The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-11-30

rivals in the dust save one. and even now
her challenging spear is ringing hard on
the shield Of old Massachusetts with her
hundred years prestige in cotton ma
! nipulation.
TWO PICTURES.
A. the experience OF South Carolina
may be taken as typical Of wars ruthless
scourging, so may the experience Of the
! City Of Columbia, South Cardinals capitol
be taken as typical Of the suffcrings Of the
state. or Columbia the war left but little
save the site on which IL had stood. For
/ over mil" up Main street, northward from
the steps Of the unfinished capitol. the only
! thing in the shape of house left standing
was one solitary old frame shanty which
| had managed to escape the flames. All
else was blackened ruin.
The entire country for miles around
| was desolatcd. Columbia was in the very
centre Of that broad belt Of worse than
tornado destruction which swept across
the State from the line of Georgia To the
line OF North Carolina, II is necessary
to remember hi, necessary TO keep this
sombre picture OF the not remote past con-
stantly present in your mind when you
which il the Columbia Of to-day. You must
not for an instant forget IL as you stand
on the steps Of the completed capitol Of
to-day-perhaps, in its site and in the pure
strong lines Of its architecture the hand
soonest State capitol in the country-and
look up busting Main street with it's fine
rows of business blocks and hotels, its
new buildings in course Of erection, in
Guiding even the sky scraper type This
stirring spectacle of energy and propriety
Is the companion piece of the bleak,
disheartening waste that was here on that
February morning which many people
who are still young can well remember.
To forget this would be an injustice to the
splendid American courage and energy
which have wrought the marvellous trans
formation that now is in physical evidence
before you
And the surprising fact in connection with
that transform alton is that it is nearly all
the work of less than a decade. Columbia
was too badly wounded in the war TO do
more than limp and hobble along as best
she could for many years, On her shoulders
and on those az the State was piled the
hcaped up debt of the reconstruction era--a
deb, that only al this late day she is fully
getting out from under II is not merely
the magnitude of the work accomplished
that is to be measured, il is the disheartening
difficulties under which it was done that
must be borne in mind if full Justice is given
10 tb, ~ TO whom the credit Is due.
WATER POWER
In 1870, saddled with crush ng debt, the
people who paid the taxes here at last found
Of. 10, of ,k.,.
was one valuable asset left which war itself
could not take away, an asset that had lain
practically dormant in the old regime and
which yet had in it great wealth producing
possibilities. This was the mighty store of
water power that lay right at the city's
door
Columbia stands on the final eastward
granite projection Of the greatest Appala-
chan range. The biologists tell us that
this outcroppng granite here was once the
saacoast. then a. stern and rock bound a.
that Of Maine itself. Down this rocky slope
10 the lowlands, stretching over a hundred
miles Of fine, fertile land to the present
shore Of the sea. there co ne strong rushing
streams carrying with them untold energy,
which only needed to be caught and har-
messed to be transformed into wealth.
Two of these streams the Broad and the
Saluda, unite about two miles above Co.
lumtia to form the Congaree. Between this
point OF union Of the two streams and the
city there Is drop over big boulder rapids
Of many feet. Away back twenty-five
years before the war. the State, at a cost Of
$500 900, built canal for the purpose OF
extending navi CATION, for considerable Iner-
chandise was brought down the Saluda and
Bruad rivers, and by this canal it was tran
shipped and so by way of the Santee Canal
TO Charleston.
THE CANAL
II was not however. until after the war
that the possibilities Of the canal as trans
mitter Of water power began to be seriously
considered, In antebelum days there was
a small cotton and woolen factory above
the city. but it was burned when pretty much
everything else hereabouts went I'D In
smoke. But there had been no other APP
plcation of the water power. nor were there
any plans to that end until in 1888 the little
Is-feet wide ate canal beca ne the property
Of Gov. Sprague Of Rhode Island Pre-
sumably it was his intention to COW r: tn,
ditch to some water power uses, but the
financial crisis Of 1873 brought him embar-
rassment. and the canal was forced back
upon the State.
The State start n out 10 do sonnet hin with
il, but after spending over $i3o, 90, gave
up the job, which remained untouched
until 1888, when the city of Columbia tcos
hold Of the matter, and, ~ an expense q
$500 900, completed the task, by making
a water-power canal two a d seven-eighths
miles long, ITO feet wide al the bottom and
$50 feet al the surface. 10 feet deep with 81
feet fall and a driving capacity of Il. 600
orse-power.
This canal, which is now owned by n
private company, was the beginning Of
Columbia's present prosperity, the starting
point of a growth which. although only
in it's Infancy, has already lifted her into
| the ranks of the most prosperous cities in
| the South and is destined to make her even
such a manufacturing and commercial
| inland metropolis as il Atlanta herself
| now called the Chicago Of the South.
POPULATION.
A. the time this ora Of her prosperity
| really began TO be felt, now barely eight
| wears ago, Columbia lad Population Of
| perhaps 1900. II all that she may fairly
call her own were now cralited to her.
| ~ IL the very rear future il will hc. her
population would be found to fall not Far
/ short If $500