The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-01-28

range of vision than any other iron and steel man of his generation, was the first to discover the riches of Alabama. Fifty years ago he secured an option on a farm which lay where the sky-scrapers of Birmingham stand today. and had the whole district examined by experts. Then came the civil war, and his capital was diverted to other channels, but shortly before his death he said: "The two great centers for dominating the iron and steel of the world are to be the Lake Superior region, with its Bessemer ores, on the one side, and Alabama, with its basic ores, on the other. Alabama, with it's abundant stores of iron and coal and limestone in such close proxim- ity, bids fair within the next quarter of a century to dominate the basic steel in- dustry of the world"
 Pittsburg boasts of her magnificent system of ore railroads and steamships. We have no such system,' replies Ala bama, for we do not need it. Our coal and ore and limestone lie not a thou sand miles away, but at our furnace doors." The cost of assembling all the raw materials for making iron has been reduced, in Birmingham, to seventy seven cents ton. This is the lowest point ever reached in the iron business, on either side of the Atlantic.
 In fact nature has made Alabama as handy as pantry for the men who want to make iron and steel. There Is one spot especially which appeals to the im- .agination of all steel makers who visit the state. Not far from Birmingham, on the top of Red mountain. you can stand on vien of iron ore twenty-four feet thick. On your right are the vast Warrior coal fields. On your left are the Coosa and Cahaba coal fields In front of you are the level valleys, packed with enough limestone to Aux all the ore in the world; and all around the railroads and mines are the greenish-yelloW fields of corn and cotton, to supply the toiers with clothing and with food What could nature do more, unless 1t made greenbacks and preferred stock grow on trees?
 At one of the furnaces it would be quite possible for a sharpshooter to stand on the water-tower and with a rife send bullet into the mines out of which the ore was dug. With a revolver he could put the men in the limestone quarrles in danger; and with a peashooter he could annoy the workers at the coke ovens. This is. of course an exception ally well-located furnace; but there are few that are more than ten miles from their raw material.
 DeBardeleben's Spectacular Career.
 The Christopher Columbus of this won derful region is q man who is still alive, active, and opening up new treasure fielrds-Henry r. DeBardeleben. He has been at once the most successful and the most unfortunate of Alabama plo- neers. Like the blind hen which dug up worms only to have them snatched away by her lazy barnyard companions. he has been laboring for twenty-seYen years to enrich others who lacked his enterprise and hardhood. He is the millionaire maker of the south. He earns and loses fortunes with the indifference of a stoic. If he had been as able to hold as he is to acquire he might now be the Andrew Carnegie of Alabama.
 DeBardeleben was at one time owner of the greater part of Red mountain, in which lie scores of buried millions. He was the creator of Bessemer. the Marvel City of the south. In 1892 he was prob ably the wealthest man in the district, owning the pick of the ore and coal lands near Birmingham and also furnaces, coke ovens and the like. The unusual sight of q pioneer in control of millions attracted the attention of a syndicate of New York capitalists They approached DeBardeleben automatically, and led him on to accept two and a half million dol lars for all his possessions. This was a low price, as the property was rated at three times as much a few years later; but it was good reward for a dozen years of work. and DeBardeleben con- cuded to retire.
 The members of the syndicate, how