The Savannah morning news., 1902-04-20
PAST AND PRESENT.
A LEADING CITY OF GEORGIA FOR
TwO-THIRDs OF A CENTURY.


cultural Section of the State-A
Cotton Market Where the Real
Bale Is Bought and sOld-The Al
bany Chautauqua Gatherings
Feature of the Educational and
Social Life of the HustIing City.
Dougherty County Rich in the
Products of It's Fields.
Albany is too important a city to
write up" in an off-hand sketch. To
give it's history, past and present,
would require more time than 1 can
well spare from my campaign, and,
therefore, 1 hope that any omissions
will be overlooked.
For two thirds of a century Albany
has occupied a conspicuous place in
the commercial and social world as the
center of the richest and most gener-
ally productive agricultural part of the
state, and the home of a refined peo-
pie. 1t was founded in 1880 by the late
Nelson Tiff. Long before the coming
of the locomotive, the Flint river was
the outlet, by way of the Apalachicoia
and the Gulf, for the products of
Southwest Georgia, and it was the
turning of this trade from the South
to the East by the construction of the
Southwestern Railroad, that gave Sa-
vannah its first great impetus towards
commercial greatness.
Albany is one of the largest cotton
tho har6 the real
bale and not the shadowy future ar
ticle is sold. The buyer who once had
his habitat in the sea-coast cities and
waited for cotton to come to him, now
comes into the interior cities and towns
to buy for his domestic and foreign
correspondents.
Not only is this condition true as to
cotton, but it is also so with
vegetables. The trucker no longer
commits his vegetable crop to the tend
er mercies of the far-away produce
dealer, but waits for him, as it were,
at the farm gate, and in the summer
Albany is alive with purchasers of the
products of the truck farmers.
1t is wonderful what our Georgia
cities and towns are doing. I have told
about some of them. and the same
story can be told of all--that Geor-
CLANS are an energetic people, is shown
by the progress of every section. The
development is slower in some places
than in others, but the indications are
the same.
In Albany there is the Chautauqua
building the largest auditorium in the
state. 1t is here on the 21st of this
month the great Chautauqua gathering
takes place under the management of
Prof Palmer. 1t is expected that 10000
visitors will be there. 1t is startling
to think what the Georgia community
will undertake, when it is demonstrate
ed that it will help the city, town or
county. A new railroad to equalize or
lower freight rates, a steamboat line to
keep them so, q new hotel, a bank,
factory, or some other enterprise, de-
noting personal thrift or local pride,
is daily happening in Georgia
met my old friend, Capt. H. M
Mcintosh, editor of Albanys daily pa
per-, the Her;~ld. He is a descendant
of those sturdy Scots who settled"
on the coast of Georgia, and unset
tied" the Spaniards in Florida. He
is almost too big man for an editor.
He is six feet 2 inches in hight, and
can imagine his ancestors in kilt and
tartan, claymore in hand, hewing his
way through his English foes. How
ever, the Georgia Mcintosh is a
peaceable and courteous gentleman,
and as a newspaper man of the TWEEN
tieth century, lends his strong arm
and trenchant pen to building up his
state and advancing the fortunes of
his fellow citizens.
Capt. Mcintosh belongs to that
brilliant array of printer-journalists
who thirty years since with brain and
pen reclaimed Georgia from the hands
of carpet Dagger and scalawag, and
gave it that vigorous push which has
put the state. in the lead of Southern
States. How we'll l remember my
juniors of the Georgia Press Associa-
ton; they were, however, only a few
years my juniors, George Wood,
Dick Grubb. John Waterman. Ed
Sharpe, Ben Russell, Charley Pen
dleton, ST Hawkins, Rienzi Johnston
(now of the Houston (Texas) PosD,
John Anderson, Henry Mcintosh,
and others. John Triplett, though not
a printer, belongs to the same class.
God has called some away, others have
quit the stuffy sanctum for less ex-
hilarating callings, but a majority are
still pen or pencil in hand, turning
gray matter into words, and building
up communities and enlightening the
state with their thoughts.
Capt. Mcintosh has been in Albany
q years. He was the first man to
bind book in the city. He also built
a street railroad and started the first
brickyard.
The Savannah, Florida and Western,
the Seaboard Air Line, the Georgia
Central ans the Albany and Northern
Railways, Ind line of steamers to
cambridge, give Albany excellent COM
mercial facilities.
1t was in Albany that the discovery
of the Georgia artesian we'll was made,
and the water that comes from the
fltering aqueous rocks has been a
blessing to the people of the lower part
of the state.
Cotton presses, fertilizer factories, an
oil mill. and canning factory are
among the enterprises of the city.
Streets lined with substantial build
ings and stores filled with goods, rep
resenting everything needed by city
man or farmer, indicate that there is an
immense business done by the mer-
chants. The cotton receipts foot up
about 100000 bales a season, half of
which comes by wagons to the city.
Its religious denominations embrace
the Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian,
Episcopalian, Catholic and Jewish,
each of which has handsome place CT
worship. The population of the city
a.. bout Ena Thara &c fine fire de