The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1892-12-21

n8ukCo ~ OtOlA MS Y 10
aud every department. of female labor. as
we'll as the skilled and common employ
ments OF men.
REAL EsTATE AND
The William N. Whitley Company. Of
Springfield. o., manufacturers of all kinds
Of harvesting machinery, has located o
plant just half q mile west of Muncie.
which. for size, durability and capacity,
probably ~eclipses any other single institu-
ton in the belt. 1t has already expended
$500, 600 in the construction of buildings
ahd improvement of it's grounds. The
works consist of fourteen buildings stu
eted in parallel lines at intervals of forty
feet. Each of these buildings is 500 feet
long and forty feet wide. connected by q
hall running at right angles through the
centers. This gives O flooring space OF
about 500, 600 square feet. and the buildings.
II placed In one continuous line, would ap-
proximato one and One-half mile IN length.
The factory Will produce all kinds OF bar
vesting machinery, and when running at
its full capacity will employ 1000 men.
The land about these works 10 among the
when it was first offered for sale il was dis
posed of with a rapidity hat has seldom
been equaled. There were thirteen thou
sand lots plated about the vicinity OF the
works. and In August, 1892. they were first
placed upon the market. In two days the
sales had amounted to $4,000. and by the
LIST day of Der twelve thousand lots
had been sold. Between the 23d day of
August ard the Let day of December of this
year $50 houses had been COMPLETED. and
the owners established therein. Other
suburbs about the city are building uD
rapidly. and the number of massive brick
blocks and store fronts to be seen in the
business centers is growing greater daily.
Since MuncIe's prosperous era set in the
volume of freights handled by the three
railways entering the city has increased
enormously. The total freight forw arded
from here in one month is IS. 900. 600 pounds.
and the amount received in the same
period of time is 46. 7S6. 600 pounds. making
the stupendous total of u. 736. coo pounds OF
freight handled monthly. To this. It is
said, the Whitley machine works. when
running ut full capacity. will add 1000
tons per month.
1t is almost supertluous to add that with
the incoming of industrial enterprises
every class of business has been acceler-
ated. New mercantile houses are being es-
tabllshed almost as rapidly as buildings
can be constructed for the purpose and,
aside from the army OF workmen employed
about the factories. there is a great num-
Der OF carpenters. plasterers, masons.
painters. designers, decorators, architect 70
and labOrers who find constant employ
ment in their various lines of work.
Muncie has reserved her entire gas prod
not for her own use. There has never been
but one attempt to establish q pipeline
to carry gas to other cities. This was the
effort of the Queen City Natural-gas Com
pary, OF Cincinnati. Failing to secure
franchises upon land in Delaware county,
the company long since withdrew from the
field. and only last week filed in the courts
of Cincinnati o formal application for the
dissolution of the company.
1t IL o fact interesting to be noted that
certain products now being manufactured
in Muncle and other towns of the gas belt
have never been produced in the State pre-
vious TO the natural gas era. In 1887 there
was one glass factory in Indiana. and that
manufacturer window-glass exclusely. To-
day IL would be safe to estimate the num-
Der of these factories at one hundred with
in the limits of the gas belt, aud
there is no known article Of the ware,
from the most OK pensive cut-giass down to
the eommonest window light. that is not
manufactured here and placed in success
full competition with the products of the
world.
If the stupendous figures Indicating Num-
cie's amazing prosperity create surprise, let
it be remembered that Muncie il only one
point in a vast and wonderful region. Her
history is the history. In some degree. Of
every town and section of the belt. The
same industrial revolution 10 IN progress
wherever the development of gas has been
successful. and when il 10 remembered that
the gas belt of Indiana 10 from five to ten
times moro extensive than the combined
gas fields of the world. Muncie's progress
may be taken as a faint indication of the
future prospects of the entire belt.