The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-04-09

way by hard work, exercise of common
 sense and practising the homelier vir- tues.
 The story of the Lovelace boys. for example, is the story of all of them. Ed Lovelace-everybody in South Ala bama calls him Ed Lovelace--told 1t to me. It was drawn from him and was not a boast. It was a simple nar- rative of success by persistence. cour- | age and fidelity to purpose Ed Love- i lace is the oldest of the three Love- lace brothers who own the Lovelace | Lumber Company of which he is gem eral manager. This is a corporation l which requires $15,000 a week to con duct the business and this is but one of the numerous enterprises of the Lovelaces. Their father was B. M. Lovelace, a splendid citizen of Dallas county before the war. When he came home from the struggle between the States, in which he played his part as | an Alabama soldier. Ed Lovelace was were free, the fields were bare and the home desolate. To make a new home for himself and probably to get l far away from the scene of his ear | Her opulence. MT. Lovelace removed l his family to Escambia county, then | a barren county with little to recom- l mend it but pine trees. He establish ed very small saw mill and met with no great success III health came l of these remarkable Alabama men was stricken blind.
 Until I was 2S years old" says Ed. Lovelace, q stayed at home and worked hard. I helped my father, sent my younger brothers to school. and nursed my devoted mother. Until I was 2S years old I never had dollar of my ' lx@x .4 t2 o,.6 I have ridden a thousand rafts down Conecuh river with bare. brown legs" When his parents passed away Ed Lovelace bought a saw mill up the river. It was a fairly good sized bus isness and his partner was, a young man who had driven an ox-cart with 1 him for $1 a day. They gave their
 notes for $1O.OO0. Neither of them had a cent. Ed Lovelace paid these | notes as they matured. The partner retired from the business. This was ! the beginning of the Lovelace fortune. Bought Pine Lands.
 T was reared in the pine forests" | says Ed Lovelace, and I reasoned that we must have timber if our country | was going to grow. I knew there would | be natural growth and a consequent | demand for pine timber. So, as I &C., cumulated money I bought lands. My
 
 | and took him into the business. Since that time have all been associated | in business. My brother agreed with | me and we bought more lands. John l came home from school. We took him | into the business and we bought more | lands"
 Then Mir Lovelace talked of some of l the trials of modern captain of in- dustry.
 we have worked hard and we have passed through some rough places" he | said "Why, in 1893 and 1894 when ev- | erything went to pieces. we had to fight | to hold ourselves together. Whew!" i he exclaimed, as he shrugged his broad | shoulders, those men at Gettysburg
 never fought more doggedly. We had
 millions of feet of lumber in the river | and piled up at Pensacola. The price was down to next to nothing and the | trust wanted it. We knew what 1t was | worth. and we needed money-Oh, how | we did need the money. On one side | was the trust, on the other our credi- ktors. Night after night my brothers and myself sat face to face reasoning, | scheming, planning to save ourselves
 from ruin. It seemed as If our llfe's | work was to be for naught and that we must go back to the woods. We could l have done it and done 1t gracefully, | hut we didn't have to. thanks to our | good friends. Fortunately for us, we
 were able to stem the tide of diversity, | hold our timber and lumber and wait | for the wave of prosperity.
 HOW did we do it? Why, we went
 to our creditors and we said. Look 1 here, you know us; if you crowd us we will do all we can; if you hold with
 us and believe in us you will get dol lar for dollar"
 The creditors knew the manner of