The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1888-04-26

it is:
1888. ....... 100 per cent. ........ $500, 900
1884. .......96 per cent .....-..... 10000
1885. ....45 sper cent. 10000
1855. $50 per cent. ........... $4,000
1887 ..2,2U5 per cent. A, 100000
1888 Ito datel100 per cent. 2oo, 900
Total to date. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS S., ITO, 900
Every reader remembers when
the boom was on that every man
you saw almost was looking for the
bottom to drop ont. The boom did
finally abate, but behold city was
there, founded upon imperishable
value. The Birmingham boom was
but the first outbreak of the fever
that will never abate until the old
slothful south is no more. She has
settled back now upon firm and
solid business basis that Is as en-
during as her iron mountains.
Sheffield had her boom, and An
niston and Decatur and Chattanoo-
ga, and although speculation is not
wildly INDUCED in and men are not
crazy to get rich in day, they
have settled down into q driving,
pushing, legitimate and healthy
development that is even surer of
safer results than the boom.
Birmingham had absolutely moth
ing to start on. There was the
iron and the coal but they were un-
derground and no one to dig the m
and no money to pay for digging
them and no railroads to haul them
and no means of utilizing them.
Starting at nil, behold the result!
Decatur has a hundred natural
and acquired advantages where
Birmingham had one. Why then
should she not repeat the history of
Birmingham? Decatur has two IT.
val railroad systems that reach ev-
cry point desired and assures com
petitive rates. Birmingham had
one to start on. Decatur has a
broad, navigable stream which
Birmingham had not and never
will have. There are the fewest
cities on the face of the earth that
attain to any commercial impor-
lance that have not the advantage
of water freights. 1t brings freight
rates down to the minimum and is
an effective and continuous check
upon railroad rapacity. Birmlng-
ham is one of tbs few places tina.
/ oor . h r;ro mi bo,,f n rsvar ord Tho
reason for it lies in her peculiarly
advan tageous location with respect
to coal and iron. She is nee
ess arily and primarily founded
upon iron and its product and can
never get beyond that, though that
is enough, with her unequalled adj
vantages, to make of her magnif-
cent metropolis, which she already
is and is destined to be.
We ask again: What is to hin
der Decatur in repeating the history
of Birmingham
We have repeatedly called atten-
ton to her position with reference
to all the natural wealth producing
elements, her advantages for ship
ping, her favorable proximity te
food supplies apd her natural cen.
trail location with reapeet to all ths
things that enter into the newly
found wealth that is developing n
this country, that Enthusiastically
designate her as the site for the
central:commercial metropolis.
| If she does not attain to this
then there is no force in logic and
fact and no virtue in unlimited eff
fort to force her into that place
Hundreds of thousands of dollars
and thousands of men with brains
and energy and activity and push
| have located there and still they
leone, and it is as manifestly Ger
tain as that irresistible cause will
produce certain effect that the des-
| tiny of Decatur is to be a metropo
| lis of diversified manufactures and
| commercial greatness.
i The south has passed the stage
of booms. They are unhealthy and
dangerous and the reaction over
| whelms som body. The collapse al
| West Nashville caught many coun
TRY people under the ruins. The
collapse at Birmingham left mer
who bought LOTS ont ln the barren:
| in o desolate fix. Booms always
collapse. Fever is not norma
condition. Under ordinary eircpm
stances collapslng boom involves
Immediate disaster, but the results
have not been SO ruInous south be
cause there was so much real value
underlying the boom and the con
ditions existed for quick recovery
Most of our investors have dropped
on their feet, like cat dropped
backwards out Of 9 third story win
tdow.
Il But Decatur has never had a fe-
verish boom. There has been no.
public sale. There have been ~
called meetings to excite people. 1t
is real solid business investment. Il
is apparent to- any discerning mind
that here is the site for great city
that here is the geographical center
of commercial activity, of produc-
ton and of transportion-the cen
trail distributive point-and bust
ness men IN business way have
set about building it. True there
is a mighty rushing activity, but it
is conducted ON business principles
and there is nothing fictitious.
| There are tottering old men who
will live to see these things verified
| 1t doesn't take a life time now to
build a city.
4 One year ago last Thursday a
shanty was nailed together twelve
miles below Birmingham and q
tlear eyed spectator closed his eyes
and saw city built in the black
Jacks, and 10, it was good and be
called the name thereof "Bessemer.'
Last Thursday nearly four thou
, sand resident citizens of the baby
city celebrated its first birthday
and it is gro wing like phantom Wis
| ions that loom up in a fretful dream
! Il is not boom-it is business,
, Ten thousand northerners are
, tracking each other up and dowr
the mountains and through the val
Il ieys and towns hunting for places
! to establish .hemselves-for sitel
}, for furnaces, mills, factories, etc.
, Forty Pennsylvania furnaces sem
, representatives to q convention Of
furnace men March 80 and il wal