The age-herald., 1899-12-26
THE SEABOARD
 AIR LINE SYNDICATE

From the Charleston News and Courier
 There is evidently some powerful in- fuence working against the Seaboard Air Line syndicate, but Mr. Williams and his friends have shown their ability to take care of themselves and their entcrprise.r
 Recent events in the New York financial market do not in the least seem to have petturbed the Williams syndicate, which is behind the Seaboard Air Line consultations and its extensions. The work which was ir hand when the New York Produce Ex- change and Trust company took place is still being pushed ahead rapidly and in the manner in which it is being carried. on would never give evidence of the fact that a regal financial battle was raging in New York The survey between Charleston and Augusta is going right ahead, and Captain Boiling and his corps possibly are not aware of the troubles that have been met and overcome by the Sea5oard.
 There is evidently a master hand and a master mind directing the opposition to the Seaboard Air Line. So much pad luck never came accidentally or unplanned to any men on this earth, notwithstanding those distinguished sufferers, Messrs Job and Lazarus. But the fortitude and fighting qualities displayed by the Seaboard Air Line are of that admiral quality which will not permit of ultimate defeat. The agents of the Seaboard Air Line company in Charleston and this vicinity receive encour- aging messages from headquarters and are going about their work as serenely as if the financial world was wholly as pleasant a May morning. The telegrams from Portsmouth and Baltimore to Seaboard agents in this city contain Ego ahead ad- vices and the orders are being carried out to the letter.
 Yesterday a reporter for the News and Courier met MT Charles s. Heard, of the Seaboard. MT. Heard did not looE as if he had ever heard that there was any such thing as financial trouble. His smile bore all the traces of regulation holiday pleas antness and good humor. When asked how matters in regard to the business on which he has been engaged-securing right of way between Augusta and Charleston-- were progressing he said:
 ''Splendidly; could not ask TOT anything better than the treatment l a1r receiving or the progress 1 am making. The people along the proposed line of the Chattanooga, Augusta and Charleston seem to be most anxious to secure the services of a line of new railroad and in many instances are giving a passage through their prop erty free of all charge. Of course there are a few people who want the earth, and the entire fullness thereof, for the use of a narrow strip through their lands but after
 
 offer of good money, these property owners readily the great good that the Chat danop Augusta and Charleston will acl cCmplisIl- l have now secured right of way for SiXty-eight miles out of Charleston and having caught up with the engineer- ing corps I will stop work for a tine and let the surveyors get ahead of me again. Despite all of the trouble that Is reported from New York, we have received orders from Messrs. Williams, St. John and Mo, Bee to go right ahead with our work. and that all the inteptions of the Seaboard Ar Line will be carried out as originally pro- posed. Of course, l know nothing of the reported troubles, but I do know that there has not been the slightest let-up in the work assigned to us in this vicinity. The engineering corps will be kept at work all next week, instead of giving the men holiday. l have received telegrams and letters from headquarters to go right ahead, and so have all the other agents of the Seaboard Air Line in this territory"
 Confidence in the Williams syndicate in Baltimore is unshaken and in this in- stance a prophet has honor in his own country. While trouble was brewing on the stock market in Baltimore an express sion of confidence in the Williams sym dicate was made public as the following clipping from Wednesdays Baltimore Sun will show:
 ''In Baltimore financial circles yester- day attention was again centered in the semi-panicky condition of the stock mar