The sun., 1903-02-08

10 Have Stni Greater Gro~th--vast
r,ns Of Iron Ore and Coal About II
IN = Rich Agricultural Region Also
Its Present Mills and Others
>oon TO Re Duih-Statistics showing
It's Remarkable Prosress-ProsperIty
Ba,ed on Very solid Foundations.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. Feb. 8.-Some years
ago. back in the late SOS. in fact. man
was arrested in Broadway for causing dis
urbauce He was not violent in the least.
I'm the contrary he seemed to be moved
solely bv a spirit of goodwill toward men.
Banning blandy upon all. he stood quietly
on the sidewalk somewhere up Canal street
vay, aud passed out the coin and currency
Of the Republic to- all of the moving throng
who chose TO accept his bounty. Five
dollar gold pieces were his favorite &C ntr-
hWlors.
His fame seemed to spread in the very
air. Grafters from the Bowery, from the
CAV Hall Park and even from 50 far away
- the Jersey City ferries swarmed in his
direction Even the police heard OF II.
Ina, 40 good thing should be loose and
not protected" WAS against all their ethis.
The wardmen were scandalized. As for
Broadway in his immediate vicinity. traffic
was we'll nigh blocked The dsturber OF
the peace. still smiling affably and still
smbious to equalize the distribution OF
wealth, was taken to the police station.
Then his friends were heard from and his
story came out. He was New Englander
and he was just back from Birmingham.
Ala where he had been caught in the cy-
c.ore boom that was then raging down here.
He had in his pockets about enough TO get
under cover for one night when he got here.
But, money! Money was blowing about
ike litter in the streets here in those days.
You bought real estate one day on wind
and sold il for $40 900 cash the next morning;
and the fellow who bought it for $4,000 in
the morning sold it for $50, 600 in the after
noon. The New Englander got into the
whirl. got rich So quickly that his brains
became all added in the mix-up. With his
pockets stuffed with money he made bee
line for Broadway, as 30 many under similar
circumstances have done before. And, as
compared with many others. he was lucky
in his experience there. He got into
lunatic asylum instead Of into the morgue.
But it was this lunatic who first made
known to many New Workers the existence
of Birmingham, this magic city of the South.
which from open fields out in farming
country has been transformed into a COM
mercial community Of more than 10000
inhabitants, all within the space of less
than thirty yeats.
Prior TO 1871 no such place as Birming-
ham existed. II was not even a name on
the map. There wasn't even 80 much a. a
railroad in all jefferson county, of which
Elyton, now to all interests and purposes
an integral part Of Birming CHAM. was then
the county seat.
The region about here-a stretch about
fifteen miles long by three or four wide
was called Jones's Valley. Why "Jones's
Valley" instead OF Smiths, Browns or
Thompson's Valley. nobody then knew or
since has been able to find out. Only few
weeks ago the newspapers here started a
discussion az to who Jones was. 1t came to
nothing Nobody had ever seen Jones or
heard Of Jones, and the general verdict was
that Jones was a myth.
Yet Jones's Valley II was, and Jones's VAL
ley it is now and ever shall be. and Jones's
Valley is one Of the largest centres Of popu-
htion and manufacturing industry in all the
country east Of the Mississippi and south
Of the Ohio River. What it is destined to
become within the next one or two decades
k not safe to prophesy unless you are pre-
pared To commit yourself to figures which
nobody who has not been here and studied
conditions with his own eyes will believe.
Put the city OF Birmingham down for
population OF over 800, 90 by the time the
next census is taken and you will not be
very wide Of the mark. Indeed it is only
matter Of the anne xation OF that which
properly is her own even now that Ia re-
quired TO bring Birmingham up to a popu-
lation which will crowd every other city
In the South for se cond place In point Of
size after New Orleans itself And this
annexation move. which has long been in
mind here. is now beginning to take such
definite form that it is only question Of
a short time before it will be accomplished.
BIRMINaHAN's SUBURBS.
As is the case with 20 many Of these new
growth Southern cities. the census figures
Of 1900 are absurdly inadequate In giving
any idea Of the actual magnitude Of
This great community, The United States
census for 1870 gives Birmingham popu-
!s'ion Of 3sii5, and that probably was very
nearly correct for the corporate limits Of
the city at that time.
lNtu lnt Ol tIE COIpofatc
limits has grown in the interval between
1870 and 1903 to upward OF $4,000 But to
this fgure there should be, and soon will be.
added the population Of no less than seven
teen suburbs which go to make up the
commercial unit. whose business Is all
done through Birmingham and for which
Birmingham is as much the centre as II is
for the few blocks immediately surrounding
'he County Court House or the City Hall
These suburbs range in population from
lob, in the cases OF Clifton and Lewisburg,
tn 600 and 1000 in the cases OF Ensley |
and Pratt City. Their post Offices are
h''" more than branches Of the Birming-
Lam past Office; their electric car service
IA the Rrming CHAM service.
They are now corporate entities, with few
exceptions, and while their total popula. /,
tCn, As given by the census. added to that
.! birmingham proper, likewise ar given /
by the census. foots up to only $3.50. there |
Is no account taken in these figures OF the
thousands Of people who live and have
In, lsx.ta