The Big Stone post. (Big Stone Gap, Va.) 1890-1892, 1890-10-17
An Appeal to the People.
ITO the Editor OF the Post.)


ITO the Editor OF the post.)
The time is ripe for earnest, organized
action on the part of all who have finan-
cial interests at Big Stone Gap and who
expect to realize handsome profits on those
interests. Nature has been lavish indeed
with us Land and improvement COM
panics and other great corporations have
done much, and arc doing and will do
vastly more But there is yet one thing
nccdful. What arc the people doing!
They are the keynote to any success in
town-building. Look to the history Of
hundred Young cities that have sprung up
within the last twenty-five years from
grassy plains or blackjack thickets to
lustv Young Ttans, rushing to the top of
the census lists and thrilling the whole
commercial world with the audacity of
their successes. Has it been land and
Improvement companies that have done
it? After tho first few years, or months,
these are forgotten. Has it been the in
torscction of great railway lines? Thou
sands of such points in the land are still
way-stations, boomcts burstcd! In every
instance it has been the people, believing
in the destiny of their city, and reused to
earnest, concerted action for it.
We have gathered into Big Stone Gap
the nucleus of n most splendid population,
Young men, active, intelligent, confident.
We have as investors here the most intel
lircnt classes North and South, men
whose foresight showed them the way the
finger of destiny was pointing. All believe.
Who will aid to speed the glad day when
our dreams of great city shall have come
true? Much has been already done. Our
Improvement Company, its officers and
friends. have founded two great iron fur
naccs, with two Of the greatest practical
iron makers in America at their head.
They have inaugurated the building of
coke ovens on II large scale, by company
comprising many Of the coke kings of
| PENNSYLVANIA, in q coal field the richest
on earth, whose black diamonds arc far
more valuable to commerce than the gilt
tering gcw-gaws dug from the sands OF
Brazil or tho East They have furnished
us IL splendid electric light system and
street railway, and arc now busy putting
in belt railway and perfect system of
water works, besides other improvements.
We have one railroad in operation, aud
another-the queen road of the South for
town buildng-almost completed; with
third nearing completion, and still others
coming. The great Interstate Tunnel,
with its incalculablo blessings, is being
surveyed.
All this is much; but it is little with the
real work to be done. Ono swallow does
not make a spring, nor one furnace city.
To mako city We must attract hero
diversity of manufactures, large and small.
Where tho thousand armed artisan dwells,
forging sustenance for happy homes from
the giant forest and rock-ribbed hills,
there is a city, Read the incoming figures
of the census They show US that this
country is full of laborers, restless and
ready to 60 forth to greet better conditions,
and abundant capital ready TO lead the
way. How many of our 81, 000, 900 people
how many even of the most Intelligent
know that here, here Mt Big Stone Gap,
Virginia-thcre is the most marvellous
combination of wealth production factors
on this continent2 We know it. You
and know it But how is the rest of the
world to know it, until it is brought to
their attention.? We must tell it in Gath
and proclaim it in Ascalon! Our light has
too long been hid under bushel We
must organize for persistent, effective adj
vertising. 1t is the people who can do
their best, and who must do it at Big
Stone Gap, or we shall suffer. The land
companies will aid. Let the Real Estate
Exchange, as representing the interests
Of investors, and the good Of the town,
take tho matter up and push it as they are
capable of doing.
Now is the time for action. The sum-
mcr months have passed with their una
voidable dizziness, and we are at the heart
of the autumn. Moneyed men from all
parts of the country, East, North and
West, are coming into the South now
seeking investments. 1t is by far the
most promising field and it is attracting
worldwide attention. Many hundreds OF
the most distinguished and astute English
and German IRON masters are abroad in
the land Only two days ago my eyes fell
on an item in Bristol paper, which stated
that four special trains of parlor cars, con-
veying several hundred Eastern capital
lists passed through Bristol on their way
to northern Alabama, and other points in
the South Appalachian mineral region.
Nearly every paper one picks up from the
newly awakened towns and cities of this
whole section contains similar items.
These items fill me with conflicting emo
tions; with pride and JOY that the moneyed
and industrial world is ut last awake to the
teeming richness of our long neglected
| rpnunkatpo. NTH sbar,a hof R;n Ctnpa