Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1890-11-28
HARRIS0NBURG.
AN OLD TOWN REGARDED AS A
SAVINGS INSTITUTION.
More About Its Iron and It's Fuel supply
Asa Field for Invest
ment, &c.
H.RRrsoYBURG, November 25, 1890

HlRRISONBUht, No'clh'ei ~, lou.
Ro,erence has been made in various
,a,ters from this place to the projected
railroad direct to the coalfelds OF West
Virginia. The road, learn, may be re-
oarded as q certainty, and unquestion-
ably any one will see that its building
will complete the conditions necessary
70 make Harrisonburg an ideal manufac-
turing city, for even now there seems
not a link wanting to effect that con-
summation. Iron, it is admitted, is the
great desideratum in placing city upon
am extensive manufacturing scale. Upon
the iron industry are dependent
numerous other industrial enter
nrises. 1t is the capital, so to speak,
Of skilled labor. 1t is more precious to
the great body of artifcers than gold.
Rut the base of the IRON industry is
fuel. Just in proportion as fuel Is cheap
iron can be cheaply made and the profits
of the more skilled industries are in
creased. As has been shown, there are
vast deposits of iron ores right at the
door of Harrisonburg, limestone is
abundant. and coal-bituminous and
anthracite-at hand. In addition to
this Harrisonburg is accessible from the
coal.fields of West Virginia ria its con-
nection with the Chesapeake and Ohio,
the line TO Elldon will give it connec-
ton with the coal-belts pierced by the
Norfolk and Western railroad. and 1t IS
on tho Baltimore and Ohio railroad,
which drains large coal fields. When,
therefore. the direct line to the West
Virginia coa-beds shall have become an
accomplished fact it stands to reason that
Harrisonburg will be able to put out
iron from her furnaces for the ccnsump-
ton of her home Industries and put 1t IN
New York and Philadelphia as cheaply
as any place in the country.
AN ITEM OF CAPITAL.
Calculating upon this basis and upon
the fact that Harrisonburg just as it
stands is big item OF solidly-secured
capital it must be conceded that the
Richmond and Harrisonburg Land
Company offer an unexcelled opportu-
nitv for investment at their sale OF lots,
which takes place on the ID and I'd OF
December. But as further factor OF
assurance that Harrisonburg must
speedily grow up to and beyond the lin
It's of the additions to it now mapped ont,
and therefore make investments IN real
estate in those lands most profitable, it
should be remembered that the mineral
DEVELOPMENT around Harrisonburg has
lust commenced. The capital repre-
sented by Harrisonburg and the indus
tries already established stands in the
rotation Of an old and solid savings lnsti-
tuition. Every new industry started and
every step taken in the way of the min
eral developments of its environments
nut that much more capital into the IN
stitution. anu the investment the Rich
mond and Harrisonburg Land Company
offer is like stock in the Institution,
which if held is certain to pay large divi-
dends. or wh;ch if sale be desired must
certainly bring big advance. The pur-
chase Of one OF the lots at the sale on
the ri or Sd OF next month will be pretty
much in the position of an original
stakeholder in such a savings institution
az | have described, and the additional
advantage that the institution has passed
the crisis of building mp business, and
has put large amount to the surplus
fund, that is q guarantee of safety. This
is one light in which businessmen would
do well to look at the matter. All indus
tries in Harrisonburg, all the towns rail-
road connections, and all the agricul-
tural interests around the place are in the
position OF depositors in the institution.
a MATTER or EXTENSION.
Another point is that those contem-
plating attending the sale should not
forget that Harrisonburg is supplied
with electric lights, splendid water
works, and the other essentials of a
modern town, and that many of the I'M
provements that the company will put on
their property will not have to be inau-
gurated, but merely extended from whnt
already exists. This will, OF course, ena-
bic the company's improvements in such
direction as will enhance the value OF
property in the addition to be all the
m ora tborouch