The age-herald., 1902-02-09
The Central City is Ideal for Home Life---ItS Society is Charming, Its School Sys-
 tenn Unique, and It's
 Climate EquabIe
BY HOMER GEORGE.

the city's situation gives, a prominent railroad agent said:
 WHY SELECTION WAS WISE.
 Tn the soft climate with which Selma is blessed, there are few of the diseases which afflict those inhabiting colder cli- mates, but, as in all semi-tropical locali- ties, there is always danger from levers, unless ample drainage is provided. For modern science has shown that the mi- crobes of fever thrive in bad drainage, and that if the waste incident to large gathering of humanity Is properly dis tributed to where, by natural laws. 1t can be restored to it's original clements, there is no greater danger from fever in Havana than in Mackinaw. In point of fact-and the illustration covers the point here presented admirabiy-rne infectious condition of the latter city offered the chiefest and most logical reason for the Cuban war.
 Tt was the noxious harbor of Havana which threatened the lives of American people, and the single excuse of self-pres- ervation, that first law of all nature, was sufficient reason for our demanding, and enforcing, the absence of the Dons from Cuban soil. Experience has shown the wisdom of this position, for we heard nothing of yellow fever last year, nor will this, solely because there is no longer a breeding spot in the harbor of the chief city of Cuba. And once we have compelled proper drainage there, and turned the waste of that city through the mountains which lie at It's rear. we will be forever relieved from all possible presence of the dread pestience
 And this was one of the main reasons why Vice-President King sought to es- tablish the city of Selma and why the city Of Selma has gone on prospering and thriving, until now it is what that astute, far-seeing individual foresaw. one of the liveliest, most bustling, most prosperous cites of the entire South
 "Cahaba had been at one time the cap ital of Alabama, and its downfall and the upbuilding of Selma might have appeared grotesque to any who had not given heed to the immutable working of natural laws, and who did not study the situ- ation with care. Cahaba rested in low lying section, where drainage could not be had. Cahaba must needs. therefore, be ill-suited to the needs of closely con- gested community.
 And, therefore, Cahaba vanished, and the place which once knew it is now a series of cotton fields and farms, inhab- ited by negroes and given over to agri- culture, to which it's location offers De-
  thronged its busy streets migrated to Selma, in many cases taking their houses with them.''
 TWO YEARS PROGRESS. aWhile talking with Hon. A. L. Mcleod. mayor of Selma, I was told something of the progress made by the city during the past two years, and the predictions for the coming two are brighter than ever. Mir. Mcleod is now serving his second term. He declares he will not be a candidate for the office in the future. Though young man he has determined to retire from political life and devote his entire time to the practice of law.
 The statements of the mayor about what Selma had done in the past two years are as follows:
 Its limits have been extended and part of its suburbs brought into the corporate boundaries thus increasing the popula- tion in the city proper to some fourteen to fifteen thousand.
 "A system of street improvement has been inaugurated by which the vast quan- tity of gravel in the river adjacent to the city will be utilized in constructing the streets.
 "A plan for an elegant new city hall and market house has been agreed upon,