The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-10-15
A SOUTHERN "REMINISCENCES.
How Business Doomed in the Confederacy
During the War.

Atlanta Constitution.
Undoubtedly Atlanta is. at present, a notable
manufacturing center, but during the war pc
riod her manufactures were more varied and ex-
tenSive than at any time in her history. When
the war began in earnest our people strained
every nerve to make themselves equal to the
emergency. No plea for home manufactures was
necessary. The patriotism of the people made
home products fashionable. This was the case
during the first year or Two of the war, when it
was still possible 70 buy Northern and foreign
made articles. Later the efficiency of the block
ade kept these out. and we were compelled to de-
pend upon local manufactures. The Confederacy
established numerous shops in Atlanta, employ
ing thousands of hands. These workmen, with
their families, soon constituted a fourth
OF the citys population. Refugees from
Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana
also moved in, and in 1868 Atlanta had between
thirty and forty thousand inhabitants. Under
such conditions it was easy to get up a manu-
featuring boom. In those days every new indus
trial development was hailed with a whoop
When a quiet old German opened a factory and
commenced making bass and kettle-drums every
Atlanta man felt in his heart of hearts that the
result of the war was settled. The awful rub
a-duo-dub' of those homemade drums was
enough to terrify men of stone. A similar
thrill spread through the community when an
other enterprising German opened a button fac
tory and turned out every day several gross of
confederate military buttons, perfect beau
ties, glittering like gold. 1t was i'm
possible to examine a card of those
shining buttons without feeling that the
success of the Confederacy was assured. En-
ve;ope factories sprang up Men commenced
making clothing, hats, shoes. soap, hard tack,
candles, beer, lard. ink, wagons, boats. etc.
There were some tremendous enterprises con-
Quoted by the government and by private indi-
viduals. Our fouudries and rolling mills turned
out cannon, until acres of them Law by the rail
road awaiting shipment. Heavy iron plates for
g%unboats were made here. An immense wood
en- building on Decatur street turned out a first
class article Of navy revolvers. Bomb-shells,
cartridges. percussion caps and swords were
manufactured in apparently inexhustible guam
titles. The whole town looked like an arsenal.
Even the lighter and ornamental industries
fourisned.- False teeth were made by millions,
silver wire was spun for surgical purposes. jew
elry was made. fans, feathers for
plumes, etc. Cigars, candy, canteens, KNAPP
sacks and pocket books were among the manu-
features. Some of the factories, and all the big
-four mills, were kept running night and day.
The first match factory in the Confederacy was
in or rather lear Atlanta The owner was an
Atlanta man. These matches were sold from
Richmond to the Gulf. Unlike some of our re-
cent experiments in that line, there was no trou-
BILE about igniting the matches. A man did not
have to strike one sixteen times, and finally
hit it on the head with a hammer,
or light it by the fire. His main
trouble was to keep the thing from going off
prematurely, and the only e~ffectual safeguard
Wao W hCCP I AZ q OOttiO VI WdtCIs lucy WcTo
the most utterly too-previous matches ever seen
in this or any other country. The enterprise
was never profitable, because half the stock was
invariably lost by spontaneous combustion.
Wagon-loads of matches on their way from the
factory to the city would burst into a blaze half
way on the road, soaring the driver and his
mules out of their senses. Several Atlanta
stores handled these useful marvels of home en-
%terprise, but customers were cautioned to tread
lightly for fear of Earring the matches into a
confagration, and clerks were detailed to sit up
every night to watch the troublesome stock.
The owLer Of this match factory put up the
stuff in which the matches were dipped, and sold
it for rat poison. 1t certainly killed the rats. but
the hasiy character of the stuff created such a
panic in the city that the industry had to be
squelched. A Whitehall street merchant bought
a box of the poison one day and carrying 1t to
his store tried to spread a dab of it on a piece of
dry bread as a bait for the rats. He gave it
one spread when there was a '.whish!"
and the whole affair blazed up in his face SINCE
ing off his whiskers. A few similar experiments
prejudiced the people against the new poison.
They said it was too rough on the rats, to burn
out their stomachs with such an explosive.
A complete collection of Atlanta's manufact-
ured products from 60 to '63 would be worth
seeing. AS a museum Of curiosities it would
draw crowds in any part of the country. But it
is too late in the day to secure such a collection.