The free lance. (Fredericksburg, Va.) 1885-1926, 1900-10-16
TUESDAY. OCTOBER l6, 1900
FREDERICKSBURG ILLUSTRATED

FREDERICKSBURG ILLUSTRATED
Sufficient time has elapsed for us
to view in logical light the spirit
that has sprung up sfresh in our
Business Mems Association. At its
meeting of some ten days ago mum
Der of important questions, which
THE FREE LANCE has been actively
bringing to their attention, we're con-
sidered in 8 deliberate and determin-
ed manner, and We must congratulate
the association upon coming to such
rational conclusions. Committees,
composed of representative men,
have been appointed to deal with
these questions, and upon each OF
these committees we shall keep our
eye, at the same time giving them
such aid SIS we can. There is no bet
ter way to aid in the fruition of these
plans than by public discussion OF
each one. With that purpose in view
and that each may Do fully agItsteo
THE FREE LANCE proposes to take
them up seriatim, and at intervals
discuss one or more of them with
such light as il is able to command
upon the subject.
We will take FIRST the question OF
advertising our city's advantages
Col. L. d. Cole, S. S. Bradford and
w. d. Carter compose the committee
for this purpose. Fredericksburg
has mooted this question some in the
past, but no fruits have ever resulted.
1t is not because we are financially
unable, nor yet because our public
spirits lack energy, nor yet still that
we have none competent to undertake
what may appear to the uninitiated
as q herculean task. What, then, is
the reason that fredericksburg has
failed to keep pace with other towns
in this very important respectR We
attribute it solely to lack Of appre-
citation Of how great good such ad-
vertising does town or section
Northern towns have for many
decades been spending a great
amount in the way of advertising,
and they have reaped an hundred
fold in the way of immigration and
new industries. The towns Of the far
South some years ago took up the
cue, and have followed in the wake
of their Northern sisters. Yet Vir-
GINA, which wrests from every visitor
the plaudits of "a fair and goodly
land" has been slothful in adver-
Using to the world her wonderful nat
ural resources. True, some of the cities
of the old Commonwealth might be
excepted in this category, but they
furnish US with an argument of what
can be done in that line. Take our
seacosst cities, and some of the cities
inland and nesting among the
mountains; but for their great activ'
ity in bidding strangers "cOme, and
see," they would today be but
swampy morsss or wooded and rocky
hills.
Yet, we concede to none of these
more natural advantages than are
claimed by Fredericksburg. 1t is the
head Of deep water navigation, with
a river that could be made to accom-.
modate most any craft that sails or
steams; at the foot of rapids which
could supply sufficient power to con-
vey every pound of traffic that passes
between Washington and the South,
which could run the mills of Worces-
ter or Springfield, and have power to
spare; lying midway between the ma
TONS capital and the erstwhile cap
ital OF 9 government now dead, per
SO, but which breathes with dilated
nostrils the breath of newborn peo-
pie and energy; the centre of scenes
OF carnage such as the world
never knew, whose every peb-
BILE, almost, is stained with the
blood of heroes and whose green
sward was moved by marching
thousands; its very pinnacle and hills
an object of eager curiosity to thous.
ands who annually wend their way
here. The crops Of its surroundings
and the cattle of its fields compare
fsvorsbly with any, while its people
are the true type Of all that Virginia
boasts. These and many other
things would appeal to the stranger
and his purse, if he but knew of them.
Favored by a Bene6cent hand, we
a "a da~altok IN our dusv IN MT NAB. |