Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1882-02-16

was visited with a destructive fire o.
Oct. 10, last, which destroyed its bes
buildings, and the people are not re
building, but getting away from ther
, instead as fast as they can, and immi
grafton passes it by, so that the glory o
Humboldt has departed, and will know
it no more forever.
Point-Belmont and Columbus will h
remembered for their historic connec
tion with our late civil war, and at Co
lumbus are some military earthwOrk
on the high bluffs that tower behind tn,
town, and in the harbor is to-day to b,
seen at low water, a huge siege gun,
am told.
The next point of interest is Memphis
city beautifully situated, but possess
ed of most intolerable streets and cross
ings, and in its Improvements and man
ner of conducting its business, about 81
years behind the age. Tailors here sit
cross-legged, and the rails of the only
street car track. are fiat bars of iron
punched and ceunter-sunk, and spiked
down. However, there are many good
signs to be found for brilliant future
and greatness of present progress. The
Hotel Clarendon Is the best two-dollaI
house it has ever been my good fortune
to fall in with, and the hotels speak vol
nmes for town. The press, with one
accord, are urging the people up to bu-
siness energy, and the business men
themselves are disposed to do all in their
power to further the interests of this
beautiful little city. l visited the Gro
ton oil mills at Memphis, and was cour-
4 nd iSl fhrnnnb
them by the gentlemanly proprietor
And, by the way, this cotton and oil
trade is assuming tremendous proper
tions. The cotton from the field is put
through the cotton gin. The dirty cot
ton is again passed through the cotton
cleaner. The gin separates tie seed
| from the cotton. After this is done, a
small amount of cotton adheres to the
hull To look at seed you would not
suppose enough cotton remained to just
ify any further cleaning, but dealers buy
up the seed in this condition, and put it
through improved gins, and procure
large quantities of cotton. for which
they find ready sale at a price little
lower than for the best. They then put
the seed through a separator, which
takes off the hull. This serves as fuel
with which to run the machinery, and
the seed is ground into meal, filled into
sacks, placed into powerful ppess-
es, which extract the oil, and
leaves the other substance, known in
the market as oil coke. This coke is Ell
ther shipped to Liverpool, Engr direct,
or again ground into meal and sold as
oil coke meal, which makes a good and
cheap food for stock. or the coke is used
as a fertilizer, of which properties it is
very rich. The oil. in its crude state,
enters into many uses, such as lubrica-
ting and for Illuminating purposes; but
the most of it is refined, and large guam
titles shipped to Louisville, where 1t is
made into butter, and all through this
country is now used in cookery i'll place
of lard. The hotels, and steamboats, es-
pecially nse it, and it also enters into
the domestic economy of private fami-
lies. Or it is shipped to France and
Italy, where three parts of it and one
of olive oil are made into the olive oil
of the market, and in which you find
your sardines packed. By closely fol-
lowing this process it is readily seen
that nothing is wasted, not even the
hull. All this has been discovered
.since the war;" Everything done here
is dated before the war;" or "sinco the
war;" and this is one of the things that
is dated "since the war" After we had
gone through the process, noticed that
much of the machinery was made in
Bridgeport, Mass, and this lead me to
remark that the machinery was of North
ern make. Then teld these gentlemen
and they are gentlemen-that should
they ever come to my city, Bellaire, o.,
of which l am justly proud, l would
take great pleasure in showing them
through our various glass houses, nail
mill, blast furnace, and mines, ETC., at
which one of them remarked that he
had never been north-knew nothing of
factories or machinery, and would eer-
tainly'go wild with ecstacy at such an OPP
to-day than ever before in the Southland
the condition of money matters here de-
ponds entirely on the cotton crop, and
the condition of the market. There are
about 100000 bales now held in and
around Memphis. Dealers are holding
for an advance, and as consequence
the product is not running very fast.
An advance of one cent per pound will
put half million extra dollars in this
city alone. These people stand utterly
aghast at the greatness and growth of
the cities of the Northwest, and are am
bilious to emulate them. 1t is rumored |
that when Jay Gould gets through at
st. Louis, where he now is, he is coming |
to this city, and the business men are
delighted at the prospect of getting |
with st. Louis, Kansas |
City, and the Northwest, and when he |
comes, if he does, he will be hailed as
public benefactor. Very truly yours,
S. II. LEE.
Str. City of Providence, below Mem
phis, JAM, 1882.