The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1909-08-22
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II you come TO Alamogordo, N. M,
1t would be your privilege to see on
the street almost any day In the year
. character that 10 hardly known be-
yond the borders OF Otero County, yet
10 without a parallel outside of fic-
ton
Behold q man Of about sixty years.
fve feet eight inches in height. weigh
ing 1856 pounds. hair that 10 grey. and
one eye missing. The grab OF dirty
overalls. q heavy wooden undershirt
heavy cap and grimy face and hands
would lead you to suspect that he is
n iaboring man probably firing a
steam boiler somewhere. But there Is
nothing whatever about the man to
make you suppose that he owns out
right the big ice plant into which he
and his wife shovel all the coal; that
the total amount of his possessions is
some half million dollars.
Can you imagine q man, sane and
rational, from choice would stand in
front Of roaring hre door shoveling
coal alternately with his worthy help
mate of forty years of ups and downs
with thermometers in the shade re-
Clustering los without the aid of arti-
hcal heat, when he Is worth half q
million dollars. and owns an ideal
mountain home of 800 acres, where
thousands of fruit trees nod In the
breezes and cool springs bubble here
and there?
would hardly be willing to believe
such a man Is rational Yet this man
George Carl, of Dutch parentags, must
be sane, for In twelve years he has &C
simulated this wealth.
Some twelve years ago the builders
Of FL Paso andN ortheastern railway be-
gan the line from Ell Paso. Texas to
Santa Rosa. N. NJ. connecting at the
latter point with the Rock Islands
Lines, thus forming with the Southern
Pacific a new route to the Pacific.
Selecting Alamogordo as the place for
general shops ana headquarters. they
needed q plant to manufacture Ice for
home consumption and for general dis
tribution.
When George Carl came with his
proposition they gladly met him on
him a contract for free water for a
long term of years. a contract. which
by the way In still in effect. Good
water. free Is the most valuable con-
cession to be had In this desert land.
Carl freighted his plant, Overland.
from Colorado. and began operations
which are In many respects the most
acres on the west side of the tracks.
almost opposite the depot. and erect
ed the plant. Since that time he and
his wife and their son have done
all the work of manufacturing and de-
iivering ice for town of 1000 popu-
iation and a railroad of $50 miles.
An Independent Firm
There is still NO competition, and the
word Independent in no way describes
Carts attitude toward the consumers.
who pay a cent a pound for all the
Ice they use. They watch and wait
for the ice wagon, on its regular
round. and IL they miss the wagon they
don't get the ice. There are no speci-
al deliveries. Complaints are unavail-
ing. Customers who complain of the
service are Informed that they don't
have TO take the Ice. When COM
plants are continued the aggrieved
customers are unceremoniously cut on
the visiting list and can get no Ice at
any price. He will not even allow q
telephone on the place. for fear he
might be annoyed with special orders
100 In the shade his customers are
usually as docile as lambs.
IL you visited this plant day or
night, while Mrs Carl is on shift.
you would find her In supreme COM
mand. Sometimes barefooted, some
forms the duties of engineer fireman
and general roustabout The stranE-
est feature of 1t all is that this ex-
traordinary work, wading in water
and slush. and shoveling coal into the
IRE box of big boiler, has complete
" restored Mrs Carl's health, At the
time this work was first undertaken
she was an invalid. 1t is a remedy
50 strenuous in the taking that not
many men even would undergo IT,
Thrift: The average Dutch house
wife whose thrift is proverbial. Is not
TO be mentioned in comparison with
these Carts. With only the light 60
work of operation this plant to carry
on. they have presumably found time
q drag. So they planted. irrigated
and cultivated an orchard of three
acres. It is now one of the finest in
the country. And in addition, twenty
acres of alfalfa!
With their exceptional business
sense and their unremitting toll, they
have amassed a fortune. All the pro.
perty they have acquired has advanced
in value by leaps and bounds. As
from the touch of Midas the mining
stocks in which they have invested
have gone soaring.
Yet they manifestly still gnd their
only pleasure and happiness in their
daily labor. There would seem to be