The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-12-29
lCITY'S TRADE WAS THE BEST
 LOCAL MERCHANTS EVER HAD

Ito which. beyond doubt, riches and prosperity seldom come. | But the instances of money making and money possessing known to mer- l chants, and as numerous as they are,
 are by no means the sum total of the evidence of the way the agricultural labor and the results of the labor of | the negro have borne the fruits of con- tentment and satisfaction upon the farm. There is hardly a negro who rides into town or who rides out Of town, but who shows that times are good, and that money Is in the pocket book. The men have brand new boots
 and store-bought overcoats. whether they fit or not. The women have warm l cioaks, and they are bought first hand, | too. And every time a negro's wagon went out in the Christmas holidays, 1t I carried a chair, a bureau, an organ, a | sewing machine or some luxury that | the little house on the plantation never knew before. It has been a great sea son. But if the negroes were doing l so well. what must the white folks. | with more experience, more property, , more opportunity, have done?
 An Unequalled Season.
 It would seem that in the past fall and the past Christmas season Middle Alabama has done better. has made more money, has spent more money and
 
 ! section of the country The Mont gomery manager of q big foreign con cern which has branch houses all over the South and all over the country in- dicates as much in an interview yes- terday.
 Our Montgomery business this sea son." he said has surpassed that of any other Southern city. It has beaten the business of agencies in towns twice as large. Our Christmas business here l in Montgomery has beat the business in Atlanta. in Birmingham and in short | in any Southern city. There seems to | be no other reason for this fact than | that our section is better off than any other section of the South"
 Primarily 10 and II cents cotton have been responsible for the unparalleled circumstances of prosperity which pre- vail in Montgomery. But it should be | remembered that the previous two years have been years in which fine l crops were made and in which the fine crops were sold at splendid prices. There were two fat years and then an l extraordinarily fat year came along. l And 1t has proved itself to be the best and bravest year of Flush Times in | Alabama"
 l We have done 30 per cent-at least 1 30 per cent.-more business this season | than we did last season." said Emanuel
 Meertief of Nachman & Meertief. | Last year was a splendid trade sea l son, but this year has outdone 1t. Not l only has there been a big increase in | the volume of our business. but there | has been a big increase in every mans | business. One man is prosperous, but his neighbor Is equally prosperous.
 They have all done well this year much better than any of them expected. | Do you know I never have been able | to fully understand the remarkable
 business season of this Christmas The | farmers are still holding their cotton. The warehousemen will tell you that. They used to sell cotton during the | Christmas season, but they haven't
 done it this Christmas season. But
 holding their cotton as they are doing, the farmers nevertheless have plenty
 of money to buy the things they want. This indicates, 1t seems to me that we
 not only had a fine Christmas season,
 but that we are going to have a fine business for the spring, for the cotton is still in the warehouse"
 | Always Optimistic.
 A statement of the same optimistic nature was made by Captain A. G.
 Forbes. General Manager of the Jesse French Piano and Organ Company, of existing conditions. Captain Forbes had to say: We thought the last Christmas season was remarkable for it's splendid business, but this Christ mas season far overtOpped 1t. The company has never done in Montgom- cry the business it has done this sea son. We naturally expected a good season, knowing that business was | good. but we were not prepared for the splendid trade that came to us. We not only sold more goods than we had any reason to expect to sell, but our | collections were equally as surprising They were exceptionally good. They were better than any in any previous year in which we have been in business in Montgomery"
 The selling of pianos. organs and musical instruments is in the nature of dealing in luxuries. As long as people have a dollar they have to buy the necessities of life, but they invest 1 largely in luxuries when they have ex- tra money to spend. That the people of Middle Alabama have more money to spend than at any other time in their history Is attested by the busi- of E. E. Forbes and Company. Of it Manager R. O. Blakey had this to say:
 Problem of Shipping.
 We have sold stacks and stacks of goods. The problems with us has not been the selling of goods. It has been the shipping of goods out in time after we had sold them. The business was SO good that it strained us to the | limit to pack the goods and ship them out on time. We looked for big 1 trade, but what we got went beyond our expectations. It has been an emil nently satisfactory year for us. In sales and collections we have been gratified. The company has never be- fore done the business it has done this | year" :.:..". I When there is so much money in the country 1t is perfectly natural for property to advance and to advance rapidly. One man has estimated that city property and country property about Montgomery has advanced 50 per cent inside of the past three years and he may not be far wrong in his calculations. It may not be doubted that there has been a remarkable ad vance both in real estate within the city and farming property near by.
 Real estate in and around Mont | gomery is selling at d rather high fig | ure," said Frank D. Kohn a well known | real estate man. Remarkable advan- ! ces in the valuation of property have | been shown, but after all it is a natural | advance For commercially Montgom- | cry has only two lines of business de- | veloped as they should be developed, | the wholesale grocery business and the | wholesale hardware business. With her | splendid territory, with the wonderful | prosperity of her people and with the | steady advance of her prosperity, there | is room for further development in | every other line of business It is small wonder then dealing in plantation and farm property has been active and good prices have been asked and paid"
 Excellence of Collections,
 There was hardly a merchant who