The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1901-01-01
A SHAKE UP AND SETTLE DOWN.
Newport News on Solid Basis Big Year
Ahead. Great Shin Contracts.

NEWPORT NEWS. VA, Dec. 31-Spe-
cial-Though the 1900 was not quite so
riotous in Newport News as some former
wears have been, it probably contributed
more to the material welfare of the city
than any of the preceding years.
During the twelve months just gone by,
the city has completed and put into opera
1ion a splendidly designed sewer system
Two viaducts over the Chesapeake and
Ohio Railroad tracks have been complet-
ed and third begun. Two of the prin-
cipal 1horoughfares of the city have been
handsomely paved with sheet asphalt
and sidewalks, that We're wont to stray
gle vaguely and uncertainty along the
streets, have assumed air of pleasing
DrirnneSs as behooveS the sidewalks of Il
well-regulated city. The new Academy
of Music one of the handSomest in the
State is in its first season. a number OF
splendid church buildings, begun last
year, have been completed and are now
| occupied by rapidiy-increasing congrega-
lions, and during the year several large
and striking business buildings, of the
most modern make, have been erected.
In a word, the city has shaken off, to
a perceptible extent, its awkward and
ugly newness, and has donned the tailor
made garments Of metropolitanism.
The Federal bankruptcy law has proven
a convenient, if unpictureSquc, cemetery
q
full. though insubstantial character-con-
Germs whose propretors. as a class, came
TO this much-adveriised Eldorada, with
out credit and without cash, expecting to
pick up money i'll the streets and to
gather it from the bushes that grow along
the highways. There have been. how
ever no large failures, and while business
has been neither unprecendentedly large
nor OF a charactr especially worth chron-
i.li /, hoe fiI- GOOD
There isn't a merchant in the city, who
has made a fortune this year. There isn't
one, however, who has lost one. In times
gone by, there was an overproduction in
the mercantile busineSs-an overproduc-
ton. which the law Of supply and de-
mand has eliminated from the trade eQua-
ton. In more or less gentle shaking
up, the largest stones have come to the
top and the titJest have survived.
There are not SO many doctors in the
community as there used to be, and
peace on earth, good Will toward men, +"
rings truer when it is known that there
has been Il slight decrease il the number
of lawyers.
AS a port and a sllip-building centre
the business of the city was phenomenal
~ good this year. The receipts of the
Custom House doubled. The receipts of
the post-office increased 50 1-3 per cent.
The pay-roll at the shipyald was larger
all the year round than ever before. En-
ports show an increase over last year of
about three million dollars. The coal
business was in the neighborhood of 4
half million tons better than that of
1899.
II is pleasant to be able to state with
absolute assurance Ind without a tinge
OF extravaganza, that the new year finds
the prospects here better than ever be-
fore. The shipyard with its Government
work, its huge Pacific Mail liners; its
Morgan boats, its remarkable repairing
work, has its ways and docks crowded
and now pays off about six thousand men
every Saturday afternoon Uncle Sam
has Just awarded the concern n contract
involving the expenditure of S11.500,o0o,
and much private work is in sight. The
railroad and shipping business is increas-
Ing steadily and rapidly, requiring he
employment OF an increased number of