Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1900-04-14
PROGRESSIVE CORINTH.

ulilHDD, 10 SOult VI tHt itduluB luhuo-
tries of one of the most progressive and
prosperous little cities of the South
west. We were on our way, with hun
dreds of others from all parts of the
State, to attend the funeral of Elk
Governor John NJ. Stone; and having to
wait until the train came along from
Holly Springs, we called upon Corinth's
popular mayor, Hon. I. f. Henry, and
invited him to escort us to some of the
big factories that are making fame and
fortune for that enterprising city. The
mayor promptly accepted the invita-
ton. and a good team being placed at
our service, we drove to the Alcorn
Wooden Manufacturing Company, OF
which John II. Jones is president and
r. NJ. Weaver secretary. This factory,
from "a modest beginning eleven years
ago, has grown to large proportions.
Its sole and only output is pants
mostly jeans pants, that wholesale from
$3.50 to S36 per dozen. Thege are about
$50 persons employed in the building
no children, no colored, and nearly all
adult females, who make from 70 81
per week. About 100 sewing machines
are in constant use. The cutters place
full bolt Of cloth on the tables, and
cut out from twenty to thirty pairs Of
pants with few movements Of the big
knives, the waste being reduced to the
minimum. The cloth is purchased
! from mills in Knoxville, Atlanta and
| New York-the bills from the Knox
vile Wooden Mills often amounting to
So, 900 a month. If some of the new
cotton factories being erected in Mis-
sissippi will make their products of the
kind used in Corinth they will secure
big cash customers from the start. We
were specially pleased to note that the
15O-horse power engine that operates
this big pants factory was made in Bir-
mingham.
This factory has enjoyed exemption
from taxation for ten years, and is on
the tax roll this year for the first time.
The exemption contributed very mate
rally to its success. 1t is now abund-
antly able to take care of itself.
The Corinth Clothing Manufacturing
Company has been in operation two
years. Its output is "high-grade jeans
and cashmere pants" Its efficient and
courteous foreman insisted on taking
our measure for pair of his best, and
one of the ladies delivered them, in
custom-made style, in an hour and
thirty minutes, but they have made
pants in twenty.six minutes from the
time the cutter placed the cloth on the
table.
The directors Of this factory are w
#. Adams president, S. II. Curlee vice
president, T. D. Duncan secretary, j.
w. Taylor treasurer, and S. |. Nelson
The two factories turn out about 2O(
dozen pairs of pants day; pay rolls
about 81 700 a week; the weekly pay
rolls of all the factories in Corintl
amounting to about $1,000.
There is one unique and most com
mendable feature in the management
of the pants factories Perhaps there
is nothing else like it in the industrial
world. A cabinet organ is a part o
the equipment. When the employee
assemble each morning at o'clock
quarter of an hour is occupied in devo
tional eXercises-songs of praise, prayer
and reading the scriptures, No wonder
those establishments are prospecting
and that all in their employ are as con
tented and happy as toilers for dali,
bread ever get to be.
We were pleased to meet in the ship
ping room of one of the pants factorie
Mr.. Toby Richardson, who graduated
from the Institution for the Deaf ant
Dumb, at jackson, three years ago, an,
to hear the compliment, "We couldn'
get along without him."
The plant of the w. T, Adams Ma
chine Company is the biggest thing il
Corinth, and one of the largest of it
kind in all the Southwest. About IS
hands are employed, and they turn on
all kinds of machinery, engines, boil
: ers, all varieties of mills, presses
everything but locomotives-and ship
ments are made as far as California ant
Mexico. When Mr. Adams moved T.
l., &c al MI oil tx-n
$500. He first made cast plows; thel
acquired an interest in a small shop, il
failing conditions; now orders reach hin
from all sections of the Union, and it !
only by constant enlargement that h
is able to keep pace with his orders
J He is not an importation. He is to tn
manner born; and his successful caree
c shows what may be accomplished b.
= pluck, perseverance and good Judgment
These were all the factories that W
could visit; but the other industries In
clude an ice factory, a steam laundry
two spoke factories, baTel-headini
factor, large cotton compress, electri
lights, water works and telephone Sys
tenn, planning mills and lumber factory
two brick factories, a saddle factory
two marble yards; two merchant tail
oring establishments. There are tw
excellent newspapers, two banks, sey
eral wholesale houses, splendid court
house, a school building that cost abou
} SIS, 900, and more up-to-date churcI
! edifices than can be found in any cit
| of its size. In fact, Corinth has every
+ thing except the saloon. The city
! strictly prohibition.
7 We called at the public school, hopin
: to meet Prof. w. P. Dobbins. Their
: are twelve teachers, besides the prime
, pal. Major Henry stated, and Prot
! Dobbins has since written, that Corint
, would like to get one of the summe
normals this year, and we see no reaso
why it should not have one.
Corinth is the county seat of Alcor
county. 1t is in the northeast corne
, of the State, near the Tennessee an
Alabama lines-193 miles north of Nc
ridian and 90 miles east of Memphis.
Has population of fully four thousand
The battle of Corinth" was one of tn
most sanguinary of the civil war. TIL
national cemetery, near the city, cor
tains thousands of the Federal dea
, who fell on that and other fields in tina
! section.
Fully five thousand persons have bee
vsccipsted 10 Jackson since March l.