The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-11-23
NEW RAILROAD LINE
IT IS SAID ATLANTA, vALDosTA
 G WESTERN IS COMING.
Maybe the Line Will Extend to Montgomery as It is Proposed Now to Bring It on
 to Albany.

to Albany.
 The following telegram from Moultrie, | Ga, will be read with a great deal of
 interest by local business and railroad | people and 1t opens up with wide field of possibilities, giving Montgomery practical certainty of another line to Jacksonville, Fla:
 Moultrie, Ga., Nov.~ N.-The officials of the Atlantic, Valdosta and Western Railway Company were in Moultrie to- day making preparation for extension of their road from Valdosta to Albany or some point near Albany. There seems to be no doubt now that the road will be built at an carly date"
 The Atlantic. Valdosta and Western is a road running from Jacksonville, Fla, to valdosta, Ga. The mileage Is l55 miles, 110 miles of main line and 45 miles of branch lines.
 There has probably been morg specula ton about this road than any railroad enterprise less than the big trunk lines. Several years ago when the road was first projected all sorts and conditions uf stories were afioat as to the men behind the guns. ,The best of material and equipments was put on the new road and for long time it was thought that the Southern was behind it. It has been several years since then, however, and so far the road seems to be an indepen- dent concern.
 Walton Ferguson of No. IS Wall Street. New York is president with G. s. Bax- ter of the same city chairman of the Executive Committed: k. c. Long of Jacksonville. Fla, vice-president and Walton Ferguson, Jr., of New York. treasurer. The general offices of the road are in the Gardner Building in q. ,Na traffic officers have their headquarters in Jacksonville.
 As stated above the result of the ex- tension of the Atlantic, Valdosta and Western from Valdosta to Albany un- doubtedly gives Montgomery another line from this city to Jacksonville, the Plant System having one now. The Seaboard Air Line-Georgia and Alabama division from Montgomery to Savannah drops branch from Richland down to Albany, thus putting the Seaboard in Albany over its own rails. There they are as much bottled up as they are in Mont gomery, but the completion of the Jack sonville, Valdosta and Western to AL bany would put the Seaboard straight through from Montgomery to Jackson vile or from Savannah or the East to Jacksonville. This may possibly be the consumation of a scheme worked out in the brains of John Skelton Williams and the Seaboard syndicate--then again it may not.
 A good many years ago the Central of Georgia operated a fast train out of here at night for Jacksonville. Then along came the Alabama Midland branch of the Plant System making a straight shoot from Montgomery to Jacksonville and very abruptly the Florida train of the Central was discontinued and has not been heard of since.
 Since those days there have been hosts of changes on the railroad map of this section. the Central as we'll as other roads having a network of branches They have branch dropping down from the Montgomery division at Smithville. Ga, going through Albany, Dothan and on to the terminus at Sellersville in | Geneva County. Now the completion of | the Atlantic, Valdosta and Western to | Albany would give the Central people
 straight shoot from Montgomery to Jack | sonville, and it might possibly mean the
 resumption of the Florida service from l Montgomery to Jacksonville on this end | and from Savannah, Atlanta and Macon l on the other end. | , The Southern Railway gets into Mont | gomery over the Mobile and Ohio. The | Central is the only feasible way for them | to get out in that direction. but as they l dictate the policy of MT. Egan's rail
 road it may be possible that the Southern | is going to Jacksonville from Montgom- l cry by the Central, Albany and the
 Jacksonville. Valdosta and Western road 1 At any rate it looks like sure thing
 that Montgomery will have another line 1 to Jacksonville.
 The Industrial Commission has issued l a report on railway labor in the United
 States. It shows that railway employees in this country constitute an army of 1Nfa1 a1rlxF 0TIn NaY0fh rArr Ina h V
 nearly 50OO,O0O people dependent upon the wages paid by railroads.
 | The report says that for years to come the railroads will absorb an increasing | number of employees.
 The St. Louis Republic announces the
 death in that city on the 2oth inst; of
 Captain John Lawson, who built the first | locomotive engine in England, and who | Is believed to have been the oldest en-
 gineer in the United States. l Captain Lawson was born In MancheS- ter, England, August IS, 1905. When still | a boy he was apprenticed to George
 Stephenson, the inventor of the locomo-
 tive engine and. under his direction, built | the first engine. When he was H years | old he came to the United States with a 1 locomotive shipped here for the Balti more and Green River Railroad running | from Baltimore to Green Springs. Law son held the throttle on the first engine that was run over the road.
 The young engineer was so well pleased | Wlth the tmted states that he concluded 1 to stay here. After a short residence in | Baltimore he moved to Philadelphia, where he worked for three years in the Baldwin shops While there he took out
 the first engine over new road to Ger | mantown from Philadelphia From the l Quaker City he went to Petersburg, Va, and became an engineer on the Peters burg and Roanoke River Railroad Com -pany. From Petersburg he moved to | Alabama, where he was married to Miss
 Emily Speed. He then ab andoned rail roading and went to work as engineer on a steamboat
 During the civil war Captain Lawson gave several of his finest boats to the