Chapter C: R. Camp, a home-seekers’ traveling agent, expects to take an

excursion of Northwestern farmers to points in the South some time in March. His plan is to inaugurate a series of monthly excursions, beginning about March 1 and continuing twelve months. He says the class of people he will bring South are among the best citizens of the North and Northwest, farmers who are hard working and practical, who want good farming land, and are making the change on account of the climate.

* * * * *

A large number of farmers from Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois and Kansas, have settled in the neighborhood of Port Lavaca, Texas. It is here that the Phillips Land Co., of Kansas City, Mo., has bought some 6000 acres of land, and divided it up into small farms for German colonists.

* * * * *

On February 16th a party of sixty persons from Iowa and Nebraska reached Fort Worth, Texas, on the way to the Gulf Coast to investigate the fruit-growing capabilities of that region. Most of the party are descendants of the people who built up Nebraska, and made that State take a front rank among the wealth-producing States of the Union. While most of them are doing well at home, they are anxious to live in a more congenial climate, and have had their eyes on Texas for a long time.

* * * * *

In consequence of numerous inquiries from the Northwestern States, Mr. M. V. Richards, of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Co., has arranged a number of special rate land excursions, as they are called, from Chicago and points west of the Ohio river to Baltimore & Ohio points in the Shenandoah Valley, in order to induce settlers to come to this region. Mr. Richards intends to make the most of the reduction in rates allowed by the Southern Passenger Association on certain dates in February, March and April for the purpose of aiding Southern immigration.

* * * * *

A large number of land seekers recently visited Crowley, La., and most of them bought property. Indiana and Nebraska were among the States represented. The visitors report great dissatisfaction among the farmers of their States, and say that Louisiana will receive many immigrants this year.

* * * * *

Messrs. Sappington & Howell, Little Rock, Ark., are working on a plan to combine the State and railway lands in Arkansas, aggregating 7,000,000 acres, and offer them for sale at nominal prices on an opening day, to be fixed.

* * * * *

A dispatch from Rockford, Ill., says that quite a company of Rockford’s Swedish population are planning to move down to Mississippi this spring.

* * * * *

The Chamber of Commerce of Huntsville, Ala., is in receipt of many letters from the West asking about farm lands in the neighborhood. Huntsville is one of the most delightful towns in the South. It is surrounded by a splendid farming country.

* * * * *

Norwegian prospectors are going into Lawrence county, Tenn., every day and the majority of them buy homes. There are over 100 families here. They are good farmers and make good citizens.

* * * * *

A movement is on foot to locate upon the rich prairie and timbered lands adjacent to and just west of Charlotte Harbor, Fla., a colony of Bohemian agriculturists.

* * * * *

It is reported that a tract of land aggregating about 12,500 acres, at Wilson Station, Ala., on the Louisville & Nashville railroad, has been bought for a German colony. The first settlement will be named “Milton Grove,” in honor of Mr. Milton H. Smith, president of the Louisville & Nashville railroad.

* * * * *

A recent settler at North LeRoy, Fla., is so much delighted with the country that he has persuaded seventeen families of his former neighbors in Missouri to move to Florida.

* * * * *

The business men of Baton Rouge, La., are organizing a development club, to further the interest in securing immigration, etc.

* * * * *

A party of twenty Illinois capitalists, including Mr. A. L. Klank, a nurseryman of Champaign, Ill., has been looking over Arkansas with a view to making large investments in fruit farms.

* * * * *

The Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific railway recently took 200 home-seekers to Texas from Kansas and Nebraska, and 400 more were to follow.

* * * * *

It is said that a transaction is now under way by which 3000 families, representing a population of 15,000, are to be located in the Yazoo Delta.

REAL ESTATE NEWS.

Baltimore’s Suburban Development.

The annual report of the Roland Park Co., of Baltimore, makes a showing that, considering the extreme business depression of the last year and a half, is quite remarkable. The Roland Park Co. is engaged in developing a fine suburban residence park north of Baltimore, three or four miles from the centre of the city. The first building operations were begun in October, 1892. The first house was completed early in the spring of 1893. On the 30th of December, 1893, the date to which the annual report is brought down, the residences built and under construction represented a total cost of more than $300,000. In the space of a year a locality that was in effect nothing more than farm property has been transformed during a period of unprecedented financial and business stagnation into a beautiful and rapidly growing residence suburb, with all the comforts and conveniences and appurtenances of life in the thickly built up part of the city. Between thirty and forty families have moved out to the park for permanent residence, and are living in houses that cost from $4000 to $15,000 each. At the initiation of this enterprise there was not a man in Baltimore who would have looked for such development as this, even with favorable business conditions.

Baltimore is an anomaly in this matter of suburban residence. Up to two or three years ago the city had no rapid transit, and consequently no suburban development. Its half million people lived in compactly built rows of brick houses, having neither front nor side yards. The enterprise of the Roland Park Co. was the first suburban development undertaking of a high class and on a large scale. Messrs. Jarvis and Conklin, of Kansas City and New York, who have invested in this country something over $30,000,000 of English money, bought 500 or 600 acres of land immediately north of Baltimore, and proceeded to develop it as a first-class residence suburb. An avenue 120 feet wide was constructed through the property, and a double track electric road was built through the property to a resort at Lake Roland, and coming down to the centre of the city at the City Hall and postoffice. A system of water works, a complete scientific sewerage system, paved roadways, asphalt sidewalks, along which shade trees were set out, and electric lights and other conveniences and accessories to comfort were provided. Under the management of Mr. Edward H. Bouton, the vice-president and general manager of the company, the progress that has been made in the actual building up of the locality has been much beyond what was expected, and there are many reasons for the assurance that this will seem small in comparison with the progress that will be made during the coming spring and summer.

The present high rate of taxation in the city proper, and the recent large expenditures for public improvements that will necessitate an early increase in the tax rate are tending to send people into the suburbs. This and many other potent causes point to a rapid building up of Baltimore’s suburban territory.

Substantial Improvement at Atlanta.

Real estate is getting active at Atlanta. One firm alone, since January 1st, has sold $128,000 worth of property in the city and vicinity. Samuel Goode, a realty expert, gives the following opinion of the outlook in Atlanta:

“The practical certainty that the United States prison will be located in Atlanta, the direct probability that the Grand Army of the Republic will hold its next convention here, and the settled fact that the greatest exposition ever seen in the South will be opened here in 1895--these things combined have given our people hope and confidence in the continued rapid growth of Atlanta, and the timid have begun to find courage enough to turn their money loose for loans and direct investments in real estate. Indeed, the change for the better has been very perceptible to dealers in the last sixty days. It is not any particular advance in prices which is so marked, because, in this respect there has never been any falling off, but it is the fact that people are beginning to buy at the normal prices. The best prices realized for property at all have been obtained within the past six months.

“Another evidence of returning confidence and activity is found in the desire and willingness of owners to sell their property at auction. We already have a variety of property to be thus sold early this spring. There has been a spirit of fairness and liberality manifested by our citizens, one towards another, in the past year, which is truly commendable; and the result is that creditors basing their security upon real estate have not forced property for sale and broken prices and distressed if not ruined their debtors; but they have exercised a wise forbearance, and will soon be rewarded by full payment of all that is due them, and values have been sustained in Atlanta as in no other city within my knowledge. All signs point to an active spring market, and to the investing here of much outside capital.”

Suburban Development at New Orleans.

A syndicate of St. Louis people is constructing a suburban residence park at New Orleans. A body of land recently bought for that purpose measures about 700 feet frontage on St. Charles street by 8000 feet deep. The plans call for an ornamental entrance in the middle of the front, and a graveled driveway through the middle of the plat. As projected the entrance will be defended by handsome gates, the carriage opening being about 100 feet wide, and two gates for foot passengers on either side. Electric lights, prettily arranged, will stud the edge of the arch leading to the apex, where an ornamental structure of iron work will support additional bulbs. About 1500 feet of roadway have been built, leading from the gateway back into the grounds, while equal distances of Schillinger pavement have been laid on either side. A plat has been reserved in the middle for shade trees and shrubbery.

* * * * *

The Capital City Real Estate and Investment Company, with a capital stock of $30,000, has been organized at Austin, Texas. H. P. N. Gammel is president.

* * * * *

Daytona, Fla., is rejoicing in much real estate activity.

* * * * *

Two of the most noted stock farms in Kentucky, both near Lexington, have recently been sold. Mr. Jno. T. Hughes, the well-known horseman, has purchased the Prince George place for a reported sum of $60,000. J. R. Keene, the Eastern horseman, has bought the Castleton farm, the property of Colonel Ford, of Virginia. The price is given as $70,000.

* * * * *

The Southern Farm Agency, of Lynchburg, Va., has recently sold some farms to Northern people, and advertises in this issue of the SOUTHERN STATES a number of very fine properties that can be had at very low prices. The Southern Farm Agency, by the way, is one of the most enterprising and progressive real estate concerns in the South.

* * * * *

The president of the Commercial and Industrial Association of Montgomery, Ala., in his last monthly report, says: “The real-estate market of Montgomery shows some evidences of improvement. From returns compiled of this city for the month of January it is shown that the increase of sales is more than 20 per cent. over the corresponding month of last year. The values of desirable business and residence property and also of well situated and improved agricultural lands have remained steady and are firmly held. It is also believed the spring and summer will show still greater activity, with perhaps an increase in values. There are comparatively few vacant houses for a city of Montgomery’s size, but the prospects and building operations will show some falling off the coming year.”

* * * * *

A tract of 1575 acres near Velasco, Texas, has been sold to J. B. Wagoner and J. T. Gould, of Eureka, Ill., for $19,687.

* * * * *

The late S. S. Houghton, a millionaire, and head of the noted Boston dry-goods house of Houghton & Dutton, built a few years ago a magnificent winter residence at Homosassa on the gulf coast of Florida. Mr. Houghton died last spring, and his widow has sold the Homosassa estate to Mr. J. A. Rowell, vice-president of the Merchants’ National Bank, Ocala. The building and grounds are said to have cost $100,000.

* * * * *

The building occupied for nearly thirty years by the People’s Bank in Louisville, Ky., has been sold to the Bank of Commerce, and will in a few weeks be occupied by the last-named institution. The price paid was $27,000.

* * * * *

A delegation of Northern lumbermen, under the charge of E. C. Randall, a real estate operator of Chicago, recently spent some time inspecting timber lands in South Arkansas.

* * * * *

The Little Rock (Ark.) Gazette publishes lists of recent land transfers in that city and in the county, from which it appears that the real-estate business of that locality is not suffering much from the hard times.

* * * * *

The governor of Arkansas and the State Commissioner of mines, manufactures and agriculture have invited the real-estate dealers of the State to file with them descriptions of properties for sale in order that they may have definite information to furnish people who are seeking homes in Arkansas and write to them for information about prices and location of lands.

* * * * *

It is said at Fort Worth, Texas, that there has not been for years such demand and inquiry for property as there is now. The influx of immigration has been unprecedented, especially in North and West Texas, many of the newcomers having located in Tarrant county, in which Fort Worth is situated. Renting agents report that the demand for houses largely exceeds the supply.

* * * * *

The Texas land office has leased 375,000 acres of land to J. S. Daugherty, of Dallas, Texas, for a term of five years. This is said to be the largest amount of land ever leased to any one person by the State. The lease will bring a revenue to the public free school fund of $15,000 annually.

* * * * *

The Southern Farm Agency, of Lynchburg, Va., has just sold to Mr. A. E. Miltimore, of Catskill, N. Y., 2000 acres of land in Appomattox county, on the Norfolk & Western Railroad. Mr. Miltimore has already taken down several carloads of sheep and horses, and intends making it a fine stock farm, for which, in many respects, it is said to be most admirably adapted.

* * * * *

Mr. George H. Zerr, of Reading, Pa., has purchased a fine estate near Morrisville, Fauquier county, Va., and will reside there.

* * * * *

Pittsburg capitalists have bought thirty-two acres of land near Wheeling, W. Va.

* * * * *

Florence, S. C., is having considerable real estate activity.

* * * * *

Mr. W. P. Clyde, of the Clyde Steamship Co., has bought 2000 acres of land on Hilton Head Island, near Beaufort, S. C., at $3.00 an acre. Mr. Clyde was already the owner of a farm on the island.

* * * * *

The annual statement of the Roanoke Development Co. for 1893, recently issued, shows a satisfactory state of affairs. Shareholders have purchased nearly $282,000 worth of the company’s lots, paying for them partly in stock. In addition to this the company sold $14,258 worth of lots to outsiders. Thus far the sales have amounted to $340,428, which is an average price of $2535 per acre. The company still has 1153 acres unsold. The officers of the company are P. L. Terry, president; Malcolm W. Bryan, vice-president; S. W. Jamison, treasurer; L. R. Sollenberger, secretary.

* * * * *

George Logan, of Salem, Va., has just bought a farm of 318 acres adjacent to that town for $9000.

* * * * *

E. F. Porter, one of the leading lumbermen of Kansas City, has been down to inspect with a view to purchasing a tract of 25,000 acres of pine and oak timber land in South Arkansas owned by the land department of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway.

* * * * *

A large tract of land, known as Cliffbourne, at Rock Creek Park, near Washington, D. C., was sold recently to Francis G. Newlands for $185,000.

* * * * *

A farm of 265 acres near Staunton, Va., has been sold by J. B. Smith and H. G. Eichelberger, of Staunton, to a gentleman from Maine, who will move down with his family.

* * * * *

Mr. O. Van Buskirk, of Mt. Sterling, Ohio, has bought 330 acres of land near Florence, Ala., and will move there. Several families besides his own will accompany him.

* * * * *

Mr. R. S. Oglesby, of Lynchburg, Va., recently sold a farm in Bedford county to James W. Dawson, of the John Shillito Co., Cincinnati, Ohio.

* * * * *

The real estate agents in the South who are known in the North and West are receiving constant inquiries about farm lands. The majority of inquiries seem to come from Dakota.

* * * * *

E. Mallen, of Ironwood, Mich., has purchased a farm near Cloverdale, Ala., and is interesting some of his fellow countrymen in Lauderdale county. Mr. Mallen is a Finlander, and has been farming a number of years in the Northwest. A number of his friends expect to buy farms and locate in the same county.

* * * * *

There has been lately a decided improvement in the demand for stores and business places in Richmond, Va. Messrs. J. Thompson Brown & Co. report a number of large leases.

* * * * *

The town of Springfield, Fla., is enjoying a building boom. About thirty dwellings are being erected, and a number of residences and stores are being planned. Real estate business is brisk.

* * * * *

A ranch, in Calhoun Co., Texas, two miles from Port Lavacca, containing 22,000 acres owned by Mr. W. H. Thomas, has been bought by a Northern syndicate for $132,000. It will be cut up into small tracts and colonized. The plans for its development also provide for the building of factories, hotel, &c.

* * * * *

The Vicksburg, Shreveport & Pacific Railroad Co. has sold to Otto Plock, of Paris, France, 7,554 acres of land situated in Ouachita Parish, La. The consideration was $26,440.68 cash. It is said to be the purpose of the purchaser to establish a large colony of Swedes on these lands, selling the lands to them in small lots on easy payments.

* * * * *

Real estate continues active at Fort Worth, Texas. There is a great demand for small houses. “If I had twenty-five such houses today I could rent them all before night,” said Mr. W. R. Sanner, a real estate agent. “I do not know a better investment,” he continued, “than to build such residences, with modern improvements, to cost from $1,000 to $2,500.” Messrs. Huffman & Co. have in hand a trade in adjacent counties, for Ohio parties, which represent the sum of $20,000. California parties are negotiating for pasture land held at $16,000.

* * * * *

Messrs. J. Thompson Brown & Co., Richmond, Va., received recently a letter from Callao, Peru, from a gentleman who wishes to purchase real estate at Richmond. The same firm reports that every mail brings them from two to five letters from parties in the West and Northwest, who write they have decided to settle in Virginia, and want information as to real estate, etc. In the past ten days they have been in negotiation with one or more parties in Ohio, Michigan, New York, Minnesota, Chicago, Pennsylvania, Colorado, St. Paul, Indiana, Illinois, Nebraska, Kansas, Wisconsin, and other points who wish to purchase farms, manufacturing or building sites. From one of the locations named they are trying to locate a colony of fifty families on a tract of 5000 acres.

* * * * *

A dispatch from Rocky Mount, N. C., states that parties from the North are negotiating to purchase 20,000 acres of land in Nash and Halifax counties for development and investment.

* * * * *

The Island City Abstract Co. has been organized at Galveston, Texas, with H. M. Truehart, president; I. A. Harrington, secretary, and Joseph Lobit, treasurer, and $20,000 capital.

* * * * *

“The Real Estate, Title and Guarantee Co.,” has been organized at Newport News, Va., with the following named officers: Carter M. Braxton, president; L. P. Stearns, vice-president; Charles Sheppard, secretary; Arthur Lee, treasurer. The capital is $100,000.

* * * * *

A New York capitalist has just invested $62,500 in real estate in New Orleans. The transaction was made through Messrs. Robinson & Underwood, real estate agents, New Orleans, who state that other purchases will follow this.

* * * * *

Messrs. G. M. Reynolds & Co., of Norfolk, Va., sold recently a number of lots adjacent to Portsmouth, improved and unimproved, for an aggregate of $13,000.

NOTES OF SOUTHERN PROGRESS.

Atlanta’s Proposed Exposition.

The people of Atlanta are pushing their proposed exposition with the same vigor with which they undertook the preliminary organization. The enthusiasm which has marked every step of progress shows how thoroughly in earnest Atlanta is, and gives promise of what may be expected from the exposition. Director-General Palmer is getting his working force into good shape, and reports that from all sections of the country the most hearty and enthusiastic commendations are being received. If carried out on the scope upon which it has been planned, this exposition will be for the South what the World’s Fair was for Chicago and the country at large. It will centre in the South an amount of interest scarcely appreciated now, but which will mean the investment of many millions and in time of many hundreds of millions of dollars. It will also mean a stimulation of the Southward trend of population, and thousands who are thinking of moving South will be determined by the work of the exposition. Everything indicates that the exposition will be on a scale far surpassing anything that has ever before been seen in the South.

Improving the Dismal Swamp Canal.

Preparations are being made by Messrs. Ross & Sanford, of Baltimore, to begin the work of deepening and otherwise enlarging what is known as the Dismal Swamp Canal. The canal, which is twenty-two miles long, will be dredged to an average depth of ten feet and widened to sixty feet. This will require the removal of 3,000,000 cubic yards of material. As the capacity of the average dredge is 3000 yards per day, the magnitude of the work can be appreciated. Another important work will be the construction of two main and two secondary locks, the main locks to be 250×40 feet each in the clear. By the lock system the water in the canal level can be raised to a height of thirteen feet. When the work is finished vessels with nine feet draught can pass through the waterway without difficulty. Some of the lumber needed to build the dredges to be employed has already arrived at the scene of operations.

The amount of money to be expended in this work will be fully $1,000,000. This passageway is to be used extensively by lumber barges, fruit and truck steamers and other craft plying between Hampton Roads and North Carolina waters. The improvements will tend to greatly increase the trade between Norfolk, Portsmouth and the tidewater country south of those cities.

Shipping Alabama Coal to Mexico.

The increase in coal business at Pensacola, Fla., is very marked, and an excellent demand is noted for Alabama coal, which thus far has been the only kind sent from that city. The Export Coal Co. reports that it has one contract for 11,000 tons to be delivered at Tampico by March 1, also another for 60,000 tons to be delivered at Vera Cruz and Tampico during 1894. The company also has 30,000 tons to be filled on an order from Galveston by June 1. The exports of Alabama coke are very small as yet, but the indications are that the amount will be greatly increased this year.

Newport News Development.

Everything seems to be contributing to the building up of a great seaport city at Newport News, Va. The business over the fast freight line established by the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis and Chesapeake & Ohio from the West to Newport News is being increased by grain shipments from along the Chicago & Northwestern. A through rate has been made on cereals for export to Liverpool, with the result that the new line is not only securing business from Missouri and Kansas and the country traversed by the “Big Four” system, but the territory in Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa for which the Northwestern is an outlet. As the latter has about 3500 miles of lines in these States, the great advantage of having the Northwestern as a feeder is apparent. The people who are forwarding the business have very thoroughly examined the facilities at Newport News and were so pleased with them and the way the business has been handled that they intend making more extensive exports by way of that port.

In this connection it is reported that the Vanderbilts have privately secured a larger interest in the Chesapeake & Ohio and in Big Four than they have ever held, and mean to control absolutely that line from Chicago to the seaboard, with the line of steamers from Newport News.

Southern Coal in Chicago.

President M. H. Smith, of the Louisville & Nashville, has arranged for a reduction of coal rates from Jellico, which will permit of the introduction of Jellico coal into Chicago and Illinois and Michigan points on the same basis as West Virginia coal. This will, it is reported, also include the Middlesborough district. The reduced rate will doubtless result in a great increase in the Western shipments of Kentucky coal, the superior quality of which has created for it a Western demand, despite high freights.

Opening Texas Coal Mines.

The extensive coal deposits near the Rio Grande, in Presidio county, Texas, it is stated, are to be opened and mined on an extensive scale by the San Carlos Coal Co., which controls 53,000 acres of land containing veins of semi-bituminous coal forty-one inches thick in some places. President S. A. Johnston, of the company, in a letter to the Manufacturers’ Record, says that his company has made a contract to sell at least 115,000 tons yearly to the Southern Pacific Railroad. The Northern office of the company is at Pittsburg, Pa.

Another Florida Canal.

Work is about to begin on a canal in Florida which will be of great importance to the lumbering and agricultural interests of the section through which it is to pass. It will extend from a point in Marion county, at the head of Ratcliff’s prairie to Mill Creek swamp. It will be eleven miles long and thirty feet wide at the bottom. The estimated cost of dredging the canal is $75,000. The object of the canal is to reclaim thousands of acres of submerged swamp lands, covered with rich muck from five to ten feet in depth, with a clay bottom, and to provide transportation for pine and cypress timber.

The syndicate interested has purchased 15,000 acres of land along its line. When the improvements are completed they expect to engage largely in the growing of rice and sugar-cane, and hold out inducements to settlers who desire to buy rich lands cheap. D. D. Rogers, at Ocala, is engineer. Among the capitalists interested is Christian Ax, of the firm of G. W. Gail & Ax, Baltimore.

Another Big Enterprise for Norfolk.

Following the announcement that the Chesapeake & Ohio is to enter Norfolk comes the statement that the United States Cotton Warehouse & Loan Co. has asked for legislative authority to build wharves, warehouses, elevators and other buildings; also to construct and operate a terminal railway not over five miles in length. It is also to conduct a general wharfage and warehouse business, with a capital of at least $50,000. The main office is to be in Norfolk or Portsmouth. The corporators are Edward A. Pierson, of New York; John H. Dingee, of Philadelphia; J. Andre Mottu, of Norfolk; J. R. McMurran, of St. Paul, Minn.; Heber Alter, of Philadelphia; James Y. Leigh, of Norfolk; S. Henry Norris, of Philadelphia; William Burrington, of Philadelphia; Herman Niemeyer, of Portsmouth; Fergus Reid, of Norfolk; C. W. Murdaugh, Marcellus Miller, of Berkley; Parke Poindexter, of Berkley; William Goddin, of Philadelphia; William Schmoele, Jr., of Portsmouth; John L. Vaughman, O. P. Heath, S. L. Burroughs and Walter S. Taylor. A number of well-known capitalists appear in the list, and the enterprise evidently means much for Norfolk and vicinity.

* * * * *

The Florence Pump Co., of Florence, Ala., has made a contract with a Philadelphia firm to supply $40,000 worth of pumps.

* * * * *

The water works plant at Yorkville, S. C., has been completed, tested and accepted by the town council. The plant consists of about three miles of mains, a stand pipe seventy feet high on a fifty-foot tower, 120 feet in all, with a capacity of 60,000 gallons. The water is forced into the stand pipe by a pump of 500,000 gallons capacity, and the stream which furnishes the water will furnish (estimated) 150,000 gallons a day. There are 800 feet of hose, and the total cost, including hose, was $16,800.

* * * * *

The Shea Plating and Manufacturing Co., of Cleveland, Ohio, has entered into a contract to remove to Macon, Ga., and the work of transferring the plant has begun.

* * * * *

Railroad communication and the building of ice factories on the west coast of Florida, have resulted in the building up of an important fishing industry, which is growing rapidly. St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Dunedin, Ozona, Sea Side and Tarpon Springs are the principal shipping points, and there was forwarded from these ports for 1893 a total of 7,901 barrels.

* * * * *

The Fort Worth Gazette says of Terrell Texas: “Never before in the history of Terrell and vicinity has there been such demand for homes and tillable grounds. Many persons having large pastures are cutting them up in farms, at least a portion, and if the demand increases the large pastures will have to be given up to farming interests instead of grass pastures. Several thousand acres of new land will be put in cultivation this year in this county.”

* * * * *

For several weeks Messrs. Rand, McNally & Co., printers and publishers, have had an agent in the South prospecting for the most suitable place, in point of business and situation, to establish a distributing house, their main houses being in New York and Chicago. Charlotte, N. C., has finally been fixed upon as the most desirable point.

* * * * *

Newport News had the honor of constructing the first iron and steel merchant vessels built in the South, and the largest ever launched in the United States. El Cid, made famous by being turned into a warship for the Brazilian government, enjoys the distinction of having broken all records in the passage between New York and New Orleans. El Norte, El Rio, and El Sud are not far behind her. Following this distinction comes the docking for repairs of the big American liner New York, which was done February 19. The New York is the largest ship ever docked in America. No other yard on this side the Atlantic could do it. The Newport News dock has but one rival in point of size--the government dock, at Brooklyn--and it is doubtful if that is large enough to admit of her entrance. As soon as the big ship touched the dock a force of 1000 men was put to work upon her.

* * * * *

A new manufacturing enterprise of some importance is about to be inaugurated at Bedford City, Va., by Mr. W. B. Dunn, who has organized the Bedford Manufacturing Co., with himself as secretary. The company’s purpose is to manufacture custom-made clothing to be sold at manufacturers’ prices, making a specialty of trousers, using the product of all leading Southern woolen mills, as well as other fine foreign and domestic goods. It is intended to appoint agents in all towns and cities in the South having 4000 inhabitants or more.

* * * * *

The city hall at Richmond, Va., recently completed at a cost of $1,370,000, is one of the finest municipal buildings in the country.

* * * * *

It is announced that the Boston capitalists who have decided to invest about $300,000 in an office-building in Atlanta, Ga., have secured a site and are to have plans prepared at once. Mr. H. M. Atkinson, who is their Atlanta representative, states that the building is to be fire-proof, ten stories high and will contain all the features of the modern structure for offices.

* * * * *

Hon. Jonathan Norcross, of Atlanta, Ga., is having plans prepared for a five-story building for offices to cost several hundred thousand dollars.

GENERAL NOTES.

Small but Vigorous.

The Houston East & West Texas Railroad, running from Houston, Texas, to Shreveport, La., is not very much of a road as to mileage, but there is more hustle about it than most roads of ten times the length exhibit. With only 232 miles of road the company is doing more relatively towards the development of the country it traverses than almost any other road in the country. Recently a development department has been created and put in charge of General John M. Claiborne, an old newspaper man. Among other methods of building up the territory of the road, and besides the usual concessions to settlers in the way of passenger and freight rates, the company has offered to contribute to a common fund an amount equal to all that can be raised by the people of the counties through which the road passes, the money to be spent in getting in settlers. The road promises to locate at least one family for every two dollars the citizens of these counties will raise. The country through which this road passes includes some superb farm and garden lands, and large areas of original forest timber, pine and hard woods, and with the energy and push of the managers of the road it will not be long before immigrants will be pouring into their country.

The officers of the road are E. S. Jemison, president; M. G. Howe, vice-president; M. S. Meldrum, secretary and treasurer, and T. Cronin, superintendent, all of Houston.

Mr. A. A. Arthur and Middlesborough.

The people of Middlesborough, Ky., and Middlesborough property owners living elsewhere are making strenuous efforts to induce the Middlesborough Town Lands Co. to reappoint Mr. A. A. Arthur to the active management of the company’s affairs. Ever since the termination of Mr. Arthur’s management the town has been in a state of virtual stagnation, and it is believed that Mr. Arthur alone can rescue it from collapse and restore it to its former condition of growth and prosperity.

Several delegations of citizens and property owners have called on the company’s present commissioner at Middlesborough, Mr. Lionel H. Graham, of London, and urged him to bring about the appointment of Mr. Arthur. On February 17, a mass meeting was held, at which the following resolutions were adopted:

_Resolved_, By the people of Middlesborough in mass meeting assembled, that the opportunity presented by Mr. L. H. Graham, who is now in our midst as the representative of the stockholders of the Town Lands Co., seeking information and encouragement for the guidance of his associates, be seized, and that we, the citizens and property owners of Middlesborough, who have borne the brunt of all the troubles of past two and one-half years, and have witnessed and studied both administrations, and who have been with the stockholders in prosperity and adversity, respectfully but emphatically ask a return to the old original plan of administering the affairs of the Town Lands Co.

_Resolved_, That we know that all the great and valuable resources upon which the city was started still exist; we have seen railroads brought to us and great enterprises created in our midst. The necessities of a city have been established, all legitimate expenditures have been made and nothing now remains to be done to re-establish credit, activity and progress, but the appointment of a leader, a wise and liberal man, one of intelligence, wide experience, integrity and extended connections, one in whom we can place great confidence.

_Resolved_, That in Mr. A. A. Arthur, creator and projector of Middlesborough and all the adjacent territory, we find such a man. None other has so great an interest. We will stand by him and we believe and know that he alone can pull you, the stockholders, and us, the citizens, out of the abject state in which we now are.

_Resolved_, That we most heartily ask for and will most cordially approve the reappointment of Mr. A. A. Arthur to the active management of the Middlesborough Town Lands Co.; we believe that he can rescue this city from ruin, and the sooner the management is placed in his hands the sooner will confidence be restored and values be re-established.

_Resolved_, That the interests of the Town Lands Co. are alike the interests of the city and the citizens thereof; one cannot prosper without the other, hence the citizens and property owners are profoundly earnest in their desire to see Mr. Arthur restored to power, as they believe that his restoration will give new life not only to Middlesborough but to Southeastern Kentucky as well, and that we will enter upon a career of unexampled prosperity.

The Annual Fair at New Berne, N. C.

The annual fair of the East Carolina Industrial Association was held in New Berne on February 19th to 23d, inclusive, and was formally opened by Gov. Carr with a sterling address, in which he referred to the tidewater region as the garden spot of the continent, enumerating its resources and estimating their economic value, present and prospective. The exhibit, as a whole, was a surprise to home visitors as well as strangers, especially in marine, agricultural and mechanical products. Its mineral exhibit was remarkable in respect to native ores and precious stones. Thirty-one counties in the State are mining gold at a profit. Nuggets were shown which were valued at $52 and upwards. Eighty-five varieties of commercial woods were shown. There was a great variety of building stones. Tomato plants six inches high, garden peas three inches high, and strawberry blossoms were shown. The department of ladies’ work was superlative. Dairy products were meagre, only three samples of butter being shown. There was a great variety of feed in bales--native grasses, stock peas and corn fodder. Fine samples of wool and blankets were exhibited. The same blankets took a premium at Chicago. Some fine Southdown sheep from the Tucker farm near Raleigh were on view. There were some fine Jersey, Devon and Alderney cattle, and superior Berkshire and Red Jersey pigs and fat hogs, running up to 600 pounds in weight.

The fish and oyster exhibit, with the nets and apparatus, is always a prominent feature of the annual expositions, and was well sustained. Roe shad were remarkably fine.

There was an attractive exhibit of live and dead game and fur-bearing animals, and two curious hybrids between turkey, guinea fowl and Plymouth Rock hen. The floral exhibit was simply exquisite, and the colonial relics and old family plate and curios were very interesting. There was never such a poultry show seen on earth for quality and variety. At least two kinds were shown!

In the department of Women’s Work the productions of deft fingers were astonishing in all fabrics, laces, gold embroidery, feathers, flowers, etc., rivaling Japanese art, and causing Valenciennes to blush with jealousy. Altogether, there was a wonderful diversity of industrial products of which the old North State and all her sisters may be proud. New Berne herself has earned honors.

An Immigration Bill in the Maryland Legislature.

A bill is to be introduced in the legislature of Maryland, which is now in session, enlarging the powers of the chief of the bureau of industrial statistics so as to give him authority to provide for the settlement of immigrants in Maryland. The bill makes it the duty of the chief of the bureau to collect reliable information in every county of the State bearing upon the question of immigration, and authorizes him to appoint a local immigrant commissioner in each county. The local commissioners are to receive $2.50 a day for each day of actual service and personal expenses, the expenses are to be itemized and certified to before a justice of the peace, and $1.00 for each immigrant sixteen years of age and over settled by them in their respective counties. Their duties, under the direction of the chief of the bureau, are to procure the statistics and information necessary to properly set forth the facts, advantages and conditions of the counties, to perform such other duties appertaining to the work of the bureau as may be required and to procure options on farm lands at such prices and upon such terms as will be within the means of the immigrants desiring to locate upon them and to give them such assistance, care and information within their province as may be necessary.

The owners of lands upon which options have been thus secured shall upon the sale of the lands through the agency of the bureau, pay to the chief of the bureau a commission of 5 per cent. upon the gross amount of the sale, the sum thus obtained to be used in defraying the general expenses of the bureau and to be accounted for by the chief of the bureau in the itemized statement of receipts and expenditures which he is at present required by law to publish in his report and to make to the State comptroller.

The chief of the bureau is authorized to visit such States and countries as in his judgment may be necessary, or to send an authorized agent, for the purpose of securing immigrants, having special regard to the character and responsibility of the immigrants. He is to adopt such means of advertising the State’s advantages as may commend themselves to his judgment, including such maps, charts, &c., as may be best calculated to illustrate the geographical, geological, topographical and physical features of the State, and to make contracts with railroads, steamship and other transportation companies and the masters of sailing vessels to secure a low rate of transportation for immigrants and to make the necessary arrangements for their temporary reception and accommodation upon their arrival until they can be located.

The bill provides the sum of $10,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary, in addition to the present annual appropriation of the bureau to carry out the provisions of the law.

Packing-Houses in the South.

The people of the South have so long been accustomed to buying their meat from Northern and Western markets that the suggestion of packing-houses in the Southern cities is full of novelty and surprise. Packing-houses distributed over the Southern territory would be the incentive for farmers to raise more hogs and cattle and a better quality, and thus create a source of revenue now practically closed to them.

Are not our people convinced of the folly of selling their marketable live stock to drovers and buying their meat, thus paying the cost of transportation both ways, besides the profit each handler obtains?

Pork and beef raised on our own farms and cured in our own packing-houses would keep at home the large sums of money sent off annually for the meat supply of the people.

The grocerymen of Jackson purchase every year about $100,000 worth of meat and lard for consumers in this immediate section, and it is easily seen that a packing-house in Jackson would be a profitable industry. It would furnish a home market for hog and cattle-raisers, and stimulate the production of the best qualities. Every step in this direction is an important gain, and the subject deserves the earnest attention of our live and progressive citizens.--The Whig, Jackson, Tenn.

Sponge Fishing in Florida.

The vessels that are used in the business are chiefly schooner-rigged and vary in size from five to twenty-five tons burden. They carry crews ranging from five in number to fifteen for the largest vessels, nine men to the boat being the average number. The odd man in each case is the cook, who remains aboard to provide for the inner wants of the crew (generally amazingly large) and sails the craft while the balance are off in the small boats called dingeys in search of sponge. Each vessel is provided with poles of various lengths, from fifteen to fifty feet, to be used according to the depth of water in which they are working, which have attached to them three pronged hooks shaped like the teeth of a garden rake, somewhat heavier, with which the sponge are detached from the objects to which they are adhered and drawn into the dingey.

Two men are necessary to operate a dingey, one, the “hooker,” using the pole and the sculler keeping the boat in motion, following the directions of the hooker, where he leans over the side looking through an ordinary wooden bucket with a glass sealed in its bottom for the sponge, which, when discovered, is secured with the hooks.

The fisherman are most all former inhabitants of the islands; many of them have lived in the Bahamas, and there are about equal numbers of white men and negroes.

They are designated “Conchs” by the people living upon the mainland, from their making use of that shell animal for edible purposes when living upon their native islands.

A trip is of eight to ten weeks’ duration, unless it is mutually agreed by the owner and the crew that it shall end sooner, and a “broken” trip is one which does not pay expenses incurred, and does not happen often, except during a period of disaster like that just passed through.

When the trip is finished the catches are carried to market where the purchaser bids upon them at a certain price per bunch or for the lot, having previously estimate from his thorough knowledge of the goods their value in pounds.

Before sending them to the various markets they are first trimmed neatly and cleaned of all rock and shell, and then packed in bales of convenient sizes in a compress which reduces them to small bulk and renders them easily handled.

Owing to the scarcity of the supply the demand is at present very great, and excellent prices are obtained.

* * * * *

The Newnan (Ga.) Cotton Mill (6300 spindles) will put on a night force to operate its mill, so that it can catch up with the orders with which it is now overrun.

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Mr. L. C. Porter, proprietor of the Windsor hotel of Minneapolis, Minnesota, has decided to remove with his family to Wilmington, N. C. He has been in North Carolina since the 28th of December.

“I want to get away from the cold, long winters of the Northwest,” he said, “and I came here to prospect. I have been traveling North, East, South and West, and my observation is that you have the finest climate I have ever seen. If you hadn’t this advantage in climate and your fine opportunities for investment along with it, you wouldn’t catch me settling here.”

It is said that Mr. Porter has in hand a plan to establish a colony of Scandinavians in Eastern North Carolina. He expects to settle from fifty to 100 thrifty families somewhere near Wilmington. For twenty years he has been engaged in fostering colonies on the new lands of Wisconsin and Michigan.

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A Young Men’s Business Association is to be organized at Knoxville, Tenn.

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Savannah is getting up a commercial club.

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Macon, Ga., expects to be visited about March 10 by a party of investors and home-seekers from Indiana, who have been induced by the Macon Bureau of Advertising & Information to go down on a prospecting trip.

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The Commercial Club, of Anniston, Ala., is going to have an exhibit room in which to show the agricultural, mineral and industrial resources and products of Calhoun county.

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Mr. Chappell Cory, secretary of the Birmingham Commercial Club, has taken great interest in the matter of immigration. Recently at a meeting of the State Agricultural Society, he delivered a very able address on the subject, which was exceedingly well received by the farmers before whom it was delivered. In the latter part of February, at his invitation, a number of the real estate men of Birmingham met to discuss the subject of immigration. Mr. H. D. Lane, commissioner of agriculture of the State, was present, and addressed the meeting. Following his speech there was a general discussion of the subject, after which the following resolution was adopted:

_Resolved_, That we cordially endorse the movement for immigration as outlined by Commissioner Lane, and pledge him our hearty co-operation, both as real estate men and as citizens of Birmingham and of Alabama.

* * * * *

At Atlanta, Ga., a $500,000 company has been formed to engage in establishing country banks wherever good openings are found.

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A large party of prominent coal operators of Chicago and other Western cities have been examining Kentucky coal fields with a view to handling Kentucky coal on a large scale, and also of investing in coal properties.

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A new water-power cotton mill will be built in South Carolina on Penny-Shoals, Tiger river, near Wellford, by a company recently incorporated as the Tuscapan Mills Co. Mr. C. E. Fleming, of Spartanburg, is at the head of the enterprise.

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The public lands in Arkansas, government, State and railroad, aggregate more than 7,000,000 acres. There are over 4,000,000 acres of government lands subject to homestead entry. Any male citizen of the United States who is the head of a family, or over twenty-one years of age, is entitled to enter 160 acres of land by paying the following fees: For forty acres, $6; for eighty acres, $7; for 120 acres, $13; for 160 acres, $14. The State has also 1,200,000 acres which it will sell at $1.25 per acre, or any citizen over the age of twenty-one years, or the head of a family, can secure a donation of 160 acres by paying a fee of $10. In addition to this the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Co. has over 2,000,000 acres which it will sell on five years’ time at from $2 to $5 per acre, receiving notes in payment therefor, bearing 6 per cent. interest. During the last two years there have been donated to settlers 166,940 acres of land, and deeds made to 131,957 acres to settlers who had fulfilled the requirements of the law.

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It is not generally known that nearly the whole of the extreme western part of Texas is fenced in and divided up into enormous pastures. There is one pasture, for instance, traversed by the Fort Worth and Denver Railroad, that it takes a fast express train four hours and a quarter to cross. Another, in Dickens, Crosby and Emma counties, belonging to the Espinella Cattle Co., contains over 1,500,000 acres. If this pasture were in the shape of a square it would be about fifty miles each way, requiring therefore, 200 miles of fencing.

* * * * *

The Empire Plaid Mill, at High Point, N. C., is crowded with orders. The plant has been running on double time for some months until very recently.

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From the annual report of the Board of Trade of Eufaula, Ala., of which Mr. C. B. Goetchius is secretary, it is learned that Eufaula has had a very active business year in spite of the hard times. The residences and stores that have been built during the year aggregate in cost about $50,000. As an indication of the comparative business done in 1892 and 1893, it is stated that the cash receipts at the railroad office were $8500 greater in 1893 than in 1892. During the recent period of financial and business disasters and failures there was not a single failure in Eufaula, and not a business house closed with the exception of one case of temporary embarrassment, which was quickly arranged.

* * * * *

The Liberty Woolen Manufacturing Co., of Bedford City, Va., has secured another contract from the government to make goods for the army. This time the order calls for 7000 broad yards at a cost of over $8000.

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The last annual message of the mayor of Augusta, Ga., which has been printed in pamphlet form, is a very comprehensive review of the city’s affairs for 1893.

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Sixty newspaper men from North Dakota are visiting Texas.

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The Eufaula Cotton Mill Co., at Eufaula, Ala., has just completed an addition to its plant at a cost of $50,000. At the same place a new cotton mill is being built by another company--the Chewalla Cotton Mill Co.

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The managers of the Seaboard Air Line have become greatly interested in the matter of immigration. Mr. R. C. Hoffman, of Baltimore, the president of the line, and Major J. C. Winder, the general manager, at Wilmington, N. C., are considering plans for procuring the settlement of Northern farmers in their territory. The Seaboard Air Line traverses a country suited in the highest degree for farming and stock raising, and especially for growing early fruits and vegetables.

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The citizens of Tuskaloosa have organized “The Commercial Association of Tuskaloosa county.” The officers and directors are: President, A. F. Prince; Vice-president, George W. Christian; Secretary, Walter Guild. Board of Directors: Festus Fitts, Victor Friedman, W. C. Jemison, J. C. Harrison, A. S. Vandegraaff, H. F. Hill, George A. Searcy, Charles R. Maxwell, T. N. Hays.

* * * * *

The Richmond & Danville Railroad has issued a very handsomely illustrated book, “Snow Balls and Orange Blossoms,” a copy of which will be sent on application.

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Mr. George W. Truitt, of LaGrange, Ga., has published a pamphlet called “Talks to the Farmers of Dixie.” It is full of valuable advice and suggestions.

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The Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co. has in hand contracts that will keep it busy for two years.

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Several hundred laborers have been put to work on the Chesapeake Beach railway, which is to connect Washington, D. C., with a proposed resort on the Chesapeake bay in Southern Maryland. It seems remarkable that this superb body of water has been up to this time so little made use of by the cities of Washington and Baltimore. This new resort at Chesapeake Beach will be a boon to both cities. It will be within less than an hour’s ride of Washington, and will be readily and quickly accessible from Baltimore also.

The Chesapeake Beach railroad passes through a section of country admirably suited to truck gardening as well as general farming. Mr. Washington Danenhower, whose office is in the Loan & Trust building, Washington, has already had some negotiations looking to the locating of a colony of farmers from the Northwest along the line of the road.

* * * * *

The Sibley Manufacturing Co., of Augusta, Ga., has begun an extensive addition to its cotton mill. The output of the mill will be greatly increased.

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It is astonishing to people who are unacquainted with the details of Florida business life to hear of the amount of business done in the little towns in the interior and along the coast. Indeed, it surprises some of those who live here to see the summing up of the annual business done by individual firms in those towns, and if one didn’t in some way get at some tangible reason for these figures one would be disposed to question their correctness. But when one drives out into the surrounding country and sees the many orange groves and the many broad acres planted in vegetables a key is found that unlocks the situation.

In Florida, instead of large areas of land in cultivation, there are the native growths only dotted here and there with openings, and planted to fruits and vegetables. It requires but little stock to cultivate them and but few hands, comparatively speaking, to do the work. The crop raised on one acre of Florida soil on an average is equal to that of fifteen to twenty acres in cotton regions, and every dollar is for export, the grower receiving the cash for his crop, and then he reinvests it for the necessaries of his household and farm. There is where the volume of business done by the Florida merchants comes in.--Jacksonville Times-Union.

* * * * *

The cultivation of the castor bean may be attempted in Texas on a larger scale than heretofore. The United States Consul at Breslau, Germany, Mr. Frederick Opp, has been making inquiries about the climate and soil of Texas for Max Strahl, who is thinking of purchasing land in Bexar county for the purpose of raising the plants mentioned. According to Mr. Strahl’s statement, the castor plant requires much less rain than cotton; can be harvested in a much shorter space of time; requires only one-third of the amount of labor, and yields a much greater profit to the producer.

In a letter to the San Antonio Express Mr. Opp says: “I have sent a sample of the beans to the Department of Agriculture at Washington. I trust that Mr. Strahl will soon positively decide to settle in Texas and inaugurate the enterprise. He is an expert in castor plant growing and raises large quantities in India.”

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The Rock Island & Texas Town Co. owns a 300 acre tract of land near Boyd, Texas, which has been divided into ten acre tracts for small fruit and vegetable farms.

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The citizens of Nacogdoches, Texas, have organized a society, the purpose of which will be to induce immigration to Nacogdoches county and advance the general interests of that section. Lists of lands for sale, with prices, &c., and general information about the locality will be furnished on application. The president of the society is George H. Davidson.

* * * * *

Mr. Guy M. Bryan, a banker of Bryan, Texas, who owns large areas of property in Brazoria county, near Velasco on the Gulf coast, is arranging to bore artesian wells to flood a considerable area of ancient lake beds, which he will convert into extensive rice farms.

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A report now being prepared by Mr. F. H. Newell, of the United States Geological Survey, on the condition, amount, and location of the public land still in the hands of the government, shows that there are about 600,000,000 acres of government lands. The report states, however, that all the vacant land remaining to the government in the West is either mountain country or else land which, owing to scanty rainfall or other conditions, is fit only for grazing.

* * * * *

The National Builders’ Association of the United States will hold its next convention in Baltimore in October, 1895. Mr. Noble H. Greager, of Baltimore, is president of the association; Mr. Charles A. Rupp, of Buffalo, first vice-president; Mr. James Meath, of Detroit, Mich., second vice-president; Mr. Wm. H. Sayward, of Boston, secretary, and Mr. George Tapperk, of Chicago, treasurer.

* * * * *

The Rock Hill Cotton Factory Co., of Rock Hill, S. C., which has heretofore made yarns only, is now adding 192 looms to its plant.

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Mr. George C. Power, industrial commissioner of the Illinois Central and Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Companies, in an interview with a reporter of the New Orleans Picayune, said: “I have been down south of the Ohio river with two or three parties who are desirous of locating wood-working factories. Those parties have expressed themselves as being well pleased with the lumber found there and the facilities for handling it; also the welcome which had been given them by the Southern people. It is more than likely two of the parties will locate within the next week or ten days.

“I find that although the banks wherever I visited have plenty of money, yet they cannot loan it to advantage. At some places the loans to farmers are being curtailed, but in the majority of places the applications for loans are fewer than in several previous years. The hotels are crowded with traveling salesmen, all of whom appear to be doing good business, selling principally dry goods, clothing, hats, caps, shoes and articles of similar character, and very few provisions. Many places are purchasing a better class of dry goods than they had in twenty years back. The merchants anticipate a very good spring trade.

“To show how small farmers are doing, I will cite one case. In the Yazoo Delta a farmer has grown all the provisions--corn and seed--for his new crop, and has sufficient left over to purchase a reaper for his coming hay crop. He has contracted for the produce of five acres of potatoes, seven acres of onions, and he will be self-supporting from this date forward. He is only one of a great many, and it seems to me that with fewer applications for loans and less demand for money to carry cotton, capital must seek other sources of employment. A large portion of it will most probably be invested in sound manufacturing industries, which will make a market for raw materials that are now to a great extent valueless.”

* * * * *

Charlotte, N. C., has grown tired of its inert Chamber of Commerce and proposes to organize a more active and progressive Board of Trade.

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The Chamber of Commerce, of Huntsville, Ala., is receiving many inquiries from Northern farmers, who want to know about farming conditions around Huntsville.

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It is stated that there are not enough houses at Columbia, S. C., to accommodate the increasing population, and that an excellent opportunity is given to erect an office building.

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The secretary of the Bureau of Information of Newport News, Va., is in constant receipt of letters asking for information about Newport News and the adjacent country.

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The Denison Land & Investment Co., of Denison, Tex., has elected A. P. Childs, of Bennington, Vt., President; E. H. Hanna, of Denison, Vice-president, and A. H. Coffin, of Denison, Treasurer.

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