The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-02-10
THE LARGEST WAGON YARDS
 IN ALABAMA ARE AT LOTHIAN
Something of the Wonderful Progress and Vitality Shown By EntertTiSing Capital of Houston
 County.
BY WILL T. SIBERIAN.


 Dothan, Feb. s.--(Special Corre- spondence. l--Dothan has the largest wagon yards of any city of Alabama. No town, no city of the State has so commodious yards for wagons. so many stalls for horses and mules.
 This condition Is pregnant with sig nificance. It tells to him who runs and reads whence came the wonderful progress of this city. It indicates, more than that. it demonstrates the fountains from which Dothan has drawn her sustenance and her vitality. In his mind the observant visitor knows that Dothan's prosperity has run from the wagon yards which were and are pools where trade and dollars collect and are collected.
 1t is no difficult thing to picture the thousands of little fountains through out the Wiregrass where originates the commerce of Dothan, nor is 1t dif- ficult to appreciate the great part that the wagons going to and from Dothan have played in the making of the city. The wagon yards, to him who under stands, are the reservoirs into which the satisfied farmer on his pine land place pours his products ana from which Dothan draws her vigor and her strength.
 Behind the wagon yards are seen dimfy the countless happy and content ed homes of this favored section. There are the farms of the men who came in four or i've or ten years ago-who came in with nothing of value except industry and thrift They are homes that these men of simple wants carved out of the pine woods and built up from the red and sandy soil. These homes, these farms, have been the theatres tn which self denial and en- ergy have played their parts so we'll. They are the places on which self de- nial and labor have erected their nlon- ument and where they have provided an abiding place for contentment.
 Building Little by Little.
 The coral islands of the Pacific, 1t is taught, were formed by inconse- quential insects insects who in them selves alone were mere atoms. But one dying, his remains, mere speck of hard substance rested on the bottom of the ocean. Another died and his body rested of or aloneside that of the one gone before. and another and still another, until countless thousands were piled together and until the pile showed for miles above the earth's surface. And so an island was formed to give food. footing and a home for man.
 If an atom had so great part in the making Of an island, how much greater part had the small but pros- porous farm in the making of the prosperity of section. In itself, the farm, large or small. the farm that produces that which gives to the world and supplies it's necessity is q thing of value, something to be hon. ored. But when hundreds of them, thousands of them are joined together, united in the making of section or q State. such a State or such section, has no other fate but prosperity, no other future but hope.
 And to be the capital of such a section, to be the chief city in agricul- ture's domain--is it not good thinga
 4 fortunate place. indeed, Is Dothan, which has been so chosen.
 Smokestacks, mines and factories made Birmingham. Railroads, freight depots and office buildings made Att lanta. wagon yards, and they are much greater things than a city man would suppose, have made and are making Dotnan, for she has not yet reached her destined state. For Do- than is neither a city of factories, nor yet is she a city of railroads.
 One may consider her past, may think of her as she was sixteen years ago, the country pcBtofiice of Poplar Head with three wooden stores. And he may contrast that fancy of the past with the reality of the present, 6 mod ern city of over 5000 people, city with taxable property assessed at $1,- A4O, ,00O an assessment which jumps up- ward every year. And where the pine knot fires of the traders used to throw their glare on the temporary camps at Poplar Head there now shines the white glare of a citys electric lights. The COW paths have become streets, the corn and the cotton stalks have given way to three-story brick buildings and the pine woods of the other days have become heights and terraces for beau tiful city homes.
 Trade of the Farmer
 And the trade. the business that has made all this possible came in with the farmer, who made more than he need ed and who had things to buy and things to sell.
 Dothan has two railroads. being on the line of the Atlantic Coast Line from Montgomery to Jacksonville and on the Central from Smithville, Ga, to Florala, Ala. The buildings of the