The Mena weekly star., 1906-08-16
MERE MEsll0N.
treat Material Progress in Southwest Mcna, the Mountain Maid tiigh in It.

peruse but ponder over the fol lowing facts. They call atten- ton again to the phenominal de velopment and progress now going on over all our great country in general, and in the great southwest ia particular.
 For interest and to-wit: Recent statistics and returns from the fifty-six great railway lines of the United States reveal the fact that nothing like 1t has happened before. The year ending June 30, 1900, shows up the best of any proceeding.
 The gross earnings os these great lines amounted to the enor- nous sum $2, 23S, ,O00.0 .0c0. Ike net earnings on these hfty-six lines were S.95, 1000, 900. The gross earnings per mile on each of these roads for 1905 were S9, ,66o. For the year just closed 1t was Sl0,5
 In railway building the year just closed with bumper also. Ia June year ago we had in our country 2l4,477 miles of road. This year we have 219, ,000 a clear gain of 4,523 miles.
 Ten years ago when Grover Cleveland was preparing to va cate the White House aud Billy Bryan was preaching his l6 to l., our country had l25, 900 miles of railway. Within the last ten years we have almost doubled :. At that date we had 5000, ,000 idle men with empty dinner pails. l,000, 900 men were tramping the country workless, homeless and breadless.
 This progress and internal ex pansion is most marked in the great Southwest. Perhaps Mis- souri, Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana together with Okla homa are the fields and theater of the most marked progress, for millions of money and vast thous- ands of people are pouring into these favored sections.
 E. F. Turner, general passen- ger agent of the Texas X Pacific railway announced that 100, 1000 people entered Texas over hls line last year. His is only one of dozen liues just as good, some better.
 Every acre of land, every nook and corner and every foot of dirt in all this favored Southwest is on the road to a ready market and better value.
 Ia all this, Arkansas is not 10 be last or least. This state will outstrip some of her neighbors and astonlsh even many of her most optomistic denizens.
 Coming to the mere mention of things local, 1t may be said that the city of Meua IS 10 sit in the midst of all this coming prosper ity. This picturesque spot, this Mountain Maid of the Ozarks, has all 10 gain and nothing to lose by this coming expansion. As the years go by this gem of the Southwest will expand until she will command the field for hundred miles all around.
 Then, too, the Kansas City Southern railroad is one of the expanding and extending hnes. It has the vantage ground and holds the key to many fine situ.  ations. This main line with its many feeders will help handle the millions of men and money that will transform all this virgin section into humming bee hive. Mena will remain in the midst of the great expansion, the first and big hest elevation in over 500 miles of the gulf, the best climate, water, fruit, health, slate, zinc and manganese in all the Southwest.
 Pass it along and keep 1t be fore the people. People who per use will ponder. Mena and her people will never be less. She is the Mountain Maid of the great coming Southwest, the Queen of the Ozarks and the point plctur-