The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1890-11-13
BILL ARP,S CHAT.
atlanta Consultation.

dident realize how rapidly until visited
North Alabama last week, and with my
own eyes saw the wonderful growth of
new towns and the prosperity Of the old
ones. Millions have been added to her
wealth in the last two or three years, and
millions more are coming. There is no
let up in her progress. When little,
old fashioned village like Florence rises
from 1 200 people to Z 1000 within eighteen
months, and build furnaces and foundries,
and factories aud colleges, and her taxa
BILE property increases from $4,000 to
$4,000, 900 it all seems like dream. This
does not include any of the numerous
works in construction, among which is q
cotton mill of 53,000s spindle. 1t would
take half column to enumerate all her
industries and those in construction.
Money flows in and around her as free as
water, and it takes three national banks
to transact her financial business. 1t
seemed to me that everybody was rich,
Judging from the beautiful houses and
homes of her people. Everywhere is
heard the sound of the hammer and the
saw. Streets are being graded for electric
cars, hills dug down and hollows filled up.
The town grows so fast that the city faith
ers can't keep up with it; can't grade the
new streets nor pave the sidewalks. IT. is
yet city of magnificent distances. DR..
Hawthorne's great Baptist University is
about completed /; magnificent structure
and will soon be opened for educational
purposes. Sectarian colleges are now the
order of the dsy, and seem to prosper
more than any other. One thing / saw
at Florence gave me especial comfort.
The wagon factory that is turning out
thirty first class wagons every day, and
will soon increase its work to fifty. Ever
since the war We have paid millions in
annual tribute to the north for our wagons
and buggies and carriages. The time is
near at hand when we will make our own.
a few years ago we paid $50 for q wagon.
"a wagon that did not actually cost
more than $40. Studebaker and White
water, and other northern companies got
immensely rich from Southern patronage.
The Florence Wagon Company sells
better wagon for $50, and is making mon
ey now. In fact, they wholesale them for
about $40, for I saw them in the neigh
boring towns where the merchants keep
them, and the merchant pays the freight
and sells them to the farmer for $50 and
makes profit. There is world of mag
ni6cent timbers around Florence, and
this wagon company invites an inspection
of the stock of ash and hickory and
white oak that is put in their wagons.
Why can't We duplicate this factory in
Georgia and save our timbers from wan
ton destruction. Florence has built
very fine hotel, and it is hoped that the
business part of the town will soon grow
to it, but at present the commercial trav'
eler suffers and sweats and trets down
town and gets away as soon as possible.
a good hotel is the very best advertise
ment for a growing town. It would pay
Florence ar d Sheffield to build one each
for the commercial traveller, and have
them we'll kept, even if the hotel lost
money. The drummer wants home for
the time being. His hard life demands
it. I persue them and ponder them with
intense interest and warmest sympathy.
Everywhere go meet them, and won.
der that they can be so cheerful. at
Tuscumbia eight of them left the hotel at
night on the 10 o'clock train, and seven
came in to take their places. The night
is to them just like the day-all broken
into pieces. Their schedule is made up,
and, like the Wandering Jew, they must
keep on moving. Around the big, dirty
stove in the reception room they gather,
and talk, and tell of their ups and downs,
and compare notes and whistle or sing
until train time, whether it be early or
late. At Huntsville a score of them
waited from II to O'Clock on a belated
train. It was cold and cherries, but !
heard no complaint. no bad language. l
was tired and sleepy aud it was struggle
for me to keep calm and serene, but |
thought of the drummers and kept my
temper down. I thoug ght of the father
and mother, the brothers and sisters and
the pleasant home that was far away, and
how happy they were all to receive Wis.
it from the boy they loved. | thought OF
the midnight travel and the cherries
room where, as my old schoolmate wrote
once in his composition, be was sail SOL
itary and alone, all by himself, with no
body at all with him?" Wasn't he lone
some?
Florence is on one side of the great
river and Sheffield on the other. Five
great leviathau furnaces are continually
breathing out FIRE aud smoke in Sheffield,
but the town is not making very rapid
progress now. It is beautifully located
and has broad, graded streets and hand
some drives. Montgomery avenue is just
lovely. No more beautiful street can be
found in any city in the south, and all it
wants is to be filled up compactly with
such residences as now adorn it. There
is much wealth there, but not many in.
dustries besides the furnaces. From
Sheffield ran down to the little unpre-
tending town of RussellVille. | did not
know there was anything there but an
old. fashioned primitive village with
courthouse and Jail and Baptist and
Methodist Church and few humble
dwellings and stores, but / found the
town on 8 boom, and every man, woman
and child on a strut-even the dogs
wagged their tails proudly. Town lots
had gone up from 5000 an acre to $40
front foot. Iron ore had been found in
the naboring hills and iron men from
Birmingham had come up and bought it
and were tearing up the face of the earth.
They have built branch railroad around
it and had reservoir that held 10,0O0,O0O
gallons Of water, and were operating i'm.
mense steam shovels, and washing the
gravel ore with ponderous machinery of
the latest improved models. Whole train
loads of this ore were moved every day
to Birmingham and Sheffield. Houses
for the workmen we're thick in the su-
burbs and everything wac lively, A new
hotel is on the way, and it is to be hoped
that the same good lady will preside over
it that presides over the humble tenement