The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1905-12-19
Tuesday. December 19, 1905
OUR SPECIAL EDITION.

fhe Messenger this morning goes
page form. We give our readers a
sixteen-page supplement devoted 10 a
write-up OF tire city of Wilmington,
showing what she is and what her bus
inGss men are doing in the way of
keeping her at the head Of the process
sion in the march of progress and bus
mess enterprise of the cities of he
south.
There will be found much interest
ing matter in these sixteen pages. The
statements there made are all based
upon facts as they exist here today. We
give facts and figures to show what
is being lone daily by our business
men II the various lines conducted ".
u city. These statements will CUR
prise many of Our own people. In fact
We must admit that we ourselves We're
astOunded at the results of the thor
ough canvass Of the city's industrial,
commercial arI financial business
which was made n securing data 70
this edition Of The Messenger. TO
our ont of town readers we know ml1y
business will be a revelation. The
truth Is Wilmington is not known for
what she is worth over the balance
of fhe state. Too many of the people
Of the state look upon her as a slow,
poky, easy-going old town, down in the
extreme southeastern section of the
state, cut off from all the balance of
the state where the people get along
the best they can and where the:e
is little or no business done by be-
merchants exceot IN the way of provid-
ing necessaries CT life in the way of
food and clothing to the citizen body.
These people were never more mistak-
sn in their lives. To convince them
Of their error we point to this indus
trial issue of The Messenger and ask
them % read the matter in refereGce
to our business therein contained.
In ibis issue We give statements as
TO the business OF one hundred and
forty firms and business enterprises
In wholesale business alone Whining
ton has an annual trade of ten million
dollars in groceries, n million dollars
in hardware. about twenty million dol
lars in cotton, from one and a half
million to two million dollars in lum-
Der. M million dollars in naval
stores. over a hundred and twenty
thousand tons OF fertilizers, one million
dollars in shoes and one and a hall
million dollars il dry goods. These
figures, mind YOU, represent the bust
ness of her wholesale merchants and
jobbers as distributors. Our bank de-
posits-above six million dollars-ex-
coed those of any city in the state.
In the matter of export Of cotton
there are only :nree other ports in the
United States which stand ahead of
her.
In one respect she has the advan-
tage of every other Atlantic port so1:r
of Maine. 1t is that hers is a free
port. There is no other On the whole
Atlantic coast south of Maine.
The Messenger has cotton out this
edition for the purpose of showing
what our city is doing in the way III
industrial, manufacturing, commercial
and financial business. We want the
whole tate to know wha. 2. seaport
and mercantile cCLter they have here
We want them % have the facts laid
before them WHEN will give them 4
true and correct idea of tie business
of our city.
We think it proper and just 10
Messrs. A G. Walton and Walter Guy,
two experienced newspaper men, to
state that The Messenger is indebted
to them for this splendid write
up of our city. They did the
work of finding out just what Wilmsls.
ton is and what her business men are
doing and of preparing it for publica-
ton in this issue. We think our read
ers will agree with us that they have
done their work we'll and faithfully.
The photographs from which were
made the handsome illustrations in on
supplement was the work Of Nj. ]
w. Buck, who has shown in this worl
that he is a master of his professiSa
It makes no difference how long you