The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-10-26
Charlotte, N. c., and Her
Busy Cotton Mills.
GREAT GROWTH IN A few YEARS
Prosperity Typical Of a Wide
spread Industrial Revolution.
The city Before the wsr-struggles After
II Ended-Aw akeiiins OF Charlotte In
lss7-Remarkable Progress since-In.
crease OF Her Cotton Mills Allied indus.
tries Also Flourish-Ihe NeighborhOod
Benefited Attractions OF Charlotte.

crease OF Her Cotton Mills. Allied Indus.
tries Also F1ourish--Jhe NeiEhborhood
BENEFITED Attractions OF Charlotte.
CHARLOTTE, y. c. Oct. 24-Whisk a
man from New York TO this place blind
folded and ask him when his eyes are UNI
covered to tell YOU in what part of the coun-
try he believes himself o be, and the chances
are ten 70 one that his first guess will DO
that he is in New England
But he would revise that opinion after
he had gone about town little and taken
a closer look al detail At first glance
Charlotte doe. suggest a trim. wideawake
busy manufacturing town Of Massachu-
sets or Connecticut.
In the first place the country roundabout
it. with the distant mountains and the
general sense Of altitude, is not unlike the
surroundings Of many interior New Eng
land towns. And, then. the cotton mills
In all directions, the foundries, machine
shops and many other diversified manu-
fact oriss-all these as strongly hint of
a New England city a. do the great shade
trees that overarCh the streets and the fine
residences and other evidences Of thrift
and prosperity tina, are all about.
And vet, with al that, there Is an inde-
Enable something in the atmosphere Of
the place which is not that Of New Eng
land Perhaps it Is an absence Of perky
primness about things; perhaps il is one of
half dozen or more little peculiarities
At all events, the man from New York
would give up his New England theory
at er little more mature study of the place.
Then he probably would lean toward the
West-not the new West, the away West
Not even so far west as Illinois. One Of
the large interior manufacturing towns
Of Ohio just about seem to fit the case.
And when he had got it comfortably
fixed in his mind that he was In Akron, or
Canton. or Sprin gfeld, or some other town
u Ohio Of about their size, alon & up the street
would come curious old ramshackle thing
On wheels drawn by a mule and carrying
cotton b,le and maybe some colt seed,
and, above all, a genuine old Sou hern
darby driving-a real old "un"ls" such as
you see only in the South, type as unknown
20 Ohio as il IS 70 New England. a fast de-
parting type even in the South whore il
remains one OF the few connecting links
OF the old South with the new that still
exist
And even with the darby and the mule
and the cotton baleit would be NJ easy mat
ter 10 make your New York man fully grasp
the fact that the Charlotte he saw before
him was actually a Southern city.
HEALTHY GROWTH.
Suppose he had known Charlotte before
the war-suppose, even, lie had known the
place and actually lived hero twenty years
ago-his be~Udernent would be equally
great. The thange that has taken place
IN this old seat Of Mecklenburs county
within even the past ten years is one 81 the
rnarvels Of the South's latter-day trans
formation.
As Norfolk may be taken as a type Of a
pushing, wide-awake seaboard town Of the
South. 80 may Charlotte be taken as the typo
Of all that is amazing in tho later prosperity
and renewed viyor Of the inland Southern
towns. Except that its growth L. based
upon the solder Of manufacturing sounda-
tions and Is without the slightest sugges.
ton Of fictitious boom, the story OF the
general advance Of Charlotte reads more
Ike one Of the similar stories OF prosperity
u the West than awning else.
AWAKENING OF CHARLOTTE.
And yet IL all came about rs the logical
sequence of a condition, just as the c. n
dition came al out as the logical sequence
OF what had gone before. There was nothing
artificial in the impetus that started CT ar
lotte on the upward path and is still keeping
her there, headed tow ard future fright
with promise Of a material prosperity that
will put her away up tow ard the front of the
great manufacturing centres, not merely
Of the South alone, but of the entire coun-
try.
Neither now nor at any other time in her
history is there, nor has there been, any
forced draught under her boilers When
come fifteen or sixteen years ago she woke
up out of Rip Van Wrinkle sleep of n CEN
fury, she started Of her own strength on
FER new career, and she swung into the
swift pace she has taken Lecau,. the hour
for her had struck and she had the resources
ond the equipment whcrewith to respond.
COTTON INDUSTRY IN THE OLD SOUTH
In order 10 grasp the growth of Charlotte.
70 form an idea of what has cen done here,
IN other words, it is necessary to go into
the statistics OF cotton manufacturing
IN the South, for II is upon the manufacture
Of cotton, cotton ly-rroducts and arti-
clos more or less collateral and incidental
20 the cotton manufacturing business that
the mary, llous prosperity Of this great
Piedmont region has Leen built up, And
IN order TO have proper understanding Of
the statistics Themselves, IL is necessary
20 refer 10 one or two facts and u little his
'ory in connection with cotton manufact-
uring In the South.
In the first place, Il Is to he borne In mind
that manufacturing in the South L. not a
ne" development. |; 10 tie revival OF an
old development which in the early part Of
the last century tegnn under tho most
favorable auspices, but which, with many
ether things in the South. went dowI,
under the blight, the deadly handicap of
els 'ery,
BLIGHT OF SLAVERY.
D. A Tompkns, who nay be descrit ed
as the father OF manufacturing industries
In this region, and is sliil AZ the front If "A
large proportion OF the industries here,
has given much study to this and all other
features OF the cotton business in the South,
In his recent Look entitled Cotton Mil
Commercial ioatur,>,' lie says:
When the ,in, Tie gin house with H., an.
plances and the Ealing screw had all Ucci.
developed 10 a condition Of practical size