The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1901-12-28
BIRMINGHAM
TO ATLANTA
GEORGIA THE LAND OF CORN
AND COTTON.
Also Of Cinnamon Seed and Sandy
Bottom-Story of a Delightful Ride
Through the Yellow Pine Districts.
Glimpses of the Historic City-The
New South-Its Progress.


Written for The Tribune.
N ESUMING our journey eastward
~ from Birmingham, the so-Cal!ed
"boom- town." reluctantly, in 60
miles we enter the great state Of
Georgia, the land of corn and cotton,
cinnanonSeed and sandy bottom, where
are also immense pine forests extensive
cotton plantations, corniiclds of great
areas, also tobacco patches and marble
and granite quarries 1t is here the
long-leafed yellow pine has room and
time to grow and stretch out until fifty,
sixty or seventy foot timbers, without
Il knot, are taken from their long
gaunt bodies, while the needles of their
taSscls measure twelve to fifteen in
cheS and with every breath of wind
from mountain or sea, make some of
natures sweetest most plaintive and
grandcst of music. Thus we go on to
Atlanta, the heart of the new SOUTH
and it's particular pride, about which
so much has been written and of which
the half has not been told. It's recup-
Grafton. it's enterprise and growth are
among the marvels Of modern civiliza-
ton.
"All roads lead to Rome" and a good
~ number of our great American rail-
ways lead to Atlanta. Eleven lines all
told. converge there, placing the city
in close touch with all the country ly-
ing around for Il great distance in
every direction. Her trade extends to
the Gulf of Mexico on the south, and
beyond the Potomac and the Ohio on
the north; and from the Atlantic coast
on the east to the Mississippi river and
beyond on the west. This commanding
trade position has been the inspiration
OF many business enterprise. AS
manufacturing centre Atlanta has al
most limitless possibilities. Lying just
beyond the edge of the rich coal and
iron fields of Alabama ana with doz-
en- different varieties of iron ore in the
mountains of Georgia. hardly fifty
miles to the north, her possibilities as
an iron manufacturing center can
scarcely be measured. Already she has
large cotton mills, iron manufacturing
establishments, making agricultural
implements, also woodcnware and cot
ton products. which are marketed from
one end of the land to the other. To
cite but one instance, Mexico buys an
nually thousands of Atlanta made
ploughs of the civil war period. and
the part Atlanta played in those stlrr-
ing times, much has been written by
historians. For years the city was one
of the most important strongholds of
the Southern Confederacy. 1t was n
rallying point for the enthusiastic vol
unteers. 1t was a vast depot when the
most valuable munitions of war We're
deposited. 1t was Il center of manufac-
turing, city of hospitals. Il collection
OF barracks, Il shelter for thousands of
refugees-in short, ii was the backbone
OF the Confederacy, In consequence of
her activity in furnishing aid and her
aggressiveness, she suffered hardships
and desoation. The war was carried
into her chief citadels by General Shcr-
man in burning the city, devastating
the falrest portion of her wealth, and
her land In his "March to the Sea-"
Think of strip of fifty miles in width
that was laid waste from Atlanta to
Savannah, farm houses burned, cattle
and every conceivable thing taken,
driven off, or destroyed, leaving only a
long straggling chain of homeless
chimneys standing like grim sentinels
to mark the path of the vengeance.
This is what we beheld ut the close of
the war in 1865
HISTORIC NAMES.
The names of Sherman and Hooker,
Johnson and Hood, are indelibly i'm
pressed upon the mountains and valleys
Of northwestern Georgia. 1t was in the
eventful year 1864, on the advance of
Sherman from Chattanooga, Ga few
miles over the state line in Tennessee)
to Atlanta which held the railway COM
munication between the south Atlantic
states, was stubbornly, bravely and
brilliantly resisted by Johnson and
Hood, but without avail.
Now the kindly hand of "time" has
healed these ugly scars. throughout
these waste places that have been made
10 bloom and blossom like a garden,
the vine and fig tree have been planted
and made to bloom again; ruined
homes have been restored to happy
families and countless spindles and
looms with other industries, tell how
her inylncible people with their in
somitable perseverance and brave en-