The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-08-04
 Eincvillc'S NOn-RailrOad Depot Now Completed. LITTLE GIFTS PROSPERITY The County is the Home of the White Farmer. How Railroads Were Built Through the Hills of Clay to Mines nnd to
 It's Rich Agricultural Section.
LITTLE GIFTS PROSPERITY
BY WILL T. STEPHAN.

BY WILL T. STEPHAN.
 Lineville has the finest non-railroad depot in the State. perhaps in the United States. That qualifying phrase non- railroad depot Is put in because Lineville's depot. which is now com pleted. is over eight miles from rail- road.
 A patriotic citizen of the town put the thought in practically the same form when he said: :''Lineville has the finest depot nine miles from railroad of any town in the country"
 This finished depot, because 1t is now completed and nothing remains to be done to prepare it for use except to sweep the shavings out and air the newly painted waiting room. Is an elo- quent evidence of the progressive spirit of this old Clay County town of Line vile. Linevilie at present has no rail- road to run up to its depot. but rail- road Is coming as fast as men and teams can build it. It may be a few weeks, it may be two or three months before the whistle of the locomotive will be music in the ear of Lineville's people. but weeks or months. 1t Is only a question of time before the scream of the whistle will be heard.
 In the meanwhile the finished depot, which, by the way, is an excellent struc- ture. and which Is declared by the peo- pie of Lineville to be finer than the depot at Talladega and finer than any other in East Alabama, stands com pletely fnished-and the railroad nine miles away.
 But only for a time is this condition to exist. The railroad builders are do- ing steady and thorough work upon the new line. The grading is finished two-thirds of the way. It is first-class grading. too. It is said of the work which is being done between Linevile and Pyriton that it Is the sort of grad ing that a railroad puts down when 1t is building a main track. The contrac- tors in the past two or three days have received a consignment of fifty mules from Missouri. The Missouri mules were immediately sent in as reinforce ments for the railroad builders working among the foot hills.
 Buildfng Mountain Railroads.
 It is no little job to build railroad in this part of Clay County. These roads have to run through the foot hills of the Talladega Mountains and in lodging these hills, which appear to be but slightly different from the real things in mountain. a couple of miles away the grade winds and twists like a black snakes track. The railroad which Is built out from the Louisville and Nashville at StocKdale through the northwestern part of Clay County Is no doubt the most crooked road in all Ala bama. It winds and twists and follows the run of tortuous creeks. this being the only way open to the engineers to get anything like a satisfactory grade.
 Clay County, which. because of its mountains, was for many years one or the most inaccessible counties of the State, has in the past two or three years been the scene of marked railroad ac- VIII of railroads in Clay is the little mining svillage of Pyriton Pyriton is situated twenty miles east of the junction. point of Stockdale on the line of tho Louisville and Nashville between Talladega and Admission. A big mining plant to get sulphuric ore for use In the manufac- ture of fertilizers has been established at Pyriton. a plant which Is indirectly responsible for the building of the twenty miles of road to Stockdale, ope- rated under the name of the Alabama Eastern.
 This road parallels and follows closely the run of TaIladega Creek winding and tortuous path. Percy Il. smith, a young and energetic Allan tian, is responsible for the building or this road and he is now It's president and general manager. MT. Smith Is at the head of the pyrites mine and his - his endeavors in the building of the road along Its difficult way among the foot hills.
 The three Clay County towns of Py- riton, Ashland and Lineville are on the map the same as the three principal points in a triangle. with Pyrtton at the top of the triangle. At Pyriton the Eastern Alabama divides into two branch lines, one running to Ashland Al. tn m h. land branch Is completed and trains have been run over 1t for nearly two months. The Lineville branch Is not finished It is confidently stated that the heavy and thorough grading which is being done will be finished and the steel laid so that cars will be run Into Lineville by September 10. And then Lineville's new and handsome depot will have something to do. @
 Built With Local Dollars. These branch lines reflect credit up on the people of Ashland and Lineville. They do this because they were built with local dollars. It Is six miles from Ashland 10 Pyriton Now Ash land Is an old town. When Clay County was formed In 1867 out of pieces of Talladega and Randolph Counties the commissioners of the county se- lected as a county site a high hill near the very center oI the cOuny' Iere the courthouse and the jail were put LID and a typical Southern town grew up about them.
 The old courthouse-it preserves the character of the county buildings of the old days of the South-sits in the middle of a grass grown square. About 1t on the square facing in are the wooden stores in which the merchants of Ashland do business and the lawyers of the county site have their offices This was one time the home town of one of the veteran editors of The Ad- yertiser (we have two), Major John Day Barron. beloved by all who make The Advertiser. Of especial interest to tha staff corresnondent were some