The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-05-24


 New blood has recently been injected
 nothing short of Providence that can hold the town back. Mir Finn is one of the
 most enthusiastic Anniston partisans I
 have ever met. He says there is no city in the south that can compare to it in , climatic conditions, the purity of water and in educational facilities-the latter ac- cording to size. of course Situated in a l little valley. which Is just below a larger valley, there is not one moment during the summer that a cooling breeze is not
 rustling the leaves on the trees. In the winter 1t is warmer than most other places because it is shielded by noun tains on all sides.
 l MT. Finn says Anniston is bounded by Birmingham, Atlanta, Chattanooga, Montgomery and-but he is usually inter rupted when he gets this far by some cit izen of one of the named cities. The Father of Anniston" says it is
 the one city of opportunity for the young
 man who wants to succeed. "I have never known a young man, 1 or any other man. who seriously, earnest 1 ly wanted success and came to Anniston, who did not attain\ his desres.' said MT. i Finn. Tt is impossible for man to fail
 here if he tries to win out l have known some people to come here and leave after 1 a few months. They were not desirable citizens, however As a matter of fact
 know some people here right now who are making enough to get what they need. who would starve to death in another community"
 A Great Traveller MT. Finn has been a resident of An
 niston 25 years. That is, he has called it his home for that long. He has. a res- idence in New York city and during the np St yna ba al lfo- gether in New York. He spends most of his time travelling. He has three times cireled the globe and knows something about every city of any consequence on earth
 He was born in Virginia a good many years ago. He removed to Baltimore, then to New York and then to Boston, finally coming to Anniston. MT. Finn began his
 career a commercial traveller at the
 age of l6 years. He asked a wholesale druggist to give him a position on the road, and was offered a place in the
 store as office boy. He told the druggist that he had little money and could af-
 ford to refuse the position and would not have anything but sample case. The druggist told him that he would ''mis-
 represent the firm instead of representing it, and refused him the job. Young Finn was persistent chap, how ever, and made another proposition to the druggist
 You give me your samples and prices and let me work the back streets of New Workplaces where you have not been
 and where your firm will not be injured if I don't make good"
 The druggist thought it over and gave his consent
 Within month he had demonstrat ted
 to the doubting druggist that youth was
 no impeachment to selling goods One of
 the road men was taken i'll soon aftef-
 ward and MT. Finn was given his first opportunity to make real road trip. He
 was hardly r years of age, but so sue
 cessful was he that he was given a per- manent territory.
 As for his standing at Anniston the people shere can tell you more about it than anyone else He has such spirit as one would expect to find in a travel ing man. He is alive to the opportunities Of today. He doesn't live in the glories of dim and distant past. but he lives ie the present and is ever on the out look for chance to do good for his fellow man.
 Anniston itself is a monument to tile energy of William Finn. He it was that gave the city the Alabama hotel and he had fearful struggle in keeping it above water. At times in it's career it has been on the verge of insolvency, and the strong hand of Mir Finn came to the rescue and saved. the day. Mir. Finn was just as glad as he could be that the U. C. T.s came to Anniston. His parting injunction was Come back soon. boys, and come back
 to live. We want your