The age-herald., 1900-07-23
TWO EXCURSIONS
 TO BIRMINGHAM They Brought Large Crowds to
 the City Yesterday
BIG CROWDSAT UNION DEPOT
Branch Lines of the Yazoo & Missis- sippi Valley ompleted-Business on Southern Roads Shows
 No Shrinkage

Two excursions came to Birmingham yes- terday over the Louisville and Nashville road, one from Montgomery and one from Nashville, and one left over the same road Saturday night for Pensacola. The South ern Railway will run an excursion from Atlanta to Birmingham today
 The two excursions that came in yester- day were both crowded, bringing perhaps 1,50O persons to town. Four hundred or 300 persons went the train to Pensacola.
 The scenes at the Union passenger sta ton recently remind old timers of boom days In Birmingham when there was a great rush to the Magic City from all sec tions of the country. Forty-four passenger trains arrive at and depart from the Union depot every twenty-four hours and each brings in takes away, as the case may be, full list of passengers In addition to the great number that either come to or leave the city on some one of these forty-four trains there is always a large crowd who go to the depot to see the peo- pie or meet friends.
 The space between the waiting rooms and the railing is always crowded at the time of the arrival and departure of the trains in the afternoon and early night It would probably not be a misstatement of facts to say that more persons kiss and are kissed at the exit gate of the Birmingham Union passenger station than at any other one spot in the South. if not in the country. The new branch lines of the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley road in Mississippi, which have been under construction for a long time. are about completed and trains will be operated them in short time. These branch lines traverse heavily tim bered section in which are located a large number of mills.
 It is announced that by August the branch from Isola to Belzon an extension of the Yazoo Delta branch of the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley from Moorhead south will be complete. This will give a line sxty-six miles long, dissecting Sun flower County in the middle, running south from Tutwiler, Miss. and including the twenty-two miles of road which are owned by the Yazeo Delta Railroad Company, and which has been in operation for more than two years. Three years ago there was hardly dwelling house in all the section of Sunfower County which is being served
 
 road system, but now it is one of the most prosperous sections of Northern Mississippi
 No shrInkage in the south
 President John Slieton Williams of the Seaboard Air Line, in an interview at Bal timore, said:
 "rhe reports of shrinkage in railroad traffic do not apply to lines in the South. So far as the Seaboard Air Line Railway is concerned, I will say that it has all the traffic that it can handle. Every freight train operated over the system Is loaded to its utmost capacity, and passenger busI- ness is all that could be expected at this season of the year We are adding to our rolling stock as rapidly as possible. The shops of the company have been busy for months building freight cars. They are turning out cars at the rate of about five day, or thirty week.. Our mechanical department has just completed specifications for 2,000 freight cars, the contracts for which will be awarded within a few days. The cars will be of the latest design and equipped with modern appli- ances and will include refrigerator, box and fiat cars The earnings of the company are most satisfactory.
 
 | will be a surplus of about $500, 900 at the end of the first fiscal year, without con- sidering the earnings of the 250 miles of new road, which even now are earning their proportion of fixed charges and a substantial surplus besides. The managing committee of the Greater Seaboard agree | ment is now engaged in clearing up the details connected with the organization of the new system. I think that the new stocks and the pool certificates for the new per cent bonds will be delivered by l August l." -5. The gross earnings of forty roads for the | first week in July were $5,6S9,960, against 1 s, ,52S, 1885 for the first week in July 1S99, an increase of $16OS05. Twenty-six roads show increases and fourteen decreases. Since January the roads referred to above earned $16S, ,979, 939 an increase of SIS, ,622 S24 over the s15O, ,115 reported for the corre- spending period of 1899. For the longer period thirty-seven show increases a1s three decreases
 Ten Nights in a liar Room