited in mineral wealth and unsurpassed in natural advan-tages. Its young men, reared in the stern school of adversity, have been hardened and strengthened in the sturdy virtues of their race and blood. Year by year they grow in knowledge of the opportunities to which they were born and in faith in the future. THE SOUTHERN STATES. THE Southern States. AN ILLUSTRATED MONTHLY MAGAZINb. DEVOTED TO THE SOUTH. Published by the Manufacturers' Record Publishing Co. Manutacturers' Record Building, BALTIMORE, MD. SUBSCRIPTION, ... $1.50 a Year. WILLIAM H. EDMONDS, Editor and Manager. BALTIMORE, JANUARY, 1897. The SOUTHERN STATES is an exponent of the immigration and Real Estate Interests and general advancement of the South, and a journal of accurate and comprehensive information about Southern resources and progress. Its purpose is to set forth accurately and conservatively from month to month the reasons why the South is, for the farmer, the settler, the home seeker, the investor, incomparably the most attractive section of this country. Honor to Whom Honor is Due. The Houston Post recently published the following: "That man used to be regarded as a valu-able citizen and a public benefactor who made two blades of grass grow where but one grew before. Under such a measure of public utility ex-Governor W. J. Nor-then, of Georgia, is entitled to the distinc-tion of being today the most useful citizen in Georgia, for he is causing more new acres to be cultivated in that State than is caused by any other man there. "The town of Fitzgerald, containing now some 8000 population, is the result of ex- Governor Northen's enterprise, and the terri-tory around Fitzgerald is being rapidly filled with a hardy and progressive class of immi-grants from the North and Northwest. The Savannah News says 150 families are ready to start for Georgia from the country about Duluth, Minn., and that this is only the 'advance guard of a host of immigrants' ex-pected before the spring. One man has thus been the instrumentality of starting an immigration into Georgia that will be worth millions of money to that State. But the good does not stop there, for the tide started in the Northwest is running strongly to-ward Alabama and Florida as well as Geor-gia. Twenty wagon loads of newcomers from Wisconsin located the other day near Huntsville, Ala. Incidents like this are mentioned almost daily in the Post's South-ern exchanges." This was reproduced in the Atlanta Jour-nal, with this comment: "This is high praise, indeed, but it does not go beyond the deserts of Governor Northen." In the interest of truth, and in justice to many able and successful immigration workers in the South, the "Southern States" feels constrained to point out some inaccu-racies in the foregoing article. We have no desire in the world to detract from the work that ex-Governor Northen has done. He has accomplished large results, and not only the State of Georgia, but the whole South, will be benefited by his immigration and colonization undertakings. But it is not a fact, as would be inferred from the article we have quoted, that the tide of immigra-tion now "running strongly toward Ala-bama and -Florida, as well as Georgia." is an outcome of the Fitzgerald colony, or of any work ex-Governor Northen has done, or that the flow of immigration into Geor-gia was started through this instrumen-tality. This "tide" was "running strongly towards Alabama and Florida, as well as Georgia" and other Southern States, long-before ex-Governor Northen entered upon his immigration work. For several years before he had undertaken such an enter-prise, ]\Iajor W. L. Glessner, as commis-sioner of immigration of the Georgia 482 EDITORIAL. 483 Southern & Florida, under the progressive management of Mr. W. L. Sparks, had been engaged in vigorous, aggressive and suc-cessful immigration effort, and hundreds of thrifty and industrious families from the North were settled upon thousands of acres in what had been largely an undeveloped wilderness. The 150 families referred to as starting from Duluth for Georgia were specifically stated in the dispatches to be part of a colon}^ to be settled at Sibley, Ga. This is a station on the Georgia Southern & Flor-ida Railroad. The formation of this colony is a result of Major Glessner's work, and had no relation whatever to the Fitzgerald colony, or to the work of its projectors. In other Southern States the flow of im-migration was well advanced, and was in-creasing rapidly in volume before ex-Gov-ernor Northen had even entered upon his term of office as governor, which preceded the initiation of his immigration undertak-ings. Through the efforts of Mr. E. E. Posey, general passenger agent of the Mo-bile & Ohio, and Mr. Henry Fonde, of Mo-bile, president of the Alabama Land Co., many hundreds of Northern families had been settled in Alabama and Mississippi along the line of the Mobile & Ohio. The Illinois Central road, through E. P. Skene, land commissioner; J. F. Merry, passenger agent, and other officials, had populated with Northern farmers vast areas of unoccupied lands and built up thriving towns and com-munities in jNIississippi and Louisiana, made up wholly of Northern settlers. W. W. Duson & Bro., of Crowley, La., had been instrumental in procuring the settlement in Southwest Louisiana of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of immigrants from Iowa, Min-nesota, Michigan, Wisconsin and other Western and Northwestern States. Col. J. B. Killebrew, immigration commissioner of the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway, had been conspicuously successful in bringing about the settlement of North-ern farmers in Tennessee and Northern Alabama. The State of Arkansas had re-ceived many thousands of agricultural im-migrants through the work of the State land commissioner, Hon. W. G. Vincenheller and the railroads that traverse the State, notably the St. Louis Southwestern, the St. Louis & Iron ^Mountain and the Missouri Pacific. And besides these particularly notable examples, we might name dozens of minor instrumentalities that had been doing effec-tive immigration work in Georgia and all the Southern States long before ex-Gov-ernor Northen's agency had any existence. We repeat that we have no purpose to be-little the great work the ex-Governor of Georgia is doing. On the contrary, we should contradict any statement unfair to him as readily as we have sought in this instance to correct an unfair impression as to those who were in advance of him in suc-cessful immigration work, and who, along with him, are peopling the untilled acres of the South with thrifty and successful farm-ers from the North. What they are accom-plishing in this direction is not at all a re-sult of anything he has done; rather might it be said that the pioneer work they have been doing has made easier the accomplish-ment of what he has been able to do. We are quite sure that none will be more ready to acknowledge the justice of all we have said than ex-Governor Northen himself. Real Estate the Best Investment. We publish elsewhere an interesting and significant article from the London Agricul-tural Gazette. The belief of the English "millionaire financier" that land is a far safer investment than shares in companies at the mercy of directors and subject to ac-cidents of good or bad trade has striking enforcement in a recent utterance of an American millionaire financier. This gen-tleman, a resident of Baltimore, for many EDITORIAL. years a large investor in railroad and other securities, at one time associated with the active management of one of the largest railroad systems in the country, and owner of stocks and bonds to the value of many hundreds of thousands of dollars, said not long ago that in future he would buy no stocks of any sort, but would make all his investments in real estate. And where else on the globe can there be found such opportunities for real-estate in-vestment as in the Southern States? With its supreme advantages for manufacturing, for agriculture, for health, and its wealth in all that goes to make life worth living, and with its rapid increase in factories and in agricultural population, it is safe to say that its farm, timber and mineral lands will never in the future sell for prices as low as they may be bought for now. This is particu-larly true of large undeveloped areas, which may be bought now at almost nominal prices, but which, with continued railroad expansion, will bring fortunes to those who may be fortunate enough and far-seeing enough to capture them now. Benefits of Agricultural Immigration. Unquestionably the greatest need of the South today is immigration—thrifty, indus-trious agriculturists. The benefits of such im_migration are difficult to enumerate, so thoroughly do they permeate the well-being of the entire community and section. When it is pointed out that increased population means greater wealth, and a consequent de-crease in the individual burden of taxation, an important benefit is stated, and one which of itself is sufficient incentive to the South to work for desirable immigration; but that is merely one of many almost equally important. Who can calculate the benefits that would come to the whole na-tion if the present population of the South were doubled, were augmented by thrifty agriculturists to the number of the people now in the South? And yet the popula-tion of the South would not then be nearly so dense as that of Massachusetts—would still lack some 200 persons to the square mile of being so thickly populated as is the not conspicuously fertile Bay State. That the South, with its unparalleled variety of soil, climate and resources, could easily support a population ten times its present density no well-informed man is likely to question; so that it should be a matter of comparatively easy achievement to secure double the present population. More people would mean more and bet-ter schools, more good roads and every other comfort and convenience of modern civilization. It would mean more develop-ment of the unmeasured resources of the South, a reduction in the cost of many of the articles necessary to life and to com-merce, and by enriching the South would add to the riches and prosperity of the na-tion. Much less than double the present population, if they were of the right sort, would mean an increase in the value of Southern property amounting to at least double the present valuation. It would mean more and larger cities, more and greater manufacturing centres and more importance in the industrial and commer-cial world. The incentive is so strong, the benefits so well-nigh illimitable, that it would seem the v.'hole South, as if one man, would make it the particular and unceasing business of life to seek to fill up the waste places, to tenant the tenantless farm lands, and to thus bring an era of prosperity greater than that ever heretofore enjoyed by any nation of the earth. General Notes. A Northern Capitalist Revises His Opin= ions of the South After Investigation. Mr. J. K. Ridgely, passenger agent of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad at Chi-cago, recently induced Mr. Davitt D. Chid-ester, a capitalist of New Waterford, Ohio, to go South on a trip of investigation. After he had gotten back he wrote to Mr. Ridgely about his trip, and his letter is given below. It is valuable testimony, because of the fact that the writer of it is a man of means and influence and is a large owner of farm lands in the West: "New Waterford, Ohio, Nov. 30, 1896. "J. K. Ridgely, Passenger Agent L. & N. R. R., Chicago, 111.: "My Dear Sii'—In accordance with my promise, I write you briefly my impressions of the South. "I was much pleased with what I saw in the section of the South visited, and confess to have been greatly surprised and agree-ably so by the wealth of resources it seems to have in the way of soil, climate, minerals, timber, etc. It impressed me as being a vast but undeveloped empire, needing only Northern thrift and energy to promote it into the most productive and the wealthiest section of the whole country. "I confess also to have gone there with a great deal of prejudice. I think that, in common with most Northern men, I had the idea that the 'South' was a land of dark and dismal forests of cypress and malarious rice swamps and canebrakes; a land of torrid summers and malarial wet seasons. "On the contrary, so far as I could learn by careful investigation and inquiry of both the natives and of Northern men who have been living in the South for years, I find the climate of that part of Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia which I visited to be exceed-ingly healthful, in fact unsurpassed by any part of the North. While their summers are long, they are never so hot as we have them in the North, nor are they subject to the sudden changes in temperature which we have in the North. "I think it is only a question of making the great advantages of this section of the United States known to the Northern peo-ple to have a great tide of immigration set in, for certainly it has every advantage over the Northwest in every way. The farmer there does not have to work eighteen hours a day during the summer in order to get enough to keep himself in food and cloth-ing and to keep warm and to feed his stock during the winter, as they do in the West-ern and Northwestern States. He can live twice as well with half the work, if all I heard and saw is true. He runs no risk of droughts or of blizzards, which are practi-cally unknown in the South. When I am again in your city I may call and talk with you personally about the South. Mean-while, I am, yours very truly, "DAVITT D. CHIDESTER.*' From Ohio to Georgia. Mr. G. W. Shults, recently of Ohio, writes to the "Southern States'" from Glenmore, Ga. : "We left Columbus, Ohio, a few days ago in bitter cold weather. Arriving here, we found the weather perfectly delightful. The gardens are about as they are in Ohio in May and June. Strawberries are in bloom, new potatoes about the size of walnuts. I cannot understand why so many people will stay in the North and freeze to death and raise, or attempt to raise, but one crop a year, when down in this country they can have some crop maturing every month in the year and realize a better price, with much less labor." The rapid rise of the pineapple industry in Florida since the freeze is shown by a report of Capt. W. J. Jarvis, general freight agent of the Florida East Coast Railway, as to the number of crates of pineapples hauled 485 486 GENERAL NOTES. over his road in the last three seasons. In 1894 there were 35,931 crates; in 1895, as a result of the freeze, the number was re-duced to 4127 crates, but in 1896 the ship-ments reached 43,012 crates. The Georgia & Alabama. At the annual meeting of the Georgia & Alabama Railway Co., held December 16 at Americus, Ga., the following gentlemen were elected directors: John Skelton Wil-liams, of Richmond; J. Willcox Brown, J. W. Middendorf and R. B. Sperry, of Balti-more; W. F. Cochran, Ernest Thallman and C. Sydney Shepard, of New York; John D. Stetson, of Macon; S. A. Carter, of Co-lumbus; W. W. Williamson, John Flan-nery, C. D. Baldwin and W. W. McKall, of Savannah; Cecil Gabbett and J. W. Sheffield, of Americus. The new board of directors immediately organized and elected the following officers: John Skelton Williams, president; Cecil Gabbett, first vice-president and general manager; John W. Middendorf, second vice-president; J. Willcox Brown, treas-urer; W. W. McKall, secretary. The Columbus Southern Railroad was recently bought for the Georgia & Ala-bama and will be operated as a part of that system after January i. A New Yorker Buys a Fine Farm in Virginia. Mr. A. L. Washburne, of New York, has bought, through the Southern Farm Agency, of Ljmchburg, Va., the fine estate known as "Homewood," on Hog Island in the James river. It contains 3200 acres of land, with fine buildings and extensive farm-ing equipment. The price paid is said to have been $180,000. It is said that the purchaser will further improve the estate, and will bring down to it from New York specialists in gardening, dairying, butter-making, horticulture and general farming. South Georgia's Winter Products. Here the seasons are all blended into each other, and butterflies and bees sip honey from the flowers which never fade from frost and cold. During last week snap beans, radishes and other vegetables of the kind were served from gardens here on the dinner tables of our citizens. Yesterday the Times had an invitation to a watermelon cutting which is to take place at a country home near Valdosta on Christmas day. All over this section there is room for frugal citizens, and in no section of the country are there brighter prospects for the future or better surroundings for the present. Come South, young man, if you really want to see the garden spot of the world.—Val-dosta, Ga., Times. Artesian Water in the South. The city of Augusta, Ga., is discussing plans for increasing its water supply. A writer in the Chronicle advocates the boring of artesian wells, and in support of his sug-gestion he writes as follows about the im-proved healthfulness of communities that have adopted artesian w.ater: "I have this much to say for the artesian wells, it has been proven to be the healthiest and largest and most inexhaust-ible supply of fresh water that a city like Augusta or Memphis, or Thomasville or Savannah and innumerable small places can obtain. "Look what it has done for the lower counties, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee. Why, in certain sections of these States it used to be impossible for a white man to live in them on account of the malaria. Now, these wells, giving health, life and vigor wherever the water is used, liave caused the waste places to be populated with a people whose energy equals those of our Northern States, and, in fact, hundreds of these people have moved down in Florida and around Thomasville, Ga., and make it their homes the year round, and land that could have been bought for a song a few years ago cannot now be had at twice the price. "Take our own suburbs and outskirts, the Hickman and Phinizy farms. White men who would dare spend the nights on these farms a few years back during the warm months simply took their lives in their own hands. Now since they have gotten artesian water they live there the whole year round with their children, and malarial fevers are almost a stranger to them. "From Savannah to Tennille, on the Cen-tral Railroad, malaria used to be so thick and deadlv that there was little or no white GENERAL NOTES. 487 population. Now look at the population of the towns and the fame of their w^ells. Water is being hauled from Alillen everj^ day for drinking purposes in Augusta. So much might be said for the health-giving qualities of this water that it would weary the reader and I will desist. I only ask the people to consider for a moment the inesti-mable good it would do us to be supplied with this water.'" Another Georgia Colony. A co-operative colony has been started in Muscogee county, Georgia, near Colum-bus. The colony is said to number be-tvv- een 300 and 400 members, and about fifty have already settled on the colony prop-crt}'. The colony calls itself "The Chris-tian Commonwealth," and the town to be started as a centre will be named Common-wealth. The Central of Georgia Railway has established a station for the colony with that name. The managers are Rev. Ralph Albert-son, a Congregational minister, and Mr. W. C. Damon. The leaders in the move-ment are George Howard Gibson, Lincoln, Neb., and John Chipman. Tallahassee. Fla. Mr'. Chipman writes the "Southern States'" as follows in regard to the enter-prise: " 'The Christian Commonwealth' has purchased about 1000 acres of land at Wim-berly Station, on the Georgia Central Rail-road, about ten miles northeast of Colum-bus, Ga., and near Midland, their present postoffice, on the Southern Railroad be-tween Atlanta and Columbus. They have on the grovind between forty and fifty colo-nists, and more are constantly arriving. They expect to erect saw mill, planer and woodworking machinery very soon, and a canning factorj^ in the spring for the sum-mer's work, and such other machinery as they can make use of—grist mill, gin, etc. "Their plan is to be self-sustaining and mutually helpful. They hold their prop-erty in common, and are strictly co-ope-rative. "They are a religious society, but are not a 'new church.' Members from every de-nomination are welcomed, and are not re-quired to sever themselves from their com-munion. But the basis of the 'Christian Commonwealth' is mutual helpfulness and work, consecrated to the redemption of the workers of the world from industrial slavery.'" Cuban Tobacco in Florida. A correspondent at Fort Meade, Fla., sends the "Southern States" the following interesting account of the successful at-tempt to grow the best Cuban tobacco in that locality: "Fort Meade is situated in Polk county, Florida, about half-way down the penin-sula and almost equidistant between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic ocean. It is a small town of 500 inhabitants on the Plant System of railroads, and was for-merly a post of some importance to the United States forces engaged in the war with the Seminole Indians. Peace creek runs through the town, and it was on the banks of this stream that General Meade, from whom the place takes it name, signed the treaty of peace that ended the desultory war that had been carried on with the Semi-noles for some years. Later it became a large oi^ange and phosphate-shipping and cattle-trading centre, but the freeze of two years ago, added to the prevalent hard times of the last three years, deprived it of much oi its prosperity. The present rebellion in Cuba has driven from its shores the men who have been the mainstay of that Island, the tobacco-growers of the far-famed Yuelta-Abajo district of Cuba. These men, cut off from their homes, plantations and the industry in which they have been en-gaged for years, and in the evening of their lives forced to emigrate to a foreign coun-try, and left nearly penniless, naturally turn their thoughts and energies towards |
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