The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1892-07-28

a separate name. The place was for /
| long time notable as a mud>hole, bu
now is being brick-payed in style tha
may we'll invoke the envy of Cincinnati
or Baltimore. 1t is magnifcently lighted
and has an electric street-car system
which is a model in meeting the needs
of large in-bucket brigade. All thai
I it requires in a public way is first-class
hotelmodernly appointed, now in course
of construction.
What has given to Huntington great
recent impetus is the development al
Central City and still further westward
and down the river at Kellogg, the main
author and creator of which has been
the man who built the street railway
and lighted the town with electricity
and kept up the agitation that has re-
suited in the best paved streets out of
7 Washington. Although president and
really manager of bank, owner of the
electric plant and car lines and of houses
and other things to be looked after, he
has nevertheless found time to locate
and establish at Central City Industries
enough to sustain a population nearly
as large as that of Huntington a year
ago, and it is considered by practical
direction is only the nucleus of what
will be-all of which l say not to please
that particular man, whose name is j.
L. Caldwell, but to encourage others to
undertake difficult tasks, to point out
one field at least where the harvest (all
over the South) is plentiful but the Ia
borers few. And why are they so few?
Because they sit ''ike humps on log"
doing the Micawber act, waiting for
something to turn up" forgetting that
a man has only to believe a thing hard
enough himself to make all his neighbors
and friends, aye, the stranger within his
gates, believe 1T too. This man Caldwell
believed in Huntington and stuck to it
and kept rolling stones up hill for its
prosperity. Young man, believe in your
town and stick to it, and never mind if
the grade is heavy keep on rolling, and
you, like him, will make money for your
self, and what you will enjoy just as
much or more, if you've got the right
sort of metal in you, you will make
money for your friends and neighbors.
Don't imagine that the grass must be
permitted to grow in the streets of your
town and the goods boxes kept covered
with loafers for lack of work and the
young men and women allowed to go to
seed Git not to the deviD through en-
forced idleness because few bubbles
have burst and q few visionary schemes
collapsed. Study out what will pay in
your town and get it established there.
1t is true that the town of Huntington,
which | AIN making the text of all this
talk, is exceptionally situated in respect
to the raw material for manufacture as
we'll as transportation facilities 1t has
south of it a vast undeveloped country
full of coal and timber. 1t is virtually
where the two greatest coal and mineral
railroads of the South Appalachian re-
gion (the Norfolk & Western and Chesa-
peake & Ohio) come together on the
bank of the only navigable river worth
speaking Of between the Mississippi and
the Atlantic ocean. Nevertheless there
are plenty of places whose advantages
may be fewer, but which may be turned
to comparatively as good account.
Now let us take a look at what has
been done here during the last twelve
months, and most of it since the alleged
blooms" at other points shriveled up
completely. There are three glass fac
tories, a brewery, large ice plant, three
large woodworking plants, an excelsior
and mattress factory, a big Touring mill,
a cooperage concern, and the largest
handle works in this section of the
Union. 80 per cent. of whose product is
shipped to foreign lands. 1t is one of
the best locations in the country for
tannery.
Were l attempting to write descrip-
lively should tell of the railroads, es-
pecially the Ohio Valley extension, and
the new buildings going up, but that
would only divert attention from the
main point | am trying to make, namely,
how the collapse of the boom at some
places has not hurt well-planned sensi-
bly-managed development in the line of
town building. And l desire to record
the prediction that if the Southern cities
which have genuine advantages shall
between now and the close of the Co
lumbar Exposition make known these
sentative, business-like way, the expan-
sion of Huntington will be duplicated
at dozen other points. No Southern
city is yet too big to grow, especially in
respect to it's Industries.