The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1911-06-28
YOUR OWN TOWN

live In 1t make It,
Don't sit around and damn YOUR
town. A town Ia just as good or just
as bad as the people who are damning
It.
Every community, even il it hasn't
more han two hundred inhabitants.
should have a town-room where the
cigars are good and where everyone
can meet, free from religion or pol
itics, and absorb the good qualities of
one another; where the spirit OF the
Golden Rule can be instilled; for no
religion and no political party can
deny this perfectly scientific princi-
pal
A town Is seldom the result OF vir-
gin natural conditions. In any event
it was man who saw the natural ad-
vantages-and frequently it was some
one individual
For illustration: There is no ma
tural reason why Cleveland should
nave been the oil center of the world.
There are no oil wells in or about the
community. So far as oil is concerned.
and as a shipping point. it is no bet
ter than dozen and one other towns.
1t was simply John ID. Rockefeller.
He wanted to live in Cleveland and
his individuality, his personality.
brought the oil to him.
There Is no reason why Boston
should be the shoe market of the
world. There are no hides there
They are all shipped from the West.
Simply some man who knew how to
make shoes on a large scale wanted
to live there and his success encour-
aged others to follow in his wake.
There is no physical reason why
Chicago should be the meat packing
center of the world. 1t could as well
have been st. Louis, Simply old Phil
Armour wanted to live there.
In nearly every town you visit you
hear some resident say: "Aw. this
amt nothin' but an oyergrown coun-
try yillage!"
The resident OF any town that makes
such statement wears whiskers and
boots at heart.
OF course, If your town isn't sporty
enough for you, why, you can move
that amt the towns fault.
If you get too sporty, youn have
to move anyhow.
1t isn't the sports that make a town
its the jays
The man that gave the light for the
sports on the Great White Way was
jay-Thomas A. Edison. jay tele-
graph operator from Indianapolis.
John ID. Rockefeller who in a mon
ey way. is the ideal of every sport.
was jay from Richford, New York.
Russell Sage, who loaned money to
the sports for years. was a jay-he
started by jumping counter in coun-
try store.
Some jay from Connecticut went to
the Worlds Fair at Chicago in 1893.
! he set Up stand on the Midway and
sold wooden nutmegs to the sports for
souvenirs. Finally he ran out Of
wooden ones and sold 'em the real
thing at twenty cents a throw
| William Dean Howells Americas
foremost literary character, will take
more pride in telling you of the days
when he set type as n jay printer on
the Sentinel at Ashtabula, Ohio, than
his literary success OF later years
the days when they used shoe pegs to
space the type, and about printer
getting drunk and using plug OF
Star tobacco for cut.
Nearly every man in art science,
literature, industry and commerce
here in America today either is or was
a jay.
Cincinnati is the supply center of
the South Years ago, at the waning
of the river traffic, it was
about to give place to Louis
vile and Memphis in the com
merce OF that territory
The citizens OF Cincinnati got busy
and built the Cincinnati Southern
| Railroad.
This road was the dream of jay.
They called him jay dreamer, but
his dream saved the town
! You hear people Of the Far West
in mercantile, industrial, artistic and
scientific pursuits, saying: "If we
were only in Chicago we could do or
get so and So" In Chicago you hear
them say: "If we were only in New
York" When in New York you hear