The Grenada sentinel., 1885-05-23
THE PRESS ASSOCIATION AND WA
TER VALLEY.

To the citizens of Water Valley the
Press OF Mississippi will long feel the
debt of gratitude they owe them their
generous and unstinted hospitality. In
fact, but for union OF hands and hearts
and brains it could never have been SO
grand a success. When we remember
the isolated position of the little town,
dependent wholly upon her own crea'
tions of interest without any of the nat
ural resources OF waterways by river or
sea, with no great public edifces built up
by State or Federal aid, no great centre
of capital to be diffused in commercial or
industrial pursuits, we wondered how it
was that the little inland city should
make showing that astonished the Press
of our State; and yet that is just what
she did. We were not only pleased but
delighted, we not only thought but mar
veled that little town lying only thirty
miles north of US, in a long, narrow val
ley watered by a perpetual stream OF
clear but shallow water ripping along its
sandy bed between a series Of hills that
rise several hundred feet higher, upon
which the town, outside OF its commerce
and manufacture, is perched in scores OF
comfortable residences, should have been
so successful.
The first thing that strikes the eye Of
the stranger is the tall chimneys from
which volumes of dense smoke arise to
announce that the railroad machine shops
of the Illinois Central are here with their
several hundred artizans, not to patch up
and mend the vast machinery used by
this great highway of traffic and trade,
but to make and put together in all their
parts and bearings locomotives that rival
in speed, beauty, strength and finish the
finest turnouts Of Massachusetts or Penn
sylvania. The passenger coaches made
at the Water Valley shops are as beauti,
full and perfect in all their makeup as
the best American ingenuity and expert
ence can produce, no matter where loca>
ted, how great their capital or how old
their name. This is saying much in favor
of the railroad machine shops in the
town of Water Valley, but it is demon
strated by cars and locomotives bearing
the impress both in metal and paint, of
their birth place. This is very high
not only to the energy and
enterprise of the Illinois Central, but it
includes the name of the master mechan-
jc, Mr.. Jack White, whose devotion to
the great corporation he represents is
equaled by his skill as an organizer OF
forces.
Not far off the stranger will hear the
whirr of the spindle and the rattle Of the
shuttle converting cotton into thread and
textile fabrics, with small army of
men, women and youth. Here in this
busy mart of industry and skill, the
Yocona Cotton Mills, twelve hundred
bales Of cotton are annually converted
into the practical uses for the surround
ing country Or shipped to other markets
for sale. In the same little city in the
line of industrial forces one will see
Shaw & Sons foundry for casting iron
Tor the farmers plow to turn the soil, to
beautiful and stately columns for the use
of the architect and builder. With the
application Of other appliances lumber is
,ut up and made INFO sash, doors, and |
boards, Of all sizes and lengths ready to |
,e transferred to the builders uses. OIL
course each one Of these industries is
surrounded by colony Of workers and |
aborers, living in neat and cozy cottages,
md in all they make up large per cent.
II the population of the town whose ne.
'essities are to be supplied by the mer-
,hants near at hand, and the farmers and
gardeners in the vicinity.
But after all, the crowning glory of
Water Valley is her Public School, which
s, strange to say, her only school. I'm
ike most towns, she has not dozen or
ess schools where education is taken up
n fractions as denominational pride or
eligious jealousies may divide and sub.
liyide. In this business town they have
'ooled all their resources, sectarian feel
ng and pride of rank and made one
chool of about four hundred children,
'hich is not only the pride of the little
ity, but it challenges comparison with
ny similar educational enterprise in or
ut of the State. In truth, its splendid {
onsummation distances all competition
nd places it SO far in the front that it