The free lance. (Fredericksburg, Va.) 1885-1926, 1899-10-24
seatoard Air Line.

A New York correspondent Of the
Baltimore sun says:
With the election today of Mr. John
SHELTON Wlllisms. of Richmond, Va,
president Of the Florida Central and
Peninsulsr Railroad, all of the prop
ertles embraced in the new Seaboard
Air Lire system comes under one
executive head. The consolidation
OF these properties, including the
'oAds of the SsabOard Air Line, the
Florida Central aud Peninsular Rail
road and the Georgia and Alabama
R2ilway, will probably take place
about January |.
President Williams said Nego
tistions have been concluded with
the Richmond, fredericksburg and
Potomac Railroad and the Pennsyl
vania Railroad by which the trains
of the Seabosrd Air Line will enjoy
the same rights and privileges be
tween Richmond and Washington as
those enjoyed by the Atlantic Coast
Line, and from Washington to New
York the Seabosrd Air Line will be
precisely upon the same footing IN
the use Of the tracks Of the Pennsyl.
vania Railroad as either the Atlantic
Coast Line, the Southern Railway or
the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway"
President Williams stated that his
system had contracted with the Pull
man Palace Car Company for the
building of four magnificent vesti
buled trains. These are to be used
this winter by the Sesbosrd Air Line
in its through passenger service
between New York, Jacksonville and
Tampa, Fla. 1t is planned to make
these trains the most elegant and
luxurious ever operated in the South.
They will include dining, sleeping,
parlor and observation cars.
The new route thus opened is to be
ready by January l. 1900, and is to
be known as the Florida and West
India Short Line, reducing the dis
tauce from New York between 70 and
10 miles. The link under construc
tion between the main line of TIE
Sssboard and the Florida Central and
Peninsula at Columbia is being laid
with new so pound steel rails, and
the bridges are all of steel, so as to
permit the use of the heaviest loco
motives and fastest trains Several
corps Of engineers are now at work
surveying the rejected lines between
Charleston, S. c., and Augusta, Ca,
and the latter city and Athens, Ga.
II these lines are built the new system
will secure short routes over its own
tracks between Atlanta aud Augusta,
Atlanta and Savannah, Augusta and
Charleston and Augusta and Athens.
The new system including its pro-
jected lines, will mbrace about 3 600
miles of main line. 1t also controls
the Baltimore Steam Packet Com
pany, which for the past so years has
been operating between Baltimore
and Old Point Comfort, Norfolk and
Portsmouth.
II is stated that the combined bond
ed debt Of the roads in the new sys-
tenn as now existing is less than that
of any other system OF like import
snce in the United States, and COM
pared With Some lines operating in
the same territory is considerably
less.
From Washington the trains OF the
new system will be oper ,ted through
the capital cities of six South Allan
tic and Gulf States, as it strikes
Richmond, Rlleigh, Columbia, At
lants, Montgomery and Tallahassee.
II takes in the important seaports
from Baltimore to Pensacola, includ-
ing Norfolk. Wilmington, Charleston,
Savannah, Fernandiua and Jackson.
VILE on the Atlantic coast. and
Tampa, Cedar Keys and st. Marks
on the Gulf of Mexico. Many i'm
portant interior points are reached as
we'll as the leading winter resorts.
80 The properties taken into the
consolidation now have aggregate
gross earnings of between S.. 900, 900
aud $10,000,0O0. The control of the
system will be in the hands of Balti-
more and Richmond capitalists and
managed entirely in the South.
Bismarck's Iron Nerve
waa the reanlt NJ his snlendid haalth