The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1893-07-27
Letter From Tennessee.
CHATTANOOGA, July II, 1898.

paper which reaches me every Sat
urday morning, | freq uently find
letters from former Snyder county
residents who have emigrated to
other sections of our glorious re-
public, and in reading over letters il
has occurred to me that a few lines
from Tennessee might not he out of
place.
L have been reading the article on
Chattanooga which was reproduced
in some of your county papers, and
can trace few of the principal
points mentioned therein. even at
this period; although wonderful
changes have elapsed in the past
thirty years. At the present writ
ing Chattanooga has u population of
forty-nine thousand people, thir.
teen thousand of which belong to
the colored or negro race. While |
mention colored race | do not wish
to convey the idea that above thir.
teen thousand are all of the lamp
black hue, rs there are great many
who are called negroes whose com
plexion equals the white race. Still
they are called darkies. The name
Chattanooga is derived from the
Cherokee Indians who inhabited
this section rs late as 1926. As to
the actual meaning of the name
there seems considerable specula-
tion S,hhe general belief however, is
that it means Hawks Nest. The
city is situated on the south bank
OF the Tennessee river which starts
in the mountains of Virginia and
empties into the Ohio at Paducah,
Ky Atcertrin Seasons Of the year
Ohio and Mississippi steamers find
their way to this city. The length
of time required to make the trip
from st. Louis Mo-, to Chattanooga
being ten days. When the river is
very low these large boats cast
anchor at Mussel Shoals, about
ninety miles west of Chattanooga
and transfer their load so as to al
low them to pass through an arti-
fetal canal which the L.. 5. govern
ment is trying to make success of.
You can imagine what an undertnli-
ing this is when i say that work first
commenced on these shoals in 1865
and still continues. With water
transportions to rely upon, the citi-
zens of Chattanooga feel that COM
binations formed by railroads can
do very little if any damage, in the
way of charging eXorbitant rates
The river is spanned by an iron
bridge at this point which was erect
ed by the county of Hamilton, of
which Chattanooga is the county
seat. 1t is an imposing structure,
costing two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars. The bridge is
free to all vehicles as well as pedes-
trians. The river after leaving Chat
tanooga forms what is called Moe
casin bend the water flows through
such u channel rs TO outline foot
which could not be initiated by the
finest landscape artist. OF the
piscatorial pleasures one may enjoy
along this stream will be written in
the future. The city proper is not
very well projected in time of over
flows, as the water finds its way on
our principle business streets at
times to the depth of four and five
feet. / am glad to say that such oc-
currences are not frequent-the last
flood being in 1856. The sanitary
condition of Chattanooga is very
good. This can very easily be OK
planned by showing the condition of
streets and sewers and the purity of
the water supply furnished the peo.
pie. The pavements ON the principle
streets consist of sheet asphaltum
which you know makes one of the
cleanest as well as the easiest of
streets to both man and beast. The
city has expended in tho last four
years the sum of seven hundred and
fifty thousand dollars on streets and
sewers. The water supply is OBJ
tanned from the Tennessee river and
is carefully filtered before entering
the city. We have the finest sys-
tenn of city and suburban transpor-
tation in the South. All cars run
by electricity and n uniform rate of
five cents is charged regardless of
distance, which in several instances
is over five miles. Chattanooga is