The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1897-12-04

another and wlser plan. It's founds,
tions must be laid IN sound agriculture,
methods, and iA erection be a slow and
cautious undertaking. The fret reform
took place In planting methods. 1t had
been the former practice to draw reek-
lessly on the commission merchant for
all supplies and expenses, and trust to
the cotton crop and luck TO make ends
meet at the end OF the year-the mort
gage being left to take care of itself.
which 1t never failed to do. But now
the commission merchant refused TO
make anymore advances. Cotton was so
low in price that 1t was no longer an
equivalent for the necessities of life.
Those necessaries had to be raised by
the planter himself, or gone without.
This lesson was the good which grew
out Of the evil Of business panic, over
flow, and the collapsed boom.
With the promptness and courage
characteristic Of Delta people. the con
ditiOn was accepted. The result was
that In very few years the country
was a bursting storehouse of all the
farm products for which the planters
had formerly poured yearly fortunes
into the northwest, and the ever dwlnd-
ling price Of cotton had lost its terrors
for them in their newly gained indie
pendence.
Greenville, which hourishes or Ian
cuisines in accordance with the prosper
lty or adversely OF its tributary country,
recovered from its reyerses with equal
rapidity. Its old business institutions
were replaced by new ones, and the
value OF real estate became established
on II high but sound basis. Extensive
public improvements aud enterprises
we're established, the most important
of which was system ofpubiC water
works, by which every building in the
city, from the most important to the
humblest, can, at small cost, obtain
an abundant and never-falling supply
Of the purest aud most wholesome ar
tesian water, and the danger of fire is
miuimized by al arrangement Of nu-
merous plugs and the establishment of
a well trained and equipped fire SER
vice and electric alarm, greatly lessen
ny the cost and difficulty of insur.
Rnce.
The present year has been one OF
the most eycntful in the city's history,
aud has demonstrated individually It's
ability to overcome obstacles of the
most formidable nature, to recover
rom reverses with promptness ana
completeness almost marvellous; and
above all, the gratifying fact that its
growth aud steady Improvement is
low too we'll assured to be permanent
affected by any adverse Circum'
stance.
1t has been the fate of Greenyllle,
probably more than any other town in
America, to be made the subject OF
picturesque but disadvantageous adj
Vertising, Photographs of its cavins
banks aud overfowed streets have
been made familiar to all readers of
the illustrated magazines, aud its va
rious ualamities have been trumpeled
to the world with the most dramatic
and narrowing details by the senSa-
ional newspapers. The beginning OF
the present year was one of the bright
est which ever dswned for GreenVille
aud the Delta. Every cultivated field
in the country round was ready for
the seed, or was already occupied
with promise of magnificent crops
The business night which followed the
collapse of 1890 aud lasted through
the succeeding panic years was gone
aud merchants aud planters alike were
animated by high hopes and anuclpa-
lions. Once again, after the most des-
perate and costly struggle ever made
in the history ofthe levee system, the
river burst Its banks; and from the
/ first OF April almost to the beginning
of juno tue Delta was covered oy q
ses of water Except on few h'gn
ridges here aud there, every seed
planted aud every stslk Of corn was
| DESTROYED. The city of GreenVlllo Y
SELF was again partially ipuudat'" IN
!, herculesa efforts - greater Dor
ton Wa - ,,.otected, and for two month
J o." yupied the position of an island Il
1.-The sea, its business brought to
deadlock and its communication WI
! ,he onter world by rail as completel
: severed as il it had never eXlSIe
: During this gloomy period 1t was u
e prev of newspaper sensationaIiSm
such exaggerated character that 10 u
. ayes of the world it was held up as
i doomed city, threatened momon'arl
d with total destruction-a place
r which the horrors of the johnstoN
IS -, ,,t,bt at any time be repesle
s Tho Delta was represented as bell
irretrieyably ruined, aud its rich pla
n tatious and hourishiug towns as seen
10 Of desolalion from which there "
D. M nossibility of recovery