Southern world : journal of industry for the farm, home and workshop. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1882-18??, May 01, 1885, Image 1
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(Entered at the Post-office, in Atlanta, Ga., fob Transportation through the United states Maim at Second Class Rates.j
PUBLISHED 1
TWICE A MONTH.!
YOL. IV.
ATLANTA, GA., MAY 1, 1885. NO. 13.
be inappropriate to apply to this enter
prise that rises into life from the ruins
of a war-sustaining factory, the poet’s
couplet:
“The peace that bullda a mill like thla
la worth a thousand wars.”
The Old and New Houtli.
On the fair fame of a young and grow
ing nation’s history—a history written
in the blood of revolutionary heroes,
whose watchword was “freedom’’—
writes Bessie H. Woolford to the South
ern Trade Ornette—rested one dark blot!
The same spirit which claimed freedom
for one claimed freedom for all. Where
Never before were her needs so thor
oughly understood; her wants met.
Through the medium of the press,
knowledge on all important subjects is
becoming wide spread, and the better
education of the masses is seen in the
intelligent cultivation of land.
But with all these changes, it must be
confessed that plantation life (as it ex
isted before the war) has about it a fas
cination that will live in the future of
fiction as it has lived in the past in fact.
Plantation melodies sung over our cra
dles in infancy by our “black mam
mies,” and listened to under the spread
ing trees in the light of the harvest
even sacredness, in work. Were he
never so benighted, forgetful of his high
calling, there is always hope in a man
that actually and earnestly works; in
idleness alone is there perpetual de
spair.” Here, then, is the road to our
wealth and power in the future—what
ever contributes to make the farm pros
perous strengthens and enriches the
State. We hope to see the number of
these happy, prosperous, educated,
Christian families grow and multiply
throughout the wide, fertile, important
region covered by the Southern States.
We were formerly called the “Planta
tion States.” We shall hereafter be
The Victories of Peace.
It would.be hard to find a reader of
the Southern World who has not been
told that “Peace hath her victories as
well as War,” and that those triumphs
are, in the main, of greater benefit to
the world at large. Not many years
ago, a magnificent vessel was built in
the State of Maine, and the launching
of it was a grand event. A gifted poet
made the occasion the subject of one of
*hfs finest poems, and this is its final
couplet:
“The peace that builds a ship like this
Is worth a thousand wars."
On this page we present an attractive
■a—eg
THE INDUSTRIES OF PEACE AND WAR.
view of the Sibley Cotton Mills, at Au
gusta, Ga., which occupy the site of the
once famous Confederate Powder Works.
The reader will notice that the chimney
of the former works has been left'stand
ing and now performs the sacred office
of a memorial to the Confederate dead.
The Survivor’s Association, of Augusta,
have repaired and transformed it into a
handsome and appropriate monument
to their less fortunate comrades.
But on the site of the Powder Works
now stands a cotton factory that gives
employment to hundreds of families and
adds yearly to the wealth of the city
and State. Where the old powder mill
used to manufacture powder with which
to kill the soldiers of the North and
West, the cotton factory now makes
cloth with which to clothe them. With
nearly twenty thousand spindleB and
over five hundred looms, this factory
consumes nearly fifteen thousand bales
of cotton annually. Thus have the arts
of Peace sought to cover the scars of
War, and bring industry and prosperity
to the people of the South. It may not
bride sang their sweetest, and bloossms
shed fragrance like incenBe on the air,
among the peaceful homes of the Sunny
South, there took root and sprang up—
like the serpent in Eden—the “blood-
red flower of war, with its heart of fire.”
It flamed through the length and
breadth of the land; a torrent of blood
washed out the stain, and the eagle rose
above the storm—free!
But, alas, for the love and the lives
which went down in that crimson tide;
alas, for the ruined homes, the broken
hearts, the “Lost Cause” and the tat
tered flag for which “the boys in gray”
fought so bravely and so well!
Now the plowshare of peace turns up
the sod, sometimes striking a ball that
tells its own story, but the fields are
green and smiling, and the finger of
prosperity points toward the South,
through whose golden gates shall come
wealth and greatness far beyond that of
former times.
Never were the facilities for tho prop
er cultivation of the resources of the
South so great as at the present time.
morn, will be sung in turn to the little
ones upon our knee, and will live in the
realm of song long years after the de
scendant of “Uncle Ned” has forever
laid down “de shovel ad’ do hoe,” and
hung up “de fiddle an’ de bow.”
It must be borne in mind, writes
Hon. Henry W. Hilliard, to the South
ern Cultivator, that the farm has taken
the place of the plantation. The old-
time wealth and luxury of plantation
life no longer exist. The South is still
rich—rich in its lands, but richer in its
people who inherit the virtues and ac
cept the traditions of the cultured,
brave, generouB, high-toned race, who
made agriculture a pursuit, which,
while it brought wealth, made our sec
tion distinguished for hospitality, and
for a profusion in living scarcely known
in any other section of the country.
This change which the system of agri
culture ha3 undergone requires a strict
er regard to.economy; but it will, we
hope, conduct us to a still higher and
happier civilization. Oarlyle says:
“There is a perennial nobleness, and
N '
known as the “South.” We hope to
see all the elements that constitute a
great people grow in our midst; happy
Christian families living on their own
places; well-ordered households; pro
ductive farms, school-houses and
churches; and prosperous cities in
whose streets children may play in
peace and security.
There is no object about the city of
Augusta, says the Chronicle, that at
tracts more attention than the Sibley
Mills. From every view it is an
imposing structure. The buildings are
fashioned after the Byzantine style of
architecture. The walls being raised
above the roof into a battlement, so that
the mill has the appearance of a mediae
val castle. The battlements are sur-
roundedby escutcheons midway between
the towers and the end of the building.
The ground upon which the mill stands
is the site of the old Confederate'Pow
der Mills, which so long furnished pow
der to the Confederate armies. The
chimney, which is a fine obelisk, still
stands, a monument of the past.