The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-03-27
TIE CITY OF HILLS
pRocREssrvE AND BUSY Is
 LYNCHBURG. VA.
No Longer Is Tobacco Sole Item of Nerchandise-Stacks of Plants Belch Out Smoke of Myriad
 Manufactures.

over among the pahe-ctau nltlS or tna Old Dominion, where the clay runs red in the rainy days of springtime, nest, hng among the shadows of the Blue Ridge, lies Lynchburg, the City of Hills. It has been there long time, gradually adding to itself and growing in great ness Many years ago 1t was the end or the rold to the riverside, where an old man. named Lynch, hoary as Sha- ron, ferried the travellers to the country
 beyond It would seem to the casual wayfarer a location impossible of devel- opment and yet as if in open defiance of natural conditions, 1t has come to assume proportions that are amazing. even in this advanced age of industrial evolution. Tracing its history back to
 the foundation period when old man Lynch, who IS said to have laid violent hands on petty offenders and adminis- tered corporal punishment on bare bodies. backed by an authority which was d law only unto himself. thereby establish ing for himself the distinction of being the patron of what has now ramified itself into the present Lynch law, this community has set its seal of disap- proval on all lawlessness and has att tracted to its environs long settled so- ciety that gives 1t charm that impresses ali who come within the range of its in- fiuence.
 In the country contiguous to this place luscious weed grew in great abund- ance and up to recent years it's famous brands of tobacco gave it a worldwide reputation while the negroes who ma nipulated the raw material into the chew able condition made merry music as they sang with delightful melody over their daily tasks. Railroads came as railroads will. and they seemed to center at this spot. Then there was suddenly some thing cminous heard and the quiet, easy going people put their ears to the ground and noted coming change. Their chief occupation upon which reliance was placed for the food and clothes of their offspring, was doomed for the old, tried methods of manufacturing tobacco was to be no more. They accepted the situa- ton and being a hardy people and una fraid. they turned their eyes to the wind ward and caught new note on the blow in; breezes With a seeming unanimity of action, the old business. with. many pang. perhaps, was abandoned, and new and diversified industries took shape and formation. Immense brick structures supplanted the old frame warehouses up- on the floors of which the auctioneer of tho aforetime sold his two piles of to- bacco to the minute. The storage house es for freight and the depots of the rail- roads had to be enlarged and gradually the smell of tobacco casing departed from the nostrils of the people while the stacks of her plants belched out smoke of myriad manufactures. Wise men had seen the star that led to this point to betoken the advent of possi- bilftfes for business and Lynchburg, in- stead of sending tobacco to the four quar- wtnf.. AoA fsfr V1aar chandise of every character that men had need of With progress of time the crergy and enterprise of her merchants increased manyfold. until today the old read to the riverside marks the dividing llne around which clusters on both sides a community bristling with business Her schools and institutions of learning rank as high as any and have served to temper with refining influence the char acter of her people. The standard of business principles here maintained is of such a character as to guarantee every transaction of her men and the buyer who buys in Lynchburg knows in ad- vance the treatment he will receive is all that he can wish for, while the saber when he seeks his rest sleeps serene in the knowledge that the customers he has gained that day are his friends and will remain so. Thus has the city of Lynch burg amid the clay and the pines of Old Virginia grown on merit until now at the beginnlng of this new century, when the world we live in is up and doing' she stands in the very front rank of pro- gression, pointing the way to prosperity, proud in her pre-eminence as the biggest, liveliest, fairest, cheapest and most up- tc-date distributor of all the goods and wares and merchandise that the want Of man requires In the length and breadrh of this old Southland of ours.
 Among those who have put their braWn and brain behind the scheme of bringing the old city to the front may be men toned those who compose the concerns of the Craddock- Perry Company, Gug- genreimer & Company. George D. Witt Shoe Company, Oglesby-DeWitt Com pany, The Lynchburg Shoe Company, The Hughes Buggy Company, Quinn-Marshall Company, Ould-Carter Company. Kin nter. Montgomery & Company. The First National Bank, s. c. Hurt & Son, Adams Brothers-Paynes Company. Ainslie & Martin, Smith-Briscoe Shoe Company, Harris, Woodson & Company, Beasley, Couch & Company. The National Ex- change Bank. c. H. Beasley & Brother, E. Crump, The Peoples National Bank. Understandings Hardware Company, Strother Drug Company. Jackson Broth CTS & Watts Company and The Lynch h,tr.y National Bank -adV.