The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-02-28
The Twin Cities of North
 Alabama.
Great Progress Made by the Two in the Past Year. and the Next 12 Months Will See Even Great
 CT Strides.
By Win W. Nelson.

By Will W. Nelson.
 l New Decatur, Feb. 26.--(Special Corre- l spondence) e).-Decatur and New Decatur,
 which are widely known as the Twin Cities of Alabama or the Gate Way to | the South, are located in the northern
 extremity of Alabama. some thirty miles | distance from the line which divides AL | abama from Tennessee. in the very heart
 of the fertile and picturesque valley of I the Tennessee river.
 From a commercial and agricultural viewpoint. the Decaturs and the sur | rounding country have no superior in the great State of Alabama, noted far and wide for her prosperous and pushing towns and cities The country surround ! ing the Decaturs is one of the richest
 farming sections in the State. Her broad
 fields of cotton. corn. grain and other | farm and garden crops bear evidence of | this fact.
 From a commercial and business stand point. the Twin Cities cannot be sur passed by any city of like size in the entire Southland. They are located at the junction of the Louisville and Nash
 vile Railroad and the Southern. Rail-
 road, which give through lines. to the
 North South, East and West, and on the very bosom of the great Tennessee river. During recent years the United States government has expended millions of dollars on MusseI shoals, some thirty miles below the Decaturs, thus making the river navigable for the greater part of the year from Chattanooga on the east to the mouth of the Tennessee at Paducah, Ky, on the west.
 With the Tennessee river and the two great lines of railroad the freight rates to the Decaturs are second to none in the South. What the United States gov ernment has done in the past for the Tennesse river is only a tithe of what can be and what will be done for the river in the future. In fact, the busi- ness men of the Decaturs and all up and down the river are using every effort to get the government to make more ex- tensive Improvements. both at Mussel shoals and in deepening the channel at various places. The prospects are that the general government will expend large sum of money on this improvement within the next few years. When this is done the Tennessee river will be second to no other river in the country.
 If were to be called upon to de- scribe the Decaturs in brief, would say that they were a city of churcnes, schools and mammoth manufacturing plants, of beautiful homes and cultured people. These few words tell the story NEW DECATUR.
 New Decatur, the younger of the Twin Cities, was first laid out as town dur ing the boom days of 1SS6-S8. Prior to that time the spot on which New Deca- tur now stands was a cotton field and many of the citizens now residing here shot birds and squirrels, on what is now the very heart of New Decatur, no far ther back than 1885; yet to-day New De- catur, Is a thriving and growing city of fully 1000 persons of all vacations in life and of almost every nationality. Not withstanding the fact that the population Is strictly osmopolitan-more so per haps than any other city of like size in the south-the people are very con- genial and orderly and but comparative ly few arrests are made. The present mayor is the Hon. Sam Blackwell and the chief of police Captain J. M. Robinson. Under this administration the city has made much progress and many improve ments. Much valuable street work has been done, and a new modern city jail, | a two story brick structure, has been built. During the past year the bank l deposits have increased fully loo per cent. l and business of all kinds has Increased | and grown to a marvellous extent.
 Within the past year new electric | street car company, known as the North | Alabama Traction Company, has been | built. There are in operation four miles | of track and with up to date electric | cars. Thus far they have expended about | $SO0OO. The line Is not yet completed, but | they are now working on other lines and will have expended more than $50,000 | before the season of 1sO4 comes to a close. 1 This company expects to build a park | somewhere in the country near the De- l caturs.
 One of the greatest and most notice able improvements to New Decatur with l in the last twelve months is the enlarge | ment of the great railroad shops of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Com | pany Before this enlargement the shops employed 1,5O0 men. They now employ nearly 2,5OO or in other words they have been nearly doubled. Many thousand dollars have been expended in the en- largement of these shops, until now they are the greatest shops on the Louisville and Nashville Railroad system. Besides the enlargement of O. lthe various de- partments of these shops, the company also built a forge shop, for forging axles for the entire system This is said to be the greatest shop of the kind in the South. The Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company builds many hundred freight cars. of all kinds, here during the year, besides doing general repair work and making car axles.
 There is now being built here a Y. M. .C! A. building which will cost $2O,O0O. It will be finished by spring. The Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company fur nished three-fourths of the money and the citizens the remaining fourth.
 The Decatur Light Power and Fuel Company have recently increased their plant to the extent of $4O,OCO and are now occupying handsome new offices on First Avenue. They have put in many new 
 electric lines to East Decatur and West Decatur.
 The John Cathcart Lumber Company,
 which was recently burned out, is build-
 ing a new mill with double the capacity
 of the old mill. It will run night and