The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1906-06-29
PLEASING TALK
BY SOUTHERNER
Col. A. R. BlakeIy of New Or
leans Is Visiting the
City.
SAYS SOUTH is COMING
RAPIDLY TO FRONT
He Tells of an Interesting Inter-
view With Corporal
Tanner.

Col A. r. Blakely Of New Orleans,
proprietor of the great st. Charles ho-
tel there. the most historic hoste,ry in
the South, is guest at the Knuts-
FORD, having come to attend the Hotel
Mems Mutual Benefit meeting or con-
Vention, scheduled for Portland but
changed to Chicago since the San
francisco disaster. Chatting of his
trip and other matters, ne said:
L had heard and read of the dis
aster, but no pen or tongue can tell
the awful story of San Francisco. 1t
Is past belief, almost. II did me good
TO note the CHEEKY manner in which
these determined people are going
ahead to build up their fortunes and
city.
The bar In the passes? Why, we
can carry twenty-nine feet of draft
over that bar now. and very few yes-
sells require that much. Ordinarily a
ship requires twenty-four feet. and
that Is safe at all times of tide or
weather. Our deep water trade Is
growing from year to year, and the
Eads JettieS that give us this draft of
water are so successful that tho Gov
ernment Is now about to repeat them
In southwest pass. and dredgo
channel there Of thirty-nine feet,
AS a corrolary Of increased ship
ping. real estate values have quad
rupled OF late, My property, the st.
Charles hotel, was taxed last year at
$4,000, This year 1t Is taxed ut s40,-
900.
Cotton Always In Sight
We always keep cotton in sight.
for 10 and 11-cent cotton means mil
lions for our people; but we now have
source Of wealth that bids fair to
equal cotton, and that Is rice. In the
last twenty years rice has come to be
leading staple product with us We
raise more rice In Louisiana than In
all the remainder OF the country COM
bined. Several years ago an ac-
quaintance of mine had unloadcd on
him 100000 acres of swamp land, at a
valuation of 80 cents per acre He
could not give II away then. 1t is
now almost wholly in rice, and is
held at S26 per acre, and none to
sell. New Orleans Is the largest cot
ton,. rice and sugar market In the
world, barring none
1T Is a fact that not more than
one-eishth of the tillable land In Lou
isiana is now being worked: and then
just think what 1t will be when It is
all under cultivation. The yellow fe-
yer scare Is a thing of the past. and
when case does arise the treat 1t
by the new methods and surely cure 1t.
SO people no longer dread yellow
jack and hundreds of men are TAX
ing up our rich valley land and build
Ing homes.
Looking to Panama Canal.
I'VE are looking toward the Panama
CANAL for our Moses to lead US to the
top notch of commercial supremacy,
and IN ten years we shall have IL
Railroad lobbies can no longer hold 1t
back. Our April export report last
year was 60 per cent more than the
year before. and our imports were 40
per cent greater,
II know nothing of sectional feeling.
met Corporal Tanner recently and
we swapped lies. We were both
wounded at second Bull Run. in Au-
gust. 1862, and he introduced me to
Mrs, Tanner as follows.
My dear, this is Col Blakely of
the Confederate army He Is the
rooster who fred the brick that
knocked off my legs; but 1 kicked out
his right eye, and so we are friends
You see, I lost my eye in that fight.
/ am eX-president of the Hotel Mems
association and much interested in the
coming meeting at Chicago.
The more l see Of the West the
more I like 1t. and especially Is this
q beautiful town, all of which my
daughter, who is with me, fully In
dorses"