Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1880-09-16
The Real Solidity Of tho South.

1t any ono is curious to 500 tho real
solidity Of tho South he should read about
this timo the principal journals of tho
Southern cities. Tho 1st of September is
tho beginning of tho business year in tho
South; aud tho journals of tho largor oitios
have an excellent habit OF setting forth on
that day an elaborate and statistical account
of tho business Of tho past year, with com.
parsons OF previous years and some account
of future prospects
Wo have examined with interest mum.
Der Of thcso annual summaries which have
como to us from New Orleans, Savannah,
Mobile, Galveston, Charleston, Memphis,
Norfolk and other points, and wo warn tho
Southern men thoy must cease tho common
outcry about their poverty. They arc not
poor ia tho South; they arc rich. Pros
porty is on uudeuiuble fact with them
There is no city whose reports wo have
read which has not in tho last year or two
rapidly advanced in commerce, in manu-
factures, in variety of industries, and in
some the advance is surprising as it is graf
flying in all.
Now Orleans, fivo years ago, under carpet
bag aud bayonet rule, was on tho very verge
of bankruptcy; and in the opinion Of many
of its best citizens its prominence as q
commercial port was 40 seriously shaken
that it would be many years before it could
recover its losses. Strangers who visited
Louisiana at that time, aud saw the romark
able natural wealth of the State, found it
difficult to tuke SO dospondcut view, to be
sure; aud the reports before us show that q
strangers ego sometimes secs more clearly
than that Of resident Tho imports aud
exports of Now Orleans for she past year
were fifty per cent. greater than tho year
before; an enormous, but apparently natural
and hcalthful gain. The sugar industry of
the State, which wns prostrato fvo or six
years ago, has SO greatly recovered that one
hundred and fifty thousand acres of the
iich sugar laud of tho State produced n
crop which sold for twenty millions in cash
and yet the sugar crop is only ono of the
sources of Louisiana's wealth. Cotton is
oven greater. Tho rice crop assumes
greater Importance yearly, and ws read of
health(ul beginning made in manufactures.
The tanning of leather is found profitable
because Of tho abundance of good bark.
The cotton manufactures of neighboripg
Mississippi cannot produce enough to fiji
their orders, and the transport of grain
from tho Upper Mississippi in h"rsoe 70
New Orleans, whence it is shipped to Flu
uope, has assumed great dimensions. The
amount of grain shipped from New Orleans
last year was one hundred per cent. greater
than in the previous year. The cotton cx-
ports increased from fifty five to seventy.
seven millions in tho year, the grain trado
grew in year in value from less than Gyo
to very nearly ton millions, and the product
of cottop sced oil miIls-a ocw industry
saving what was but recently waste pro
duct, amounted during the year to over
four millions. Among her imports New
Orleans boasts of great increase in the
coffco tradc. Twonty one ocean steamers
besides on immense fleet Of river craft
"bclopging" to New Orleans and contribute
to its wealth, and there is prospect of the
establishment Of glass, carthonwarc and
paper factories.
Mobile also gives good account of her.
self. The first steamship of foreign line
has modo throe profitable voyages during
the ycar. Tho export trade of the port
has largoly increased. The Register re-
ports:-"Our financial institutions arc as
solvent as any in the land. Wo havo had
no bank failures; real estate. one of the
truest baromccrs of prosperity, has improv.
csd in value aud Importance" and it rightly
tolls "somc that arc always complaining"
that Mobile is really prosperous and groW-
ing.
From Savannah tho reports arc oquslIy
encouraging. Last years business was
greater and moro varied than that Of pre-
coediog years, and the new ycar now open
ing promises an increase over the lost. The
business in naval stores, wo road has grown
up to largo dimensions sinco. tho war, and
comesin OF !;;nlo when cotton is out of
hand, General trade is brisk, and as in
Louisiana and Alabama 80 in the rigion of
Georgia and rdjoining States tributary to
Savannah, tho planters and farmers nro ro.
ported to be prosperous. They owo but
little, and have good credit with NOR
chants and factors.
Charleston, so long depressed and stag
nant, appears to have revived ond secured
new and genuine prosperity. There has
been handsome increase during tho year
in tho growth of both upland and sea island
cotton in South Carolina tho rice planters
have dono well and made tho lnrgcst crop
since 1861; there has been a "striking"
increase in tho wholesale trade of Charlcston;
naval stores, phosphatcs, lumber and early
vegetable have added largely to tho export
business, and tho vegetable and small fruit
crop Of the region about Charleston has
assumed magnitude and variety which is
amazing. The number of business failures
---only twenty oight for the ycar-is little
moro than third that of the previous year,
and tho Nc'os on6 Courier reports that
"tho real estate market for tho year has
hnen noti VI on1 huouontbS ,.noJ J..1 20