Birmingham age-herald., 1895-09-02
SIGNS ARE PLENTIFUL
THAT PROSPERITY HAS RETURNED TO US
What an Attache of the kge-Herald Noted in Recent Trip Over Two
 Roads.

An attache of the Age-Herald has just returned from a tour along the lines of the Southern and Alabama Great South ern railways, and if the signs of the times as observed by him count for any thing the much-talked of tide of return ing prosperity is at last sweeping over the sections of Alabama traversed by those roads. The tour spoken of was from Birmingham to Meridian, from Me ridan to Selma and thence to Birming-
 ham, with stops at all intermediate towns and cities.
 The crops all along the line are excel lent, as they have been for three success siVe years, and one hears the financial question" discussed very little among the business men and farmers; they are far too busy tilling and gathering their crops and opening up new stocks of goods and remodeling old and building new store houses for any foolishness of that character. When approached on the subject the usual answer is "I am very well pleased with the existing state Of affairs. l was once inclined toward the free coinage of silver, but have decid- ed that 1t would put no money in my pocket for which I had not worked and so much talk is demoralizing." The cot ton crop in some places has been in- 1ured by continued drouth, but IS generally good and little complaint is heard One farmer very pertinently re- marked that he was disappointed in his crop, not because he would not realize an excellent profit from it, but because ne at one time thought that it would yield bag per acre, which would have been phenomenal.
 The corn crop everywhere is good and so are the potato crops and the pea crops and the hog crop; in fact, there are no poor crops to be seen in those sections of tich Alabama. In almost every town ex- tenslVe municipal improvements are either being made or contemplated. Tn Meridian electricity is soon to supplant the festive stringtailed mule as a mo- tive power for propelling the street cars ana the streets are to be better lighted me work Is already in progress. A new daily paper will appear in a few days and all kinds of business is in a flourish Ing condition, or that is the way the mer- chants tell it to you
 The town of Demopolis is actually on a, boom. An enterprising citizen states the idGt itt.I Tn this wise to the Age Herald man:
 we are booming. We are not making any great blow about it, but We are" several brick buildings are in course of construction and the contract for the erection of another of four stories has peen awarded The city has just con- tracted Tor the erection of an electric piant. A cordage factory has been se- cured "
 GfeenSboro is booming in a very com mendable way. More pupils are enrolled on the matriculation books of her schools ana colleges for attendance at the next session than for any previous session in years Marriages are of almost daily oc- curence. There are only thenty-fve ad- Vocates of the free and unlimited coin age of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1 in tn town (counted by the State correspond enD and the number is lesSaniilg as fhe days go by. Gov. Tom Seay is in excel lent health, and Tom Knight has re- gently married and will be returned to the legislature
 Selma people are jublant over the pros pect of the early building of several new railroads and only two days ago in two hours subscribed $25.000 toward building a road to Camden. Selma factories will handle more cotton this year than ever and are making their preparations ac- cordingly. And thus it is all along the line.
 If the returning tide of great prosper ity in Alabama is not at hand then this observer is like the tobacco drummer. who, after trying unsuccessfully for sev- eral hours to talk a backward merchant into handling his tobacco, earnestly re- marked as follows: Now Mir Blank I'll tell you what I'll do with you: if you will order ten boxes of this tobacco of me, and if when I return in sixty days time you have not sold every plug of it. why Tll-Tll--be the worst fooled man in the country"