The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-06-07
MEN WHO HAVE MADE TOWNS.

From Individual Initiative. Although it falls to the lot of few | men to be, like Cecil Rhodes, empire
 builders" there are many men living | to-day who have either founded large
 and fourishing towns or have nursed | them from small beginnings into great | things.
 Jarrow on-Tyne, with it's population of over thirty-four thousand, is the child of Sir Charles Mark Palmer still
 a hale old man of seventysix. In the forties young MT. Palmer" was a clerk in his fathers office, and Jarrow
 was a tiny village with never a dream of the growth which was awaiting it.
 It was in 1852 that MT Palmer, who had already blossomed into a coke manufacturer and eolliery owner built the small screw steamer John Bowles,
 which was the cradle of the fortunes of Jarrow, and largely of Newcastle it. self.
 Its success was so full of promise that MT. Palmer, in partnership with his brother George, commenced ship building on a small scale, with the re- suit that to-day their works cover the ilulIuItu dCitS, SGNcu llUuSdilu Hlell find employment in building ships as many more are supported by the Pal
 ners' mines of coal and iron. and Jar row has developed in undreamed-of proportions.
 Just as Sir, Charles Palmer made JarroW, Ford Armstrong is the father of Elswick with it's busy thousands of workers. When Sir Charles Palmer was acting as his fathers clerk the fu- ture founder of Elswicl1 was a New castle solicitor, without any suspicion of the fame and fortune which were awaiing him in quite another field of labor.
 He had already invented the hy- draulic crane and the hydro-electric machine, and his brain was teeming with other important inventions. In 1S47 he abandoned the law and started the Elswick Iron Works to develop his inventions, but it was the discovery of the famous Armstrong gun that brought fortune to him and to Elswick
 To-day Mir. Arnlstrong's works on the Tyneside spread over seventy acres and give employment to more than fifteen thousand hands, thus supporting pop ulation of something like sixty thousand people
 Burton-on-T Trent, with a population of nearly fifty thousand, owes it's exist ence and prosperity to old William Bass the carrier. of the last century, and his capable descendants. It was in f777 that William Bass, while acting as carrier for a small brewer called Prin- ton, saw the fortune that lurked in Bur- ton beer. He opened small brewery on his own account, and thought his for tune made when his yearly output amounted to six thousand barrels. To- day, through the skill and enterprise of his descendants, the six thousand bar rels have grown to nearly fifteen hun dred thousand, while nearly two hun dred and fifty million pottling labels are used every year. The minimum stock in-trade is six hundred thousand casks, thousand acres are required to produce the supply of barley and hops, and an army of over 3250 men are employed in the brewery and its of- fees.
 Manningham, with it's population of over thirty-fve thousand, was a scat | tered village when Lord Mashan, then plain sam" Lister, breathed on it and made it live and grow. Young MT Lis | ter, in spite of all legends to the contra ry, began his business life with con- siderable endowment of wealth.
 He was industrious and inventive, and | chose to lead a laborious business life. | His wool-combing machine, which cost | him in experiments more than one hun dred thousand pounds, was the basis of | his fortune; but it was his discovery of | the method of converting silk waste into rich velvets, plushes and silks that made a millionaire of him and pros porous town of Manningham, where he built his colossal mills.
 Even Birmingham scarcely realizes the debt it owes to the present colonial Quite apart from the impe- .us which MT Chamberlain's prosper I pus business gave to it's growth, he has infused new life into all it's veins.
 |