The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1899-07-26
BO0NE'S BLACK DIAMOND.
The Big Scheme is Being Seriously
Considered
Ncws and Courier.

In this day and generation when rail
road projectors, builders, manipulators
and managers are abroad in every part
of the land, the public is kept guessing
at what they will do next. SO many
things have come to pass i'll the world
of traffic that few years ago were re-
garded as wild vagaries that it requires
some temerity to declare that any given
scheme will not amount to something
sooner or later. A few years ago,
when Col. Albert Z. Boone was first
employed to boom and promote what
has since become known as his Black
Diamond project, the affair was regard
ed with no little derision by the traffic
men of the country. And now. while
it cannot be said that the Black Dia-
mond is by any means an assured en-
terprise, still there seems to be far
more likelihood of its coming to some
thing than people would formerly have
supposed was possible. Col. Boone
and his fellow promoters have gone
steadily forward With their booming
despite the incredulity of the profes-
sion, and of the world in general, Until
they have finally won for themselves
and their enterprise serious considera-
tion. The Black Diamond is long
way from being built, of course, but
railroad men are beginning to realize
that it is one of the possible lines of
the next decade.
The undertaking is q gigantic one,
the plans of the projectors contem-
plating double track trunk line from
the Ohio River to the South Atlantic
Seaboard, together with a veritable
network of feeders that will tap the
trade centres between Knoxville and
Cincinnati. A great deal of money and
energy have been expended in making
surveys, securing franchises, obtaining
charters, and in other preliminary
work. And finally few months ago'a
representative Of English capitalists
was brought to this country and taken
over the proposed lines, and after all
had been done and said it was finally
announced that the English syndicate
was satisfied with the showing made,
and would supply the money to carry
the Black Diamond through. Even
then very little general attention was
paid to the scheme, many people be-
lieving that Sir Thomas Tancred and
his hackers were no more than ncces-
sary factors in the plan of promotion
which Col. Boone had mapped out for
himself at the beginning.
For time nothing more was heard
of the Black Diamond, but after awhile
the getting Of charters and franchises
was resumed with renewed vigor, sur
yeying parties were put in tine field,
and an activity was eyinced all along
the lire by the projectors which could
only have been born of confidence
backed by considerable cold cash.
And this is the situation at the present
time. The Black Diamond people go
steadily forward, spending money and
perfecting their plans as though it
were an assured fact that their road
was to be built, and this course of
action has gradually had the effect OF
bringing the public to the opinion that
possibly the enterprise was, after all,
not 80 vague and visionary as it was at
first believed to be. Several hundred
thousand dollars must already have
been spent in furthering the under
taking, and the impression is growing
that men who have been able to get
that much money to float their scheme
will be able to get more when the time
comes to lay rails and buy rolling stock.
But even should the actual cOnstruc-
ton of the Black Diamond ever begin
| it will not be ut all certain that the
road will be built as mapped out, for
to accomplish all that Col. Boone has
planned would require some $40, ,O0O,-
600, and that is great deal Of money
even in these days of trusts and gigan-
tic combines.
A dispatch from Barnwell printed in
the Sunday News announced that En-
ginecr n. j. Kirk was there with q sur
veying party, and that he was doing
his work in so thorough a manner us to
leave little doubt that some one was
seriously considering the matter of
building on it.
Engineer Kirk openly acknowledged
that he represented the Black Diamond
people, and he said he was working out
of Port Royal to the mountains. Many
a road is surveyed that is never built,
but when practical work Of this kind is
being done for the Black Diamond it
gives that enterprise an Importance
which it has not possessed heretofore
in this section of the country.
Among the South Carolinians who
have been interested in the Black Dia-
mond enterprise from its inception are
several wcll-known business men and
capitalists of Alabama. They have
been on the inside from the begin
ming, and they have always maintained
that there was more IN it than mere
bluff and boom.