Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1890-05-23
A Letter froni n Writer who Tells the
Truth on Both sides Of the Southern
Room Rusineas.

are practically endless, but if the expecta-
tiUns Of the sanguine southerner are real
lied, even in the next quarter Of a cen
| tury, the growth Of the West will be a mere
| bagatelle to the progress of the new FL
| Dorado.
The "magic city" of Birmingham gave
the impetus to the movement that has as
sumed such gigantic proportions, and large
section Of the country appears to believe
that wherever there is pocket of iron ore
city may be built. The promoter, there
fore, is here in his glory 1t is no exaggera.
tion to say that out of every ten men you
meet in any place of hundred or more
people, eight of them have boom on hand
for some poverty stricken hamlet or virgin
hill.
This place was in the throes of a boom
| for several months, and as it is one of the
most wonderful exponents of the celerity
of town building in the new South it is used
everywhere as an argument in favor of the
| widest enterprises.
Fort Payne was satisfied for years with
/ frame courthouse, big tavern, and a ram
shackle cabin or two. 1t was a great place
for barbecues. and the Alabama candidate
held forth at every election TO the good peu
/ pie OF three counties, who came here to
feast and frOllc on Grafton days. Stone and
l brick buildings have taken the place of the
1 log cabin, and electric lights glare where
/ the pine knot or tallow dip used to flicker.
| 1t is a noteworthy circumstance that every
town in the South which is riding a boom
or preparing to mount has electric lights.
There are three preliminary requisites to
the establishment Of a city in the Industrial
South-a blast furnace first, hotel and
electric lights Then come the street cars.
and they must be run by electricity. As a
matter of fact, the mule drags the street
car rs a rule, but electricity is soon to be the
motor.
Look at Fort Payne now. Something
like year ago it had four or five hundred
| inhabitants. The boomers place the popu.
lation today at over three thousand. What
did 1t Boom a hustler from Kansas
City came down here, looked over the land,
organized company of eastern and west
ern capitalists and bought up all the sur
rounding acres. They secured the property
Tor from so to $50 an acre, held sale of
town lots and sold at from $4,000 to $1,000
an acre. of course they built furnace
they could afford to-and "a hotel Then
they gave away land to factories and other
industries, keeping few millions of stock
in their inside pocket for future use The
representations made to the purchasers of
town lots were kept, in so far that indus
tries were started. and it is probable Fort
Payne is a permanency as a lively little
town. But will it grow any more We
must wait to see.
FURNACES To SELL TOWN LOTS
As matter of fact iron is not here in in
eXhaustible quantities, nor is coal here in
limitless supply. Every town now incubat
ing is said TO have iron and coal in ''inex-
haustible quantities" Nothing seems to be
needed to make city but the presence of
ore and the building of blast furnace.
asked a gentleman in Chattanooga the 9th
er day why the South was building so many
blast furnaces.
ITO sell town lots he replied
That is the situation | know of fifty
towns in embryo that are to be blasted into
wealth and fame in the next few months by
furnace or two apiece. Where will all
the ore go they produce
I'VE will close up Pennsylvania, the
boomers say. I'VE can make iron cheaper
here than anywhere else in the country,
and the older producing centres will have
to get out of the field"
The conservative people of the South,
however, do not take this view of the situa-
tion and they deprecate the methods being
employed to boom the country had
long talk with eX Governor O'Neal of Ala
bama, at Florence, and as he voiced the
sentiment of the majority of people who
are not being whirled in the maestrom of
speculation, will quote some of his re-
marks
"We have enough in the South, " he said,
"to attract capital without creating booms,
which must collapse and then bring compar-
ative stagnation. You speak of Fort Payne
as an example of what the boomer can ac-
complish. That certainly is marvellous
achievement in town building, but do not
believe that because Birmingham has at
tanned such wonderful success, and Fort
Payne has become an established fact that
a town can be built and made prosperous
wherever a boomer may select. | have not
paid much attention to these hurricane
schemes, but | believe that most of them
have some merit. We have the ore here, it
is true, but cannot see that that warrants
the founding of towns before we have the
people TO fill them.
"Do you think, Governor, - asked, that
the South will be benefited by the present
system of building it up"
Il hardly think the existing initiation will
result in much good, though whatever at
tracts attention TO this section will rebound
to its benefit. All the South wants is to be
known, and we will try to keep out the
swindlers and adventures.
do you think there is any fraud now be-
ing practiced on the public through these
land schemes ~
81 dent know, but it seems TO me that
there Is too much of this thing, and some
body must necessarily suffer. That person
will probably be the speculator as the whole
thing, as the situation is at present, appears
10 be a speculation,
W, p. RICE, THE BOSS BOOMER.
W. p. Rice, gentleman who went from
the East few years ago and doomed Kan
sas City, made up his mind that Fort Payne
ought to be little bigger, and with the aid
Of eastern and western capital he did make
it bigger, filling his pockets and those of
his partners by the process. Mr.. Rce's
company claimed that Fort Payne had all
the advantages and resources any place in
the South had, aud that its iron and coal
could never be exhausted Enough people
believed the representations TO buy town
lots at enormous figures, aud there they are
today. Some distance away from the
court house there is a coal field about two
feet thick, and iron is found in spots,
Mr., Rice having established his town, he
looked about for another spot. His com
pdny thought town building was Such
nice and profitable business that they would
keep it up. SO away speeds the boomer
out into Tennessee, and Cardiff is launched
upon the world. Cardiff is now spoken of
as a city, though it is still a field. Mr. Rice
is hustler, though, and ere the year is out
the inevitable blast furnace, with its crowd
of coored laborers, and a hotel will be
erected and ready for business Possibly
then, or before the consummation of his
project, Mr. Rice and his company of de.
velopers will have a sale of town lots some
where else.
Mr. Rice is the Moses Of the town build
ers of this section of the new South
Where he leads they follow Success has
attended his enterprises so far, and the con
idence of investors has been gained What
he did Cor Fort Payne he claims TO be able
TO do for Cardiff or any other site he may
in the future select 10 build town upon
Enterprises such as he is engaged in are le
gitimate enough, and so far have been un-
able 10 discover any absolutely fraudulent