The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1895-11-26
The ATLANTA EXPOSITION.
The Old South and the New South~-The
Exposition and Its Meaning-TO the
Exposition by the Southern Kali

"ay---SouChern Railway Gnu
the New ~South--The
"Land of the Sky"
Correspondence of the Progressive Farmer
Prior TO the wal much of the vast
area of tillabIe land in the Southern
States was divided into large planta-
tions, the product of which was mainly
cotton, sugar, tobacco, rica and corn,
and the field Iaborers were to great ex
tent slaves, though in some portions OF
the South there were many white farm
ers having small farms who owned no
slaves The profits in cotton growing
were at that time so great by reason
of high prices that Southern planters
generally accumulated large fortunes
The war freed the slave and left the
planter, after four years of disastrous
struggle, nothing but his vida waste
of untitled fields, without means to
employ help, and 80 discouraged and
disheartened by the complete revolu
ton 10 labor and other u~nfavUrable
conditions which confronted him, that
he was hardly in a condition to quickly
rebuild his lost fortune. The negroes,
rejoicing in their new condition of
freedom, h1cked to the towns and
cities of the border States for the most
part, and eked out a precarious exis
tence that lacked the common comforts
to which they had been accustomed In
slavery.
This was generally the condition of
the South at the close Of hostilities,
and there was but little improvement
during the res of reconstruction,
which were as chilling to enterprise,
as a~ntagonistic to growth and develop
ment, and almost as ruinous as war
itself.
About 1880 the South commenced to
emerge from the over Whelming poverty
and trials which had overshadowed it.
A few enterprising men opened coal
mines, built furnaces, started cotton
mills and bIazed the pathway fore road
to general progress and prosperity.
Birmingham led the way, and 10
revolutionized the worlds views of
Southern mineral resources. Admission,
Chattanooga and other places followed.
Atlanta, with indorlibable pluck, de-
veloded a wide diversity of industrial
interests, and under the inspiration of
Grady's work made a success OF two
great expositions, which emphasized
the South's prospects and possibilities.
The great Cotton States and Inter
national Exposition, now being held in
Atlanta, Ga, a typical American city,
standing IN the majesty of her strentb,
full of energy, enterprise and patriot
ism, with sound financial institutions
and varied manufacturing interests,
the commercial and geographical
metropolis OF a vast region teeming
with agricultural and mineral wealth,
the Mecca to which Americans from
the North, South, East and West and
visitors from other shores are vending
their way, Is but the full fruitlon of
AtlanUa's work in the past.
Atlanta is a beautiful city, situated
on the Appalachian Mills, 1850 feet
above the sea level, and in a region of
country famous for It's salubrious eli
mate and historically interesting from
the fac5 tha5 a number of desperate
battles were foughG over it preliminary
to the capture OF the city by General
SneIm IN on the second day of Septem
Der, 1864 and from which in the fol
lowing spring ne started on his famous
march to Tie sea-"
TIE exposition is in Piedmont Park,
about two miles north Of Atlanta, and
Is quite as interesting as any That has
been opened in this or any other coun
try. Toe grounds are a Veritable fairy
land. The visitor finds himself in the
midst of ; profusiono of trees and shrub
berry peculiar to toe South, which have
required years of careful nursing TO
bring TO their present state Of perfec
Gion and beauty, and sees the graceful
fabrics that are the products of the
soil and factories Of the South. Here
rs the cotton growing IN the fields, the
treasures Of the mines and the riches
OF the granary. Every avenue echoes
with b hum Of industry, where !
looms weave cotton directly from the
fields, and where mammoth machines
crush the ores, and others convert the
metal into finished products
The grounds are ~thOrOnged by visi
tors, many of them from beyond the
seas, who see IN the Agricultural, Man
ufac uring and LIBERAL Arts, Ma
chinery, Transportation and other
large ardimposlng structures, III which
the almost unnumOered and varied ex
hiblts srA classified and arranged, uu-