The Washington critic., 1890-02-16
LYNCH OCCURRENCES.
Business Circles Agitatsd by the Bon
sack Cigarette Company.

Special Correspondence of The CRITIC.
LYNcHBURa, VA, Feb. 14.-Thcrc
has been a ripple in business circles
Bonsack Cigarette Company have
been in session, with closed doors, for
several days. The public, until this
evening, was ignorant of matters under
discussion, but it has been learned that
the Bonsack Company has been en-
deavoring to force the leasers of ma
chimes to enter into contract to use
those machines so long as the patent
shall run.
1t is claimed that such a contract
will give the stock of that company
better quoting, This stock has sold
one thirty five above par and the com
pany has declared forty per cent semi
annual dividends. 1t is reliably stated
that in one deal a banker and broker
of this city made $4,000 handling this
stock.
The Washington Zinc Company. of
which General Rosecranz is president,
is on boom. The works are located
in West Lynchburg and have a side
track from the n. & w. They receive
coal direct from the Pocahontas mines,
arc forty five miles from ore beds, have
the best appliances and can find sale
for products at good figures. This is
one of the most important industries in
this manufacturing city.
The first three yards of cloth turned
out by the Lynchburg Cotton Mill is
on exhibition. Guggenheimer 81 Co.,
the leading wholesale dry goods house
of Virginia, declares it superior to the
product of any other mill in the South.
This company is capitalized at $780,
| 600. Its machinery, &C., has been pro-
nounced by experts to be second to no
mill of its class in the Union. 1t will
give employmentto about 400 hands.
During the last twelve months TWEEN
ty-three million pounds of leaf tobacco
were sold upon the warehouse floors of
shipped direct to Europe.
During the year 1889 the Pocahontas
Coal Company shipped 1852, 485 tons of
coal, an increase over 1888 of 216,475
tons. There is no abatement of the &C
tivity in real estate throughout South
west Virginia. At Pulaski City one day
this week $4,000 worth of property
changed hands. Philadelphia and New
York capitalists have purchased valua-
bic mineral lands near Pulaski City,
and will at once erect two iron furnaces
Of large capacity.
Big Stone Gap, the coming industrial
centre of the southwest section of this
State, is developing with astonishing ra-
! pidity. Auction sales of town lots have
been going on there all the week. Many
of Lynchburg's prominent business men
are interested in this magic city. In two
days $146,S15 worth of property was
sold at public auction at an average of
AZ per cent. above schedule prices.
While southwest Virginia is verify a
land of plenty, some of the Eastern
countries are on the verge of famine.
Judge George p. Barham of Green
vile County, one of the counties of the
"Black Belt" south of Petersburg and
bordering on North Carolina, was asked
whether the condition of the farmers
in Greenville County was as bad as re-
ported. He said; Eyes, perhaps worse.
for while the petition which has been
published might reasonably lead the
public to believe that the need is con-
fined to the poorest of the people, the
fact is that the greatest restitution Is
among people who have heretofore
not only sustained themselves but also
added something to the wealth of the
country, I IJudge Barham thinks that
the laboring classes can be provided for,
When work cannot be found for them
at home they will be furnished trans
portation to places where work can be
had, but the real suffering is among
the farmers, men who own the land
and In many cases the teams to work
the lands, but who neither have feed
for the teams or food forthemselves, and
who are consequently in even a worse
condition than those who own no prop
erty at all.
He saws that In many instances
farmers have delivered their teams Il
merchants to sell for debts, but tha
the merchants refused them because
there are no buyers and nj
sales can be made Thus. year afte
year crop failures have brought thes
people to absolute poverty. Fine es
tates are drug upon the market. Thu
lands Of Greenville County are amonl
the best of southeastern Virginia
These BLACK Belt" counties were tn
wealthy counties in ante bellum days
Now, all through the section of the OLE
Dominion lands can be bought for s.
per acre that were worth $25 before tn,
war.
The staple crops are peanuts and cot
ton. This section of Virginia Is ia tn
hands of the cOlored brother Nine
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