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NUMBER TW ENT'i-NINE
A BIG-HEA%TTLD, PATRIOTIC %AIUROAD
The "A. B. & A. Investing Lobe and Money to Debelop Wire grass Georgia—Western Colonies 'Being Tlanted and Wide
Acres of Beautiful, Lebel Lands Are Made to "Bloom as the Rose. ”
»y WILLIAM D. UPSHAW.
HE MAN who says that all railroad,
corporations are as unfeeling as the
steel rails upon their tracks is simply
“another one” —that’s all there is about
it! No, it is NOT ALL either —for that
pessimistic individual is a dangerous
alarmist, unjust in his judgment, unfair
in his deductions and positively hurtful
in his citizenship—hurtful, because he
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sows the seeds of discontent and suspicion in the
attitude of the public, leading ofttimes to discourag
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W. H. LEAHY.
ing legislation against some of the most unselfish
builders of our progress and civilization.
GOOD! I thought over that sentence rather care
fully just as a “starter.” I like it pretty well since
reading it over —and I’ve decided to let it stand. This
is no new doctrine I’m preaching. I have written
and spoken words to this effect ever since the
priceless boon of editorial “free speech” came to
me in the birth of The Golden Age.
In my platform work I have been an almost con
stant traveler for fifteen years, and my personal
experience with railroad men from the grimy
handed toiler on the track to the engineer in his
overalls, the conductor on his train, the Passenger
Agent in his office and the President on his throne,
has made me feel anew that life is worth living. I
am convinced that, right along with preachers and
ATLANTA, GA., SLPTLMBLR 8 1910.
drummers, railroad men are a big-hearted set, re
joicing in their privilege of everyday service to
humanity.
And the man who jumps on railroads and railroad
men in my presence is in danger of bodily harm —
from my crutches —and my tongue.
Admiration —Brotherhood —Affection.
But I am specializing today. My patriotic inter
est has been tremendously enlisted by the good
• work being done for home-seekers and home-sellers
by the Atlanta, Birmingham and Atlantic Railroad
Company.
This superb new system which has been given
to this section by the monumental pluck and enter
prise of that wizard of finance and organization,
H. M. Atkinson, is one railroad that never knew an
infancy. Like Jupiter from the brain of Jove, the
A. B. & A. sprang full grown and gigantic in its
service from the brain and purse of Atkinson and
his associates, and the finest trains with electric
lights, electric fans and all other modern fixtures,
opened their arms of comfort to the astonished
public.
And there has been something so splendid and
royal in the attitude of this new road toward the
public—something so gentlemanly and generous in
tlje manner of its officers and employees at every
angle where they touch the public, that, somehow,
the people along its route are positively enthusiastic
over the road —smile if you will, but instead of its
“cussing the railroad” as is so often the case, the
people seem to actually 'ove the “A. B. & A.” Those
initials seem to stand for Admiration, Brotherhood
and Affection.
The facts that are tributary to this condition hold
_ “ l ' Q ir compass much of the solution of that
known as “The Railroads and
the Peo v - o£t^
Leahy -assoes Home-Seekers.
Os course, that officer that comes most in con
tact with the traveling public is W. H. Leahy, the
genial and gigantic General Passenger Agent. I
have known him ever since he was “chief clerk”
to the courteous W. B. Denham, of the Coast Line.
With a sort of fascinating interest, I have watched
him climb by sheer force of character and towering
ability to his present position of power and influ
ence in the railroad world. He is proving him
self now a practical statesman, as well as a railroad
man. With rare tact and wisdom he is reaching out
into the cold and crowded North and Middle West
and planting a stable class of homeseekers along
the lines of the A. B. & A., especially in that sec
tion, where the road originated, known as the
Wiregrass Country.
Speaking of this result of his judicious advertis
ing effort, Mr. Leahy in an able article on “The
Turn of the Tide,” in John W. Green’s enterprising
magazine, “The Wiregrass Country,” says:
“Georgia, the South’s greatest cotton State,
has very nearly, if not quite, held its own this sea
son, regardless of the general shortage everywhere.
Her soil is so wonderfully adapted to the pro
duction of almost everything raised in our country,
that, with her great seaports, through which her
choice products are handled to coast-wise cities and
directly to foreign countries, with transportation
lines penetrating the very heart of the State,
> .
H. M. ATKINSON.
it can be readily conceived that this favored sec
tion, in welcoming to her midst the home-seeker
and investor, in return affords superior advantages
from every standpoint.
“And the home-seeker from all sections of our
great country has caught the cue and is coming.
He has heard of the great Wiregrass Country and
day by day our inquiry increases; month by month
the tide is swelling. Within less than six months,
we have noted more than a hundred and fifty fam
ilies settle a’ong our lines and the older lines doubt
less are getting their share. I believe that if the
towns and counties can be urged to do proper adver
tising, the Wiregrass section will settle ten thous
and families from other sections before the first of
January, 1911.”
(Continued on Pago 8.)
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