Part 10

Much interest has been aroused by the bills pending in the Virginia legislature to incorporate the Richmond & Northern and Richmond & Manassas roads. The former is claimed to be a projected road from Richmond to Fredericksburg, and the latter between Richmond and Manassas. Either would form part of a line from Richmond very nearly to Washington, and it is intimated that the Baltimore & Ohio may be interested in one.

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It is stated that the Baltimore & Ohio is preparing to build its branch road from a point north of Georgetown, D. C., to Fairfax C. H., Va., on which work was begun some time ago, but suspended for some unknown cause. Fairfax is but a short distance from the Richmond & Danville road, with which the Baltimore & Ohio has close relations, and it is evident that the building of this branch means a connection with the Richmond & Danville.

The Norfolk & Western road is also securing the necessary legislation to enter Washington.

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One of the indications of the rapidly-developing trade between the North and South is the establishment of a fast through freight from New York to the South by the Atlantic Coast Line. Freight under the new regulation, no matter how small the consignment, is rushed through from the North without delay. With each succeeding season this service has been expanded and improved, keeping pace with the development of the industries which produced it, until finally it has reached a point of usefulness and perfection upon which it would be difficult to improve. Until the present season, however, this special service has been confined to a northward-going schedule, but lately it has become apparent that the demand for a similar service from the North to the South was daily becoming more and more urgent. The Atlantic Coast Dispatch has also established a line of refrigerator cars out of New York for Charleston, the service being designed to furnish the safest and most expeditious transportation for all southward-going perishable freight. These cars will prove of especial advantage to the large shippers of apples, butter and other perishable articles.

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It is believed that the Richmond & Danville’s present management will soon secure a seaboard outlet at Norfolk or Portsmouth, either by acquiring the Atlantic & Danville, which, as stated elsewhere, is to be purchased by the English bondholders at foreclosure sale and reorganized, or by building a new line. The plans of a new company which has been formed to build an extension of the Atlantic & Danville from Danville to Bristol, Tenn., passing through rich and undeveloped coal and ore lands, are told of elsewhere. The building of the proposed Virginia Seaboard & Western road, and the control of the Atlantic & Danville by the Richmond & Danville, would give the latter not only a new seaboard terminus, but also a large coal, timber and ore traffic from Tennessee and Virginia, as well as establish a new route from Tennessee, Kentucky and the Northwest to the Atlantic.

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The projectors of the Gulf & Interstate Railroad to extend from North Dakota to the Gulf of Mexico have secured an option on property at Port Bolivar, on Galveston bay, opposite Galveston, Texas, with a view to making that the terminus of the road.

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The New York, Texas & Mexican and the Gulf, Western Texas & Pacific roads, both parts of the Southern Pacific system, have elected the following-named officers: President, J. Kruttschnitt; vice-president, W. S. Hoskins; secretary, B. M. Smith; treasurer, W. J. Craig.

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A movement is on foot to establish a steamship line between Jacksonville, Fla., and Providence, R. I.

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The Baltimore & Ohio is said to be planning to extend its Valley division from Lexington to Roanoke.

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The Clyde Steamship Co. is considering an extension of its service to New Orleans.

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Business on the Norfolk & Southern is developing to such an extent in North Carolina that the company has decided to establish six new stations in that State.

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The Illinois Central Railroad is exhibiting great energy in the matter of inducing immigration to the South. Mr. E. P. Skene, land commissioner of the road, at Chicago, Captain J. F. Merry, Manchester, Iowa, assistant passenger agent, Mr. J. M. Eberle, of Chicago, land and immigration agent, Mr. C. W. McGinnes, land commissioner of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad, located at Memphis, Mr. J. T. Savage, division superintendent of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad, at Greenville, Miss., are all giving active and comprehensive attention to this work.

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Mr. C. J. Haile, the general passenger agent of the Central Railroad, of Georgia, is taking advantage of the excursion rates offered to prospectors, by authority of the Southern Passenger Association, to distribute in the Northwest circulars setting forth the agricultural attractions of the country tributary to his roads. Mr. Haile is an enterprising and progressive railroad man, and fully comprehends the value of having the country traversed by his road thickly populated by Northern farmers.

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Mr. W. C. Rinearson, general passenger agent of the Queen & Crescent route, is trying to arrange with the Southern Passenger Association to have tickets for his line, via Chattanooga, carry the privilege of stopping over at Chattanooga, so that travelers may have an opportunity of seeing Lookout Mountain, the National Military Park and other Chattanooga sights.

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At the request of Col. C. P. Atmore, general passenger agent of the Louisville & Nashville Road, the passenger agents of roads having interests at Memphis, Tenn., met in that city February 14, to arrange a passenger association.

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At a meeting of the truck farmers, held at Chattanooga, S. C., February 19, to consider the matter of transportation of vegetables and fruits to New York, a member had this to say in praise of the famous Old Dominion line of steamers:

“They have fast steamers especially constructed for carrying highly perishable freights; they have ample tonnage for handling all the business that comes to them, and their deliveries in New York are not only convenient to the trade, but are made more rapidly than any other line with whom we do business.

“In addition to their already large fleet they are about to launch two splendid new steamers, the “Jamestown” and “Yorktown,” which will be ready by April 10, and are expected to be the fastest coastwise steamers out of New York.

“Our experience with the Old Dominion Co. covers more than thirty years. During that time they have always been found willing to do all in their power to assist the grower both in improved service and in giving as low rates of freight as are consistent with fast transportation.”

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The Atlantic Coast Line system has been one of the most liberal and progressive roads in the South in fostering the trucking business along its line. It has made a specialty of its truck traffic for many years, and to its enterprise is largely due the magnitude of the business which is now done out of Charleston.

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The Middle Georgia & Atlanta road, from Atlanta to Milledgeville, has just been completed. It is seventy-five miles shorter from Atlanta to Milledgeville by this route than by any other. Over forty miles of the line between Covington and Eatonton has no bonded debt whatever, $450,000 of the stock being taken and paid for by Georgia people. The ultimate destination of the line is Savannah. W. B. Thomas is general manager.

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The Atlantic & Danville, which extends from Danville across Southern Virginia to the Seaboard, has attracted considerable interest from the fact that a company has been organized, composed largely of bondholders of the road, to build a line from Danville to Bristol, Tenn., to be called the Virginia Seaboard & Western. The Atlantic & Danville is to be sold by order of the court on April 3, and, it is expected, will be purchased by the bondholders. The new road, if built, will be about 115 miles long and connect with the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia system at Bristol. It would give the latter an outlet on the Atlantic seaboard and develop much mineral property of east Tennessee and southern Virginia, the product of which now has no means of reaching furnaces.

HOTELS.

The great Four Seasons Hotel at Harrogate, Tenn., has been reopened.

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Messrs. G. S. Atkins & Sons, proprietors of the Ocean Hotel at Asbury Park, N. J., have bought the Brock House at Enterprise, Fla., together with 2300 acres of adjacent land.

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Messrs. Stephen Green, of Philadelphia, Martin Lane, of Wilmington, and Levi Z. Condon, of Baltimore, have organized the Luray Caverns Co. to operate the Luray Caverns, build a hotel, &c.

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The proprietors of the San Marco hotel, of St. Augustine, Fla., as one method of entertaining their guests, allow them to pick, for use in the hotel, vegetables and fruits from the hotel garden, and on pleasant mornings many of the guests may be seen before breakfast picking radishes, peas, tomatoes, lettuce, &c., to be served at meals.

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The business men of Columbia (S. C.) are talking about raising money to build a great hotel. Since the change in the Atlantic Coast line route, by which Columbia is put on the main line between Florida and the North, it is thought that a big resort hotel could do a profitable business.

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The outlook for the coming season at Mountain Lake park, in Western Maryland, is very promising. Twenty or more new cottages will be built, and many of these have already been spoken for.

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The Royal Poinciana hotel, of Lake Worth, Fla., which has been erected on the site of the old McCormick house, is doing a large business.

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The Macon (Ga.) news is urging the building of a great hotel at Macon in emulation of Savannah and the Florida cities.

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The Florentine hotel, at Huntington, W. Va., has passed into the hands of Messrs. L. H. Cox and R. F. Jones. Mr. Cox is from Louisville, Ky.; Mr. Jones formerly conducted the Joy house at Findlay, Ohio. They state that large improvements will be made.

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The Hotel Indian River, at Rock Ledge, Fla., has 350 guests and expects to be crowded all through the month of March.

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A new hotel is to be built at Charleston, S. C., at a cost of something like $450,000. It is to cover a block 150×545 feet. The plans provide for broad verandas adjoining the parlors and opening upon a garden space to be larger than any similar grounds owned by any hotel in the country.

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Fort Worth, Texas, expects to have a new and first-class hotel.

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The court has refused to confirm the recent sale of the Oglethorpe hotel at Brunswick, Ga., and has ordered a new sale.

CORRESPONDENCE.

A Valuable Suggestion from England.

A reader of the SOUTHERN STATES living at Florence, Ala., sent a copy of the January number to a friend in England, and has received from him the following very interesting and noteworthy letter, which we are permitted to publish:

“Many thanks to you for the January number of the magazine, “the SOUTHERN STATES,” which I received this morning. I presume you sent it, knowing that the interesting letters relating to the subject of immigration to the Southern States so fully coincide with the views I have long held and have expressed to you concerning immigration from Great Britain to the South.

“Those views were verified again only a few days ago in the following manner: A friend of mine, who is a builder, wished to “talk with me about America,” rather a big order if he had considered a little, as having but limited means and a growing family he “thought of emigrating.” _Where_ should he go? He spoke of many of the States I know well, but he knew nothing of the South, except that they had oranges and alligators in Florida. He was a fairly intelligent man, too. After a long conversation, the length of which you will understand when I tell you that I conducted my friend from the blinding blizzards of Nebraska to the genial sunshine of Alabama, I promised to get him some printed information from some of the emigration agents in London, so that he could form an idea as to the requirements, capabilities and resources of the South. Well, I tried to keep my promise, and called on numerous agents. I could obtain _any amount_ of information about any part of Canada and the Western States, but in this great city of 6,000,000 of people, I, an experienced Londoner, could not obtain a line about Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana or any other Southern State, except Florida, and as I enjoyed life in the latter State for over three years I could describe a gopher or a “Florida cracker,” better than the agent could. Is it to be wondered at that people from England know the West and are ignorant of the beauties of the South? There, you have your Southern difficulty in a nutshell. We have over 35,000,000 of people on these little islands, very few of whom really know anything whatever of the Southern States. We have tens of thousands of men--small capitalists, manufacturers, skilled artizans, farmers, dairymen, market gardeners, and business men of all classes--who would give up the, in most cases, hopeless struggle here (hopeless as far as a comfortable competence is concerned), and cross over to the Southern States with their wives and families _if they only knew_ the power of their skill, industry and perseverance in a country where those qualities will give an ampler, fairer and a more just reward than here. These people, the hewers of wood and drawers of water, who are the backbone of every prosperous country, require information, _official_, _authoritative_, _reliable_ information, about Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee, &c., and it is simply because such information is lacking, difficult to obtain, or unreliable when it is obtained, that so many go West and Northwest, whilst others, who _could_ be induced to go South, stay and struggle on in the old rut for want of being waked up. I feel perfectly sure that if a bureau of information were established here in London and supplied with literature, maps, &c., descriptive of the Southern States, and properly advertised throughout Great Britain, the results would be quickly felt, whilst the expense would be infinitesimal compared with the benefits which would eventually accrue. Such a bureau, however, would have to be managed by a man (or men) of integrity and experience, who should be as unbiased as possible, and entirely free from sectional prejudice. An agent should have sufficient business tact to know that he would never benefit Georgia or Alabama by disparaging Colorado or California. I know that many agents in England try to detract from every other State, and every other section of a State, except the little spot they are for the time pecuniarily interested in getting settled up. Their aims are narrowed down to simply getting commissions on the railway and ocean tickets, and a small prearranged percentage on any little land purchase the immigrant may make from the agent in America, who has glowingly, and very, very often untruthfully, described.

“A Southern States bureau of information, such as I suggest for London, should be kept entirely free from the machinations of the unscrupulous land speculator, who, we all know, has in too many cases most seriously injured States and localities, simply to gain some small selfish end of his own. In my opinion the expenses of such a bureau of information should be borne by Southern railroad enterprise, and the London bureau should work in conjunction with established agencies, or sub-agencies, in all the large towns and cities in Great Britain, and also be in close touch with agencies in the United States, working with the same object, viz.: To induce immigration to the Southern States. The South as it really is can stand on its own merits, and is good enough for anybody, no matter what class--capitalists, cotton kings, iron masters, coal owners, farmers, or earnest, industrious artizans. The South can supply every requisite for all, from the raw material to the finished product. These are a few of the facts that people here in England are ignorant of and _should_ be _informed about_, whilst many of your own people in the North and Northwest are not much better informed on many points. A couple of summers ago I was laughed at at my hotel in New York because I remarked, “I cannot stand this sultry heat any longer; I’LL GO SOUTH, _where it is cooler_.” I was considered a “bullheaded Britisher;” but I was right, anyhow, for it _was_ cooler in Florence, Ala., than in New York!”

A Letter from Western Georgia.

Mr. George W. Truitt, of LaGrange, Ga., one of the most advanced and successful of the present generation of progressive Georgia farmers, writes to the SOUTHERN STATES as follows:

“Noticing your commendable efforts to advertise the attractions and resources of the South and induce immigrants to seek homes in this country, I ask space in your columns for a review of some of the inducements this immediate section offers.

“This county--Troup--is in Western Georgia with the city of LaGrange as its county seat.

“LaGrange has a population of about 4,000 and is beautifully situated, 850 feet above sea level--on the Double Daily mail route from New York to New Orleans, and on the new and splendid line from Palatka, Fla., via Macon, Ga., to Birmingham, Ala. For healthfulness it has no superior. It has two of the best female colleges in the South, and an excellent male high school. The various religious denominations are represented by nine churches. The town is lighted by electricity and has a fine system of water works. Two strong banks furnish all necessary money for business enterprises. The famous “Terraces” or Terrell flower gardens are within a mile of the heart of the town. There is a $400,000 manufacturing plant here, embracing the LaGrange Cotton Mills, foundry and machine shops, oil mills and guano factory, all under our management.

“There are two carriage factories, a plow factory, planing mills, variety works and ice factory all inside the city limits. A canning factory will soon be erected, and a public school system will be established.

“LaGrange is surrounded by one of the best agricultural regions in Georgia.

“The farm lands are fertile, easily cultivated and yield abundantly under intelligent culture. There has not been anything like a failure of crops in twenty-five years through this section. The climate is all one could wish. Extreme heat and cold are rare. Our lands are rolling, with natural drainage; plenty of timber and pure water. Farmers can work their lands in half a day after the heaviest rains.

“The agricultural interest is undergoing a great and rapid change for the better. We have abandoned the one-crop idea.

“Since January 1st, 1894, there has not been sold at this point more than one car of Western corn and meat. It has not been many years since forty cars of those two items were sold in about the same time.

“Lands here can be bought at a bargain. Our largest land owners see the great importance of increasing our white population, and are in thorough accord and sympathy with any movement looking to an improvement in that direction, and stand with open hearts and friendly hands to welcome a sturdy thrifty class with a little money and plenty of will and energy.

“One attraction, of the many worthy of an immigrant’s consideration in this county, is the fact that the farmer has a home market for his surplus farm products. Within a few months from now there will be a demand, within a circle of fifteen miles around LaGrange from the cotton mills already in operation and nearing completion, for 10,000 more bales of cotton than the county raises; that means 30,000 bales; we raise annually about 20,000. Many thousand bales will be sent direct from the fields, as it is gathered, to the factory, where the spot cash will be in waiting for the cotton and the seed, the value of the seed amounting to, or adding to the cotton, at least one cent a pound. The mill operatives furnish a market for thousands of dollars’ worth of the farmers’ surplus food products.

“Clover and grasses grow to perfection here, the Bermuda grass especially, which furnishes nine months pasturage and yields bountifully of a hay second only in nutritive value to the purest timothy.

“Here are some facts and figures from actual experience in farming in this vicinity: $96 worth of Bermuda hay from one and a quarter acres; $60 worth of rust proof oats from one acre; $64 worth of corn from one acre; 2180 pounds lint cotton (a fine variety) from one acre, sold for $174.40 and the seed brought $120.

“We have a farmer in this county who twelve years ago was not worth over $1000 and who now owns unencumbered property worth over $30,000; made it all farming; has never engaged in any other business.

“The thanks of every Southern man and woman are due you for the service you are doing them. And every respectable immigrant who is influenced by you to seek a home anywhere in this State, I know will not live here long before his obligations to you will be expressed.

“This country and any other will be truly great when the man who pushes the plow is landlord of the sod he turns.”

Interest in the South Extending.

A real estate and immigration agent in Iowa writes to the SOUTHERN STATES as follows: