The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1895-09-26
ATLANTA EXPOSITION.
PRAISE FOR THE "CHICAGO OF THE
SOUTH"

SOUTH"
The Great Show Which Opened Sept.
iSth.-A Grand Success in Every
Particular-The Government Exhibit
to Equal that of Building
and Exhibit Of the Southern Railway.
The most important event Of the
current year to this country, and es-
pecially to the South, and still more
especially to the city Of Atlanta and
the State of Georgia, is the Cotton
States and International Exposition
which was formally opened at Atlanta,
Ca, on the 18th day of September,
and closes on the 3Ist day Of Decem-
ber.
That a Southern city Of about IIo,-
900 population should have the enter
prise and public spirit, not to say the
temerity, to undertake, almost 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 entitle it to the
designation Of international" in the
face of universal commercial depres-
sion and financial panic, and that At
lanta, Ca, which was left but little
more than heap of ashes and smoul-
dering ruins, with its population OF
10000 scattered and homeless by
Sherman'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 assitance
of sister city in an undertaking which
at such time was regarded as hazard
Gus in the extreme and too mammoth
to promise even measurable degree
Of accomplishment.
A visit to Piedmont Park, however,
about two miles north of the center Of
Atlanta, will dispel every doubt of the
realization of degree Of success sur
passing the most sanguine expectations
of the projectors of the Cotton States
and International 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 and its surroundings is af-
forded. All around you, spread over
hills and valleys, just sufficiently pro-
nounced to afford pleasing variety to
the topography, is the compact, we'll
built, hustling Chicago of the South,
Gate City of the South, Atlanta, with
IFS wealth of well-paved streets and
avenues, laid out apparently regardless
of rule or plan, which join the macad-
amized roads that lead through the
picturesque suburbs to the rich farming
lands beyond.
There is an appearance of solidity,
grandeur and beauty in her public
buildings, her hundred churches, her
seminaries, colleges, numerous public
school houses, her Henry Grady Hos
pital, her stores and private houses,
suggestive of abundant building mate
rial near by, and looking away to the
east, fourteen miles across the foothills,
the lannon's ST me 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 thousands
were slain, and their blood trickled
over the rugged granite sides of Stone
Mountain.
In looking over these lovely hill:
and valleys, clad in the gladness o.
Southern verdue and yielding abund
antly to the hand of the happy hus
bandman, it is difficult to realize thai
it was ever the theater of war, ano
that the soil was literally soaked will
fraternal blood.
| In such an undertaking the question
of transportation is one Of natura
prominence, and every person in any
wise interested in this exposition, ever,
person proposing to become an exhib
itor or visitor has doubtless pro
pounded the inquiry, whether tn.
Southern railroads are equal to th'
emergency of handling the enormou
travel and traffic to and from Atlant;
during the period of the exposition
This question of course has long sine,
been answered to their satisfaction b,
the Committee on Transportation O
the Atlanta Fair; but for the benefit @
many who acquired their knowledg
of the railroads of the South during
period of ten or fifteen years succeeding
the close of the war, perhaps i, will b
we'll to say that no comparison can b
we'll drawn between the miserabl
. apologies for railroads in the Sout
!; during that period, with the reall
splendid roadbeds and equipment an
service of the present.
Atlanta is essentially railroad cit
j and great railroad center, havin
: roads, and good ones, radiating t
every section of the country. Br
without considering any of the other:
there is one system fully capable {
handling expeditiously, comfortabl
. and satisfactorily, all the travel an
5 traffic to and from the exposition fro.
$ any and every direction, and that
9 the great combination operated by
a single management, with headqlarte
i at Washington, D. C., under the nam
e of the Southern Railway.
One of its lines has its northern te
\ minus at Washington, and over it
v operated fast through service in col
/ nection with the Pennsylvania Rail
road from New York, through Phil;
:, delph:a, Baltimore, Washington an
. Atlanta IN all parsS of tke South n