The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1893-08-30
TIE sOUTH,s NEW ERA.
What Has Been Accomplished Since the
Late War.
From the Nc,0 York Times.

the country's history, yet in all this
bouleversement there has been GER
tain degree Of advantage, until the
South, which some Of it's old-time
statesmen and publicists would have
had us believe could not exist without
slavery, has really become richer in
material wealth than it was before the
disruption. And all this, too, in a
quarter Of a century.
Before the war the South was purely
agricultural. Its wonderful deposits
Of iron and coal we're absolutely un-
touched, except in two sections OF
Kentucky and Tennessee. The coal
fields along the Black Warrior in
Alabama were known, but there was
no adequate idea as to their extent or
value or that here nature had worked
one of her matchless marvels; that in
Alabama's hills iron ore, coal as good
as any known and limestone Gan indis-
pensable in the reduction Of iron ore)
were laid in endless quantities side by
side.
Providence seems to have done
more for the South than for any other
section of the country. The climate
is milder, life is not so grindingly
hard as in the blizzard-swept West,
where between drought, grasshoppers
and Colorado bugs in summer and
billiards and awful cold in winter the
people become as coarse, common and
hard as the life is among them. Hum
boldt truthfully says: sThe people
of country partake in their personal
traits of the peculiarities Of the eli
mate they live in. u
The close of the war in some res
poets was the beginning Of Southern
development. And be it known that
this very development has been begun
by Southern-born men and continued
by them until it's success has been
assured. Take, for example, the his
tory of Birming ham, Ala.
In 1868 there lived in Washington
County, Mississippi, the banner cot.
ton growing country Of 4he United
States and the world, planter named
j. R. Powell. The County mentioned
has two river fronts, one on the Mis-
sissippi and the other on the Yazoo.
Old Colonel Powell had two fine plan
tations, Pluck and Daybreak, Of about
$500 acres each, on the Yazoo front
of Washington County. With some
peculiarities-a firm belief in the code
duello being among thcm-thc old
gentleman was something Of scientist
and an indefatigable student. He
had very excellent knowledge of
practical geology among his other ac.
complishments, and during his annual
hunting trips in and about what is
now Birmingham, he became convinced
that there was most remarkable de-
posit of coal and iron right there
together, with limestone as a close
neighbor. To make sure, however,
he got the best practical coal and iron
expert New York could furnish to
come down and examine the great
deposit that he-Powell-had found.
He did so, and fully confirmed the
gentleman in his views.
Col. Powell thereupon established
what is now Birmingham and boug hit
it for $1,000. Birmingham and the
coal towns in Alabama have been made
by Southern genius and energy and
the ability to conduct practical affairs
of great magnitude. The three great
est mine owners at Birmingham are
Colonel Powell, John G. Sloss and
Colonel Johnston. They pay every
Saturday night 5000 workmen-black
and white alike-who are employed in
their mighty furnaces and rolling
mills. These three men are all South
erners-were in the Confederate army
and in their works men, black and
white, are wage earners, a thing one
never sees in Pennsylvania iron mill
or mine. In fact, "nigger' can t
get job at any factory or furnace in
Pittsburg, not even in the great and
good Carnegie's stupendous coke
works. Birmingham was incubated
and made what it is by Southern brains
and wealth.
Did ever the agricultural part Of
any country produce such shower Of
gold as the cotton and sugar sections
Of the South do now? Seven States
headed by Mississippi, the banner cot.
ton State, when average is considered
have poured into them $3.50, 900, 900
every year. No wonder the South is
rich. This money comes each year,
and it will continue, for God has
blessed that region with an almost
matchless climate and the most pro-
ductive soil under the sun.
The question may be asked GLOW
is it that the South has so speedily
recovered from the ravage and shock
of war and is getting on so well p
A most natural and proper question;
and one which can be answered.
When the war closed, all enterprises
in the South were, Of course, dead.
In the gulf States little cotton had
been grown every year, but the main
labor had been expended in raising
something to eat. Cotton would
always bring gold, so it was very
poor sort of household that had not a
few bales hidden away against time
of great need.
When the war was over cotton was
very high in price. Men from the
North swarmed into the rich cotton
growing sections of Arkansas, Missis-
sippi, Alabama and Louisiana. They
knew thousand bale crop was nothing
on such plantations as they found in
these States, which, on places like
Dumbarton, (belonginging to the Dun
cans,) the Hampton estates, the Cabin
Teel plantation, (owned by the Mar
shalls,) in Mississippi, and many in
Texas, were good for 5000 bales any
average year. They saw fortunes in
one good twelve month. Now, all this
would have been true, but for one or
two reasons. These reasons the South
ern man understood very we'll, while
the other never thought of them.
The first thing, therefore, the South
ern old-timc planter did when he came
home from the war was to rent his
estates for as high a cash price as
could be obtained, half of it in adj
vance. He fixed up his residence,
repaired the clubhouse, planted an