The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-07-21

given abundance of coffee and lemon-
 ade instead. Lunch was served in a
 grove at a mine, and the officials and
 leading citizens with their ladies and
 welcome and they will all give 1t to
 yau if you will only go to Linton. They
 gave all interesting books and litera-
 turesbooming their city.
 The Southern Indiana Railway Com
 pany which is a great factor in devel-
 opment of industries in this section
 was originally a part of the Mackey System. extending from Elnora. Ind.
 where 1t connected with the Evans vile 6 Terre Haute R. R.. to West
 port Ind, where 1t conhccted with the
 Big Four. In 1897 this road fof 10z miles) was bought by MT. John R
 Walsh for the purpose of gfviug him an outlet for the stone from his ooli- tic limestone quarries. in connection with the Bedfort Belt Railway which he also owned. In 1898 the road was completely reconstructed and an ex-
 tension built from Elnora to Terre
 Haute, Ind. being completed into Ierre Haute. September 1900. Wnetner tt was MT. Walsh's foresight, or simply a coincidence, 1t was about that time the natural gas began to fail in the Gas Belt, and this extension from Elnora to Terre Haute developed the greatest coal fields in Southern In- diana, and by the time esthese coal fields were fully developed. he gas for man ufacturing purposes in the Gas Belt vas exhausted and the manufacturers had to resort to coal as fuel for oper- ating their plants. The Southern In- diana has 30 coal mines on it's tracks in what is known as the Linton Dis trict, these mines all being located within the counties of Green and Sul- iivan. While there were a number of mines in this district on two other roads, there was not quantity of coal enough to take care of the demand of the manufacturers in the Gas Belt and 1t was a great benefit to that part of the country that MT. Walsh has opened up, or caused to be opened up. the mines situated on the Southern Indiana Road. Rates were made so as to put this coal in the manufacturers district. so the Gas Belt manufacturers have continued to operate in the Northern part of Indiana by reason of this cheap coal. A market for this coal was soon found in Chicago and the Northwest. To reach that market. 1t was found that the development of the coal busi- ness to ChicGgo and the Northwest would give a much larger revenue to the Southern Indiana If line was from Terre Haute to Chi- cago, and this line being ITS miles In length is completed with the exception of about 30 miles. Recent telegrams state that great railroad interests are seeking to buy this property as MT. affairs are now in process of settlement throug the courts.
 Leaving the hospitable and wide awake people of Linton an hour or Indiana town. which has a national reputation. The city or Bedford is situated about half way between In- dianapoiis and Louisville. While Bed ford Stone" has derived its name from the town of Bedford. Indiana. yet it is because of the wide range of -coun- try in whichc the stone has been used for building purposes that the name ot Bedford has become so generally known.
 Notwithstanding the fact that Bed. ford is known everywhere its people wanted the newspaper men of the to know still more about it and they met them in carriages at the depot and drove them all over the beautiful city. Bfore this. however, ap- had been giyep and awaited of to see the penderous machinery at work and the solid stone put Into mer- shape Handsome and inns mense stone columns were cut. im- mense slabs were turned out and the greatness of the work was soon rea1- ized while there is some fertile land in Lawrence county and quite an amount of blue grass pasture and meadow land. the building stone industry dwarfs all others. It is a stone produce ing section. The first year this stone was shipped to Chicago. but three car loads were used during the entire year and the next only five cars. Now that city uses many thousands of carloads of it every year.
 Bedford. which owes its growth to this great stone industry, is a beauti- full little city of about 10000 inhabit- ants. It is well enough to state here that this means 10000 white people. all of whom are comfortably domiclled with pleasant surroundings. There are half as many more in the suburbs, making a city practically of 15,000, all of whom are intelligent reading people hundred men arc employed In the various departments of stone work.
 The Bedford quarries annually pro- duce and ship over 25,00O cars of stone, which goes to all parts of the United States and Canada and Is used in the finest buildings. In 1905 the Monon Ireights on outward shipments from the Bedford quarries. It has recently been demonstrated that oolitic lime stone makes a superior quality of Portland cement. The plant of the United States Cement Co. located in HdS a Qdily capaclty or Z,5OO and has never been able to supply the demand for it's unequalled product. The shops of the Southern Indiana R. R., located at tTiIs point. are unique in that all of the buildings are erected entirely of Bedford stone. They are completely equipped with modern machinery and are able to build engines and cars from their in- ,eption to completion. A large num- per of high priced mechanics are em-s ployed.
 Bedford is a clean city of hand oy beautiful trees.
 It has two magnificent graded school buildings of the native stone, and has. 2 located. commodious and elegantly furnished high school build ngs, with an additional building for he higher grades. The Public Library IS a beautiful stone structure with a stack capacity for 30,00O volumes. It speaks for the intelligence of the citizens that more books are annually ssued per capita from this library
 than from any in the State, Bed- ord has six beautiful stone churches hat could not be duplicated elsewhere Or $S0,0OO. The city owns and oper- ltes an excellent system of water works and sanitary sewer system. The mains of the Central Station Hot Water Heating Plant and electric md gas plants cover the business md residence districts. Both the Bell
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