The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-09-06
SAVANNAH, FLORIDA AND WEST
ERN RAILWAY.

A Prosperous Year Up to the Yellow
Fever Outbreak-Supt. Fleming Says
the Lumber and Naval Store Bust
ness Continues to be Satisfactory
The Outlook Cheerful-The Biggest
Grange Crop Ever Raised in Florida
The Excess Over Last Year 2,OOO,-
900 Boxes-The s., F. and W. Will
Market Every Package-The Crop
Three Weeks Earlier Than Usual
The Road in First Class Condition
Port Tanpa-The ThomeSville Branch
to Monticello About Finished-A
Bonanza for Savannah.
The Savannah, Florida and Western
railway during the past year up to the
yellow fever outbreak in Jacksonville had
prospered greatly. True, the sad wreck
near Blackshear involved heavy expense and
fearful loss of life. but no blame could
possibly attach to any official, while the
untiring efforts of every officer and
employee, regardless of cost, to assuage
the sufferings and provide for the wants
of the survivors, challenged the admiration
of the whole country. Still, the increase in
general business far more than counter
balanced the results of this terrible mishap
When
YELLOW JACK
put in an appearance the outlook for a
grand fall traffic was never so good. And
even now we learn from Supt. Fleming
that despite the glamor cast over South
Georgia and Florida by apprehensions of a
visitation from the dreaded peStilence, trade
has continued brisk, and there has been but
little if any falling off in the receipts of
lumber, naval stores and produce of every
kind On the whole tharafOre the
OUTLOOK Is CHEERFUL.
and the subsistence at an early day of the
fever" would inaugurate a tremendous
winter business
The orange crop is without precedent the
largest ever grown. A moderate estimate
places it at fully 1000, 900 boxes'in excess of
the yield of last year.
How to market this wealth of luscious
fruit is, therefore, one of the absorbing
questions of the hour. Happily, the Savan-
nah, Florida and Western railway can
solve the problem even during tho contin-
uance OF the present rigid quarantine. If
the net work of Florida railways accessible
to Gainesville will mass the orange crop at
that point, the Savannah, Florida and
Western railway will receive and transport
it north via Live Oak and Dupont to the
Charleston junction, three miles from Sa-
Vannah, where, without entering that city
at all, it can be sent forward via the
Charleston and Savannah railroad.
Or, If shippers seek the markets of the
west, their oranges can be sent Uhither by
the Brunswick and Western from Way
cross, or the East Tennessee from Jesup.
The situation is therefore hopeful if our Flor
ida fruit growers recover from their pres
ent panicand utilize the opportunities still
within their reach. To the managers of the
Savannah, Florida and Western railway
they will owe an everlasting debt of graft
tude not only for the above substantial sery-
ice, but also for furnishing the means of
exit to the multitudes who are fleeing for
their lives from Jacksonville, and provid-
ing transportation for the nurses and sup
plies needed for the care and sustenance of
those unable to get away. The present alb
normally large crop of oranges will ripen
fully
THREE WEEKS EARLIER
than usual, aud regular shipments will re-
gin about Got /. There have been but few
changes in the management of the road
during the past year. H. B. Plant still pre-
sides over the entire system, with w. S.
Chisholm, vice president; II. S. Haines, gen
eral manager; r. G. Fleming, superintel-
dent; c. D. Owens, traffic manager, and
William T. Hardee, general passenger
agent.
These gentlemen are all diligent and
faithful officials, and do all in their power
to promote the commerce and interests of
the public.
The general condition of the track,
bridges, trestles and depots was never bet
ter, and the supply of locomotives, freight
boxes and passenger coaches is ample and
abundantly sufficient to meet every ex-
igency.
During the past year the branch-twelve
miles in lengtn-from Tampa to
PORT TAMPA
on the gulf has been completed, and sub
stautal wharveS, docks and warehouses
have been erected for the accommodation
of che Cuba line of steamers. Here there is
sufficient depth of water for the splendid
ocean steamships of the Plant system to
take on board or land their passengers with
out delay. and also to deliver and receive
all freights without the expense of lighter
age.
Before the CLOSE of the present month the
long-desired connection by rail of the flour
ishing towns of
TOWNSVILLE AND MONTICELLO
will be an accomplished fact This will
open up new career of prosperity to the
northern tier of counties in Florida, which
embrace the most fertile and desirable por-
ton of our sister state and greatly increase
the amount of travel from the north
and west through Middle Florida.
AS a feeder to Savannah this
branch will also prove of incalculable i'm
portance. The length of the connecting
link is twenty-five miles, and it traverses
one of the finest agricultural regions in the
south. This is the very heart of the sea
island cotton district of Florida and the
genial home of the LeConte pear Much
of the recent rapid growth and prosperity
OF Savannah is due to the expansion of the
Plant system, which has made tributary to
our principal seaport almost the entire area
of the peninsuar of Florida.