The Savannah morning news., 1904-01-03
QUARTER OF A CENTURY
BROUGHT MANY CHANGES
Ctty's Growth Has Not Been Spasmodfc One
to Her Achievements and Accom-.
pIishments at the Beginning
of New Year.
BY MAYOR HERMAN MYERS

have since been paved. mainly with
Sspnalt' granite blocks and vitrifed
noIc -i Many more miles of street
pastlls are already provided for, or in
contemplation. 40
In the county outside of the citv
hnely paved roads now give easv az,
cess TO numerous suburban points. In
the city there has been expended flur-
ing that time over 100000 for street
paving. Miles upon miles of highway
nave also been bought and opened nm
for lands for this purpose nearly $500 :
OOO has been expended.
OUTSIDE the city extensive drama ga
operations have been conducted. aid
ing materially in the improvement of
health conditions. With every wear
sickness has diminished and deaths
decreased IN proportion to population,
until to-day Savannah stands among
the most healthful cities of the Amer
lean continent.
Some of the improvements.
In 1878 Savannah used river water.
The effect upon health was bad. In
1898 artesian water was introduced. To-
day modern and thoroughly up-to-date
works afford a daily pumpage of 9,OOO,-
OO0 gallons of the purest artesian wat
er, from wells 500 to 1900 feet deep.
The average daily consumption of wat
er per capita in Savannah is equal to
that of any city in the South. In the
twenty-five years under review ap-
preaching million dollars has been
expended on the water system of the
city.
In 1888 gas gave way to electricity,
and to-day the city is illuminated by
over 500 6OO-hundred candle power arc
lights.
! In 1868 dry wells were largely used.
Recently there has been completed, in
addition to the regular sewerage sys-
tenn house drainage system at a cost
of $275, 900. These are some of the
straws which tell how Savannah has
kept pace with her sister cities of all
sections in improvements in keeping
with the times.
In 1878 the public school system
was in its infancy, but a lusty and
promising child There We're then six
ty teachers and 20S2 white and 1,019
colored pupils, with expenditures of
$4,000. To-day there are 1853 teachers,
with 4,517 white and 1912 colored pu-
pills, and expenditures of $4,000.
SaVannah's Public Library.
A free public library, with $4,000
volumes was recently most SATISFACTORY
ly inaugurated. New churches, new
and handsome school buildings, beau
tifully kept squares and more of them,
better stores, with larger and finer
stocks, a quadrupled jobbing trade,
serving customers in four states, seven
banks, with an aggregate capital and
surplus of $4,000,000, meeting all the
demands of business-these are other
features of the present time.
Savannah has had no bank failure
since the Civil War, and few conf
mercial failures of any. magnitude. 1t
possesses in its government postoftice
and court building, costing approaching
a half million dollars, what is prob
ably the finest edifice of the kind in
the South; IN its De Soto Hotel, repre-
senting another $500,000, the finest no
tel outside of st. Augustine, and in its
new Union Depot, costing, with it's
approaches 100000, the finest railroad
station south of the Potomac. Such
facts as these tell in a measure the
story of our progress in the past quar-
ter century.
Within last Ten Years.
But it would be somewhat one-sided,
and might leave an erroneous i'm
Dression. not to state that the greater
part of this progress has been in the
past ten years. In every department
of life there has been greater acIlVl-
ty in the past decade than ever be-
fore, and there has been apparent
spirit of great confidence in Savannahs
future. An enormous increase has
come in that time in the city's popu-
lation, capital, taxable wealth, COM
merce and business generally
Without disparaging the past,it is safe
to say that the period referred to has
been the brightest and most progress
sive in the history of the people of
Savannah. Millions of dollars have been
expended in railroad and steamship
terminals until to-day eight miles of
wharfage room are at the command
of vessels visiting here The four
systems of railroads entering here, the
Atlantic Coast Line, Central of Geor-
gia, Seaboard Air Line, and Southern,
have a mileage of over $4,000, covering
ten states, and the first three of them
here possess what are recognized as
among the finest terminals in the coun-
try, and unquestionably the finest in
the South, terminals that are constant
~ being added to. Hundreds of acres
that were once low waste lands, are
now covered with wharves, storage
yards and ware houses.
For Thirty-FOOt Channel
A movement has been inaugurated
by the City Council, in which all OF
the trade bodies are participating, to
secure a thirty-foot channel at mean