The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1895-09-28
ATLAN7k Exposition.
rHE ssCHIoAGo OF FRE SOURI,
The Great Show Opened Sept. 1S-The
Government Exhibit TO Excel That at
Chicago Building and Exhibit OF
the Southern Railway.


The most important event of the
current year to this country, and es
pecially to the city of Atlanta and
the State Of Georgia, is the Cotton
States and International Exposition
which was formally opened at
Atlanta, Ga, on the 18th day of Sep.
TENDER, and will close on the 3lst
day of December.
That Southern city of about
population should have the
enterprise and public spirit, not to
say the temerity, to undertake, al,
most single handed, an enterprise so
wide in its scope, so mammoth in
its proportions and requiring such a
vast outlay of money as TO richly en-
title it to the designation of Inter
NATIONAL in the face of a universal
commercial depression and financial
panic, and that Atlanta, Ga, which
was left but little more than heap
of ashes and smouldering ruins.
with its population of 10000 scat
tered and homeless by Shermau's
army, when it took up its famous
"March to the Sea- should be that
city, it is not surprising that the
first suggestions of such an enter
prise were received with general mis-
giving and that even the Southern
States and cities counselled against
it, and were slow TO come to the as.
sistance Of sister city in an under
taking which at such time was re
gsrded as hazardous in the extreme
and too mammoth to promise even a
measurable degree of accomplish
ment.
A visit to Piedmont Park, how
ever, about two miles north of the
center of Atlanta, will dispel every
doubt of the realization of a degree
of success surprising the most san
guine expectations of the projectors
of the Cotton States and Interna
tional Exposition
From the roof garden of the new
and modern "Aragon Hotel, which
occupies the highest hill in this hill
city, magnificent panoramic view
of the city aad its surrounding is af-
forded. All around you, spread over
hills and valleys, Just sufficiently
pronounced to afford pleasing varie
ty to the topography, is the com
pact, well built, hustling Chicago Of
the South, Gate City of the South,
Atlanta, with its wealth of we'll
paved streets and avenues, laid out
apparently regardless of rule or plan,
which join the macadamized roads
that lead through the picturesque
suburbs To the rich farming lands
beyond.
There is an appearance of soidi.
ty, grandeur and beauty in her pub
lie buildings, her hundred churches,
her seminaries, colleges, numerous
public school houses, her Henry
Grady Hospital, her stores and pri-
vate houses, suggestive of abundant
building material near by, and look
ing away to the east, fourteen miles
across the foothills, the famous
Stone Mountain looms up, solid
mountain of granite where immense
quarries are operated now, but
where, thirty one Years ago grim
visaged war held sway and thons
ands were slain. and their blood
trickled over the rugged, granite
sides of Stone Mountain.
In looking over these lovely hills
and valleys, clad in the gladness of
Southern verdure and yielding abun
dainty to the hand of the happy
husbandman, it is difficult to real
ize that it was ever the theater O
war, and that the soil was literally
soaked with fraternal blood
In such an undertaking the ques
tion Of transportation is one Of nat
ural prominence, and every person
in anywise interested in this exposi
ton, every person proposing to be
come an exhibitor or visitor hal
doubtless propounded the inquiry
whether the Southern railroads ar,
equal to the emergency of handling
the enormous travel and traffic L
and from Atlanta during the period
of the exposition. This question o
course has long since been answered
to their satisfaction by the Commit
tee on Transportation Of the Allan
ia Fair; but for the benefit of many
who acquired knowledge of the rail
roads Of the South during period
of ten or fifteen years succeeding th,
close Of the war, perhaps it will b,
well to say that no comparison car
be well drawn between the misera
BILE apologies for railroads in The
South during that period, with tht
really splendid roadbeds and equip
ment and service of the present.
Atlanta is essentially railroad
city and a great railroad center, hav
ing roads, and good ones, radiatine
to every section of the country. But
without considering any of the 9th
ers, there is one system fully capa
Bile of handling expeditiously, com
fortably and satisfactorily, all the
travel and traffic to and from the ex
position from any and every direc
ton, and that is the great combina
tion operated by a single manage
ment, with headquarters at Wash
ington, d. c., under the name of the
Southern Railway.
One of it's lines has its northern
terminus at Washington, and over il
is operated a last through service
in connection with the Pennsylvania
Railroad from New York, through
Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washing
ton and Atlanta to all parts of the
South and Southwest, including
New Orleans and points in Florida,
and which makes the run from New
York to Atlanta in "a hours. Not
only so, but it's connections in other
directions enable it to give the same
first class service to passengers from
the West and Northwest.
So important is this great rail
road system to the success of the
exposition and 30 hearty has been
it's interest in the undertaking and
its co operation with the managers
of the exposition, that it has been
accorded exceptional privileges and
will be the only road having tracks
in Piedmont Park, which will ena-
BILE it to land passengers from any
direction, without change of cars
either in the Park or in the Union
dennt in Atlanta. as they NAV IRE.