The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-10-19
ADVENTURES OF OLD TOOK
 SHADOW FOR THE SUBSTANCE
Jason, Pizaro, Cortez and DeSoto Engaged in Paluy Brands When What They Got is
 Considered with What They Overlooked.

of the Aztec. It was an enormous ransom that the Peruvian Incas piled up for Pizarro if the Spanish historians are to be believed, but the Birmingham Mineral district this very year may have an iron crop valued at $25,000.- 900. Making all due allowances, for Spanish exaggeration Pizarro did not get a biger sum when he obtained that famous ransom, which set the high water mark in all Kidnapping operations. The Modern Treasures.
 AS for de Soto, who found a grave when he looked for gold. the yearly gifts from those hills he spurned when he fought and passed on would pay for the equipping and maintenance of a dozen expeditions like that which he led through so many misfortunes. The riches that laid and still lie be- meath the hills of Alabama are in value, moro than Granada, Spain and Castile could muster in the fullest year of their history. They have been but touched. The surface, as it were, has been broken, the top layer only has been taken out Tn truth, 1t has been said that but a handful of the treasure has been taken out and turned into gold and silver. They estimate here that in this year of 1905 somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,O00, 900 tons of iron will be mined hereabouts. This iron Is selling for SIS a ton. So one might say with some conservatism that some $25.000, 900 worth of pig iron will be dug up here and hereabouts and sold.
 Take the iteam of coal. It is only less valuable than the enormous sale of the districts iron crop. They say that the coal output this year will foot
 up to 12,O00,000 tons. At the dark mouth of the mines from which 1t is dug, say that it is worth $15,000,00 or | S20, 900, 900. How the eyes of the an- cient argonauts would have glistened r when they heard those figures and re- alized what they meant. What is the Birmingham District? Certainly this is timely question For an answer to be adequate. 1t must go back and use the mineral district of Alabama S basis for an answer. The States District.
 The mineral district of Alabama em- braces and runs through twenty-e eight counties, all located in the northern portion of the State. It spans and spreads over 10000 square miles of land. Now, 10000 square miles Is two- hfths of the total area of the State of Alabama and in that same 10000 square miles dweils S50.000 people, who, ac- cording to the census of 1900. form half the population of the State less 50, ,000.'
 The monumental total of the finan- cial returns from the larger portion of this district in coal and iron. has been given in round figures. The immense value of its cotton crop has not yet been mentioned. Yet in the census year it produced in round numbers BPS. .O00 bales of cotton. the value of which, according to the prices that rule in the year of 1905, is in the neighborhood of $17.000,0o0. It Is in the neighborhood of a third of the crop of the State. Coal. cotton and iron what a heritage. what an aggregation of riches the district has!
 But minerals are what count most.
 For cotton, for all agricultural inter ests. Montgomery has been and will con ntinue to be the centre and the capi- tai
 The coal fields of Alabama are with in this splendid mineral district. The geoIogists who have studied these things have divided the coal-producing area of Alabama into three separate
 fields" named for the three Alabama
 rivers that drain them-the Warrior. the Cahaba and the Coosa. By far the
 most important is the Warrior field, embracing 7,S10 square miles. In im- portance, the Coosa and the Cahaba fields are equal, each containing 400 square miles. Now, figures of such exactness as to the iron ore deposits have not and may not be made out. Throughout nearly every one of these twenty eight coun- ties, iron ore, both red and brown, crop out, and await the coming of the modern adventurer, the captain of in- dustry clothed not in arms with pIumed casque, but wearing the twentieth century sack coat and derby hat.
 The Birmingham District.
 The Birmingham District the rich district of which Birmingham Is the center, is in the central southern DOT ton of the treasured wealth which has here outlined Birmin gham is its capi- tai, it's head, it's centre of inspiration and energy. from which the arteries of trade run and to which flows the red blood of it's great commercial activity.
 There are in this district in round numbers 2,S00 square miles and 1t has at least a population of a quarter of a million of people.
 Jefferson County is not only the most important county from the view point of commerce in Alabama, but 1t Is the most thickly settled. and in the matter of acres 1t Is only excelled by Baldwin and Jackson. The city of Bir- mingham had five years ago within its corporate limits. by the figures of the United States census, little more than 3S,O00 people. But that was five years ago. The five years which have
 
 elapsed since then have been the most prosperous in the history of Alabama. The total population within those same limits has been greatly augmented, as restricted as those limits.
 The Birmingham limits are the same as they have been for number of years. They have not been extended and whatever growth in figures of pop ulation the city had to do 1t had to do it within the old time limits.
 In time, 1t is said that practically all of Jefferson County will be enclosed in one great city. In truth 1t Is not far from that now. So closely allied, so closely interwoven are Birmingham's interests and the interests of other Jeff ferson County towns, so closely con- nected are they all that 1t might be considered that Ayoudale, Woodlawn, East Lake. Powderly. Ensley, oven Bes- semer and a half dozen of other towns