The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1879-12-10
Industries of Atlanta.

luult6tFlcS vi Atlhutds
It was in 1865 that the citizens anC
merchants came back to their desolatt
homes at Atlanta, Ga. Only one build.
ing, of all the commercial part of the
town, had survived the flames. Busi'
ness had to be built up from the very
foundation again, and the energy with
which this task was attempted shows
the strong faith Atlanta men feel in
their lively town. One of the first to
return was the present president of the
board of trade. He secured cellar
under the sole remaining building (on
Alabama street, paying $3.50 month
for it's use, and began the produce and
groceries trade, increasing his income
by renting ground privileges of few
feet square off his sidewalk of 500 a
month each. Soon the owner Of a cor
ner on Whitehall street built brick
building containing two store-rooms.
AS soon as these were ready, our mer-
chant and another moved in, paying
$4,000 a year rent each, and giving half
of it in advance, in order to aid the
proprietor to 60 on with his construc-
tion. (The accommodations for which
that $4,000 a year was paid now rent
for Sl,500) Thus by mutual help and
enterprise, together with vast amount
of personal labor, the ruins were re-
placed by substantial business edifices,
new hotels OF magnificent proportions
were erected, churches more lofty in
ga lie and spire arose upon the sites of
those destroyed, and the vacant streets
we're re6lled with people. Atlanta be-
came at once the distributing point for
western products, and now finds trib-
utary to her wide range of country.
| She handles large portion Of all the
grain of Tennessee and Kentucky, be-
sides much from the Upper Mississippi
valley Much of the flour of the north
western mills comes into her ware
houses, and thence finds its way south
ward and eastward. The same is true
of the canned meats of Chicago, St.
Louis and Cincinnati packing houses;
this is q very important item of her
wholesale business. The provision men
naturally were the first to obtain foot
! hold in the new town. After them came
the dry-goods people. Most of them
began in very modest way-brought
their goods tied up in a blanket almost
yet now the jobbing trade in dry
goods alone amounts to some millions
of dollars annually. No tobacco can
be. grown in the vicinity of Atlanta,
hence she is without tobacco factories;
but SIZE used to handle an enormous
quantity Of it, and there are half q
dozen firms who deal wholly in it now,
1t was found that Atlanta's dry, equable
climate, consequent upon her great al
titude, made this point the safest place
to keep stores OF the grateful plant; it
would not mould, as it is liable to do in
damp atmosphere. A few years ago,
the revenue regulations were not as ef-
fective as at present. The practice of
stencil-plating packages of tobacco af-
forded easy means of evading the pay
Dent of duty, and great warehouses
here were stored with "blockade" to-
bacco, from which Uncle Sam had de-
rived very little, if any, pocket-money.
Enormous profits accrued, but the in
PRODUCTION of the stamp system put a
stop to this. though Atlanta was left a
very large legitimate business in stor-
ing and selling tobacco at wholesale.
Another source Of prosperity to the
city is cotton. The "cotton belt" of
Georgia is Il strip of country between
here and Augusta. Years ago the land
became exhausted, and the cultivation
of cotton came to be of small account.
Then followed the discovery of the
guano islands of Peru, and the subse-
quent invention of artificial fertilizers
having similar qualities to the natural
manure. These superphosphates are
manufactured mainly in Boston, and
cost the farmer about forty dollars ton.
1t was proved that by their use the worn
out cotton-belt could be made to produce
as bountifnl crops in q series of five
years as the Mississippi bottoms did;
and, moreover, that cotton could be
raised as far north rs the foot Of the
Tennessee mountains. Atlanta, there
fore, has come to be not only q great
depot of supply for this guano, furnish
ing its vicinage hundred thousand tons
a year, but also the entrepot of all the cot
ton produced within a circle of nearly
twohundred miles. .tThis cotton is bought
mainly for foreign export, and is shipped
under through bills of ladipg to foreign
ports, thus lodging the factors at New
York, Savannah, and other coast cities.
The business is not done on commission,
but by buying and selling on margin
of profit.
There are other extensive business in
terests. Iron is mined near by, and ex-
tensive founderies and rolling mills
manufacture it. Great crops of corn
and grain are raised throughout the cen
tral part of the State, which find their
way into Atlanta distilleries, while her
wine merchants are many and rich.
She can make the best Of brick, and has
a whole mountain of solid granite close
by, with other building material acces-
sible and cheap. She sighs for only one
more commercial advantage! namely, q
railway to the coal regions of Alabama.
Now her coal is largely supplied from
Ex-Governor Browns mines in the ex-
treme northwestern corner of the State.
.-HGrper's Magazine.