Birmingham state herald., 1896-06-28
Three Good Stories
 ALL ABOUT ALABAMA. ALL FULL OF WIT~-unuuz1-

In the good old days-not the days "be- fo' de wah," but the boom days-Ala- bama had it's share of booms and boom towns, with all the accessories. Fortunes were made in fewer hours than the net result in dollars. If there was loss, no one ever heard of it until after the boom had passed. Money was plentiful and the boom operators were needless in its expenditure. Contrary to the old adage, everything that glittered was gold, and no scheme for money making was too visionary to find hundreds of packers ready and willing to put up good money 10 exploit the enterprise. The lucky ones in the average boom town were ready to put some of their easily made fortunes Into anything from coffee plantation on the rugged side of an Alabama noun aain to the manufacture of machine 10 fill paper balloons with hot air, guaran- teed to keep hot until used.
 In one of the Alabama boom towns which shall be unnamed, a boom opera tor who had accumulated bank ac- count far away up in the hundreds Of thousands was approached by genius who for trifie would place him on the highway to amassing fortune which would cause the Goulds, the Astors and the Vanderbilts to grow green with en- wy. It was the rearing of goats on an extensive scale. The genius unfolded his plan, which was to purchase an ls- land on the Florida coast, stock 1t with a few dollars worth of goats, ana 10 trust to time and nature for an immense stock of gay and festive kids. The on- ly expense would be the hire of man to make monthly visits to the island to salt the goats. A particular island which was on the market was suggested as the seat of the enterprise.
 The flush boomer thought over tne proposition and it met his favor. He would be near several large cities, ana after a few years 1t was shown 10 nlin that he could continually supply thedr people with lamb to go with their mint sauce. while the hides could be prepared for all purposes to which goat skins are adapted, and this product alone would more than repay all expenses, leavlng all else clear profit. The boomer paid a Visit to Florida. and before he returned hoals he was the owner of the island, had stocked it with goats, and made con tract with one of the natives to supply monthly allowances of salt. The boomer was a business man, ana this Ittie ln- yestment was regarded merely as a flyer, which he did not propose to trouble him. self with for, possibly, several years, so to relieve his mind of any trouble on It's account he deposited with the authori- ties of the Florida county of which ms island was part sum sufnclent 10 pay taxes on 1t for a period of ten years. Time rocked along and in the course or a few years the boom reached It's climax it's back was suddenly broken, and crash followed The bubbles on every side began to burst and the we'll to do boomer who was tied up In a thousand and one of the bubbles, saw his sub- stance vanish in thin air, leaving him loaded to the guards with debt, while he had nothing to offset it with but unavail- able boom town property, which slipped through his fingers at sacrifice prices to meet boom time obligations as they pe- came due. He struggled and fought, and like a drowning man caught at every straw, his most valuable property being the large stock of hope with which he was blessed, but as cash asset hope cuts small figure, and after years of weary fighting and struggling he was confronted by ruin and absolute insolvency.
 In all these years of great events the boomer never once thought of the trif1ing investment he had made on the Florida