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THE TIFTON GAZETTE
Published Weekly
■pttnd «t the Postofflce ot Tifton, Georgiy ll Second Clt
Hatter, Act ot March 3,1879.
Gazette Publishing Company, Proprietor*.
J. L. Herring Editor and Manager.
Official Organ City of Tifton
and Tift County, Georgia.
SUBSCRIPTION RATESt
Twelve months
Six Months
Four Months —
..... $1.60
76
60
SATURDAY NIGHT.
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TIFTON, GA. FRIDAY, OCTOBER
The Pauing of the Wagon-Yard.
News from Macon that the last of the wagon-
yards of that city is to give place to a garage
marks a new era in South Georgia.
The wagon-yard was a great place in its
day It was the main artery of trade; a com
mon meeting place for the people for nearly
one hundred miles around, and a place where
many commercial and political questions were
settled. . , . ..
Thev arrived at the wiiK^ibyard during the
early morning hours, having camped a few
miles outside the city the night before; broke
camp and drove into town in time for a day’s
trade. They formed a typical Cracker crowd
—a few old men, perhaps, many bearded
men of middle age in the prime of life; young
men just entering its threshold, and a scatter
ing of big-eyed boys, brought in for their first
sight of the city and its ways.
They came in horse-carts, the bearded man
astride the horse, a bale of cotton evenly bal
anced in the cart behind; the store of feed and
provisions packed in the spare places, with per
haps a bundle of hides, a few dozen eggs, and
mayhap a half-dozen chickens in a coop made
of home-rived boards. If there was a boy, he
was perched in such spare space as he could
find on the bale. There were ox-wagons, ox
carts, and later in the day came the two- and
four-horse wagons from the more pretentious
plantations near by, with their couplet, triplet
or quadruplet of bales, according to the condi
tion of the road. But the horse-carts and ox
carts were the ones that had made the long
journeys, some of them taking three days for
the trip, and these came six to twelve or even
twenty in a row, making the journey together
for companionship and protection.
First to the warehouse, where the bale was
thrown off, weighed and sampled. Then to
the wagon-yard, where the animals were un
hitched and fed. Ample provision had been
made for both man and beast, for the ware
house with the best-equipped wagon-yard got
the best trade from the .outlying districts.
There were stalls and watering-troughs tint! a
well for the stock, and a roomy house with a
large fireplace for the men.
The stock cared for, the rounds of the cotton
buyers was made, each owner of a bale—the
product of a year’s work, perhaps, thought 1-e
did not get a top price until every buyer had
opportunity to bid on the sample he carried,
At last the sale, and the rounds of the stores
* with the day’s trading. Here the supplies for
the year were purchased: A sack, or if he was
opulent, a barrel of flour; a caddy of tobacco
a supply of coffee, and most difficult of all, the
list of. things the housewife needed—calico,
needles, pins, a card of white buttons, a box of
black horn buttons for the men’s clothes, a
bunch of factory thread, and ad infinitum, ac
cording to the means. There was also a pound
of stick caniiy for the kiddies, a special gift for
the wife, and Inst but not least, a little brown
jug of the stuff now contraband.
Perhaps the older men wanted to start home
before nightfall, but the younger ones would
want to stay and “see the town,” so they camp
ed that night around the fire in the wagon-yard
house, sleeping on bedding brought in from
the vehicles. Around that campfire they lived
again the doings of the day. The hard bar
gains they had driven—or thought they drove
the price cotton had sold for; the purchases
made; and then back to neighborhood gossip
and finally to politics. It was a characteristic
Georgia group of the middle part of the last
' century that gathered around that fire. The
supper of sardines, cove oysters, cheese and
crackers and sweetbreads, washed down with
slugs of rye or com from the brown quart
flasks set apart for use on the homeward trip
A few had invested extravagantly and hilari
ously in nickel cigars, which were smoked with
gusto and difficulty.
These men slept early, and soon the older
ones were on their pallets, while the younger
wont out in trio's or quartettes to . Bee the sights
of the city—and incidentally to spend the mon
ey earned under many blazing suns of late
spring and early summer.
With the coming of dawn the older men had
the crowd up; the packing was soon over, teams
were hitched and the homeward trip begun.
The wagon-yard would not see them again for
a year, but the one .day there had afforded sub
jects for conversation for many weeks to come.
Gone are the wagon-yards with their asso
ciations and the people who made them possi
ble. A new day has come, with electricity,
allways and motor cars, and the wagon-yard
^oes because it, like so many things of the old
(tys, is po longer needed.. But each leaves
refreshing memories among those who
l a past day and still live to remember it
By some means, the impression got abroad
that the change of time, under the Daylight
Saving law went into effect Tuesday night.
Believers therein were rather surprised the
next morning when they found nothing of 'the
change in the papers and the same old time go
ing on.
Under Act of Congress of March 16, 1918,
approved by the President March 19, “time
throughout the United States and Alaska was
advanced one hour for the period in each year
beginning at 2 a. m. on the last Sunday in
March, and ending at 2 a. .m. on the last Sun
day in October.”
It is rather interesting to trace the history
of the daylight saving movement. It was the
idea of an Englishman named Willett, and was
originally designed to cover the summer months
from the first of May to the first of October.
Willett published a book on the subject in
1907. A daylight saving bill was introduced
in the House of Commons in 1907 but failed
of passage. Germany thought it a good idea
and enacted it into a law in 1916, and in less
than three months twelve European countries,
including England and France followed suit.
France liked it so well that when it was put
on again in the spring of 1917, the change was
made a month earlier on March 24. The same
year the law was adopted in Australia and Ice
land.
Friends of the measure claim that it saved
the British people twelve million dollars in gas
and electric light bills in one geason and that
in the United States the saving in coal alone
amounted to forty million dollars a year.
The measure was never popular in this coun
try as a whole, and was enacted primarily for
the purpose of conserving coal. When the
war ended, so strong was the pressure on Con
gress that the law was repealed, over the Presi
dent’s veto. In some sections, the results of the
law were highly gratifying. New York liked it
so well that the city contemplates a daylight
saving law of its own, and several other cities
along the'Atlantic coast share in this prefer
ence, including Savannah, which wanted a lo
cal law similar to the one New York-proposed.
The law served a good purpose and would
have been more popular had it been better un
derstood and had not had so many doctors.
CARING FOR WHAT WE HAVE.
Secretary Houston, of the National Depart
ment of Agriculture, is quoted in a news special
from Washington as suggesting dairying, hog-
raising and general stock farming to the people
of Georgia after a conference with Senator
Harris.
The National Department of Agriculture
and Secretary Houston can do Valuable service
by helping those who have already embarked
in hog and general live stock raising—hog rais
ing in particular. Tift county invested some
thing like a quarter of a milion dollars in a
packing plant, *and the farmers of the section
surrounding invested perhaps an equal amount
in hogs and cattle—especially hogs. Before
this, the Government had sent an agent here to
inaugurate a campaign for the eradication of
hog cholera. About the time the packing plant
was under good headway, this agent was re
moved to ahother locality.
We do not know whether the removal of the
agent during the spring months was the cause,
or Whether it was due to the weather, or per
haps to other conditions, but the past summer
and the early fall were disastrous to hog-rais-
crs. There has been a heavy mortality al
ready and this mortality continues. Reports of
sick hogs and reports of dead hogs have been
common for'several months, and the total loss
will be an immense one.
Perhaps the owners were in part to blame.
Probably the proper precautions were not tak
en. But this work is a matter of education and
development. The people must be advised and
assisted until hog chdlera is stamped out. We
can never hope to make hog raising a success
so long as cholera prevails. For that-reason,
we are constrained to the belief that the Gov
ernment can do better service by helping those
who are already engaged in hog raising than
by advising others to take it up. Make the
business a sifccess, and there will be no need to
urge people to engage in it.
WHY ENIGMA.
“Puzzling postoffice robbery is reported in
South Georgia. Name of the jostoffice, how
ever, was Enigma. The safe was riddled,”
says the Savannah Press.
Which recalls an interestnig bit of history.
Many years ago, when the saw mill df Weston
& Gunn was located at that point on the old
Brunswick & Albany railroad which is now the
pretty little town of Enigma, the late John B.
Gunn made application for a postoffice. The
application was grantee}, and several names
were sent in to the Department for the office’s
christening. All were rejected, fdr various rea
sons, and after awhile' Mr. Gunn said; "Nam
ing this town seems to ben an enigma.” “Make
it that,” said Mr. Weston, and the town was
named.
In this connection it is interesting to note
that the beginning and the end of Uncle Sam’s
postofflees were once located in Worth county.
Alpha was four miles east of Sumner, and Ome
ga was south of Ty Ty. Alpha saw its end
many years ago when the patrons of thei .office.
on can yell at the crowds in his moved away, and Omega was cut off into Tift
not getting any' votes county and like every other good thing over
: in .the Senate, {here is growing like a green l>ay tree.
including Georgia peaches, pears, apples, berries, preserves, marmalade, pineapples, tomatoes,
corn, beans, okra, spinach, kraut, big grain hominy, sweet potatoes, pork and beans, pickles,
peanut butter, salted peanuts, pimentos, sauces and ketchup.
Capitalization $300,000.00
6,000 shares at $50.00 per share will be issued. No bonds or preferred stock.
Officers of the corporation will be R. F. Willingham, president, who is now president of the
Shippers’ Bonded Compress, president of Willingham’s Warehouse, president of Spinners’ Cot
ton Con
Jno. A. Streyer, vice president, who will resign as general manager of the Macon, Dublin &
Savannah Railroad, to give all of his services to our corporation.
T. E. Fugate, secretary and treasurer, formerly secretary and treasurer and general manager
of the Macon Bonded Warehouse.
Chas. M. Grier, cashier, formerly manager of the Postal and Western Union Telegraph Com
panies, recently returned from overseas service, with the 151st Machine Gun Battalion.
We summarize from the president’s letter, Mr. R. F. Willingham, as follows:
Holdings: The corporation, through the purchase of the Camp Wheeler warehouse area and
Quartermaster Hill, with .the subsequent purchases of the pumping station at Wheeler, the
2 VS mile 10-inch iron water pipe line connecting with the city water main, together with the
lease secured for 50 years on the 50 acres of land embracing all of the warehouse area, and al-
sd a lease for 90 years with an option to buy the 230 acres, including the Quartermaster
Hill and all contiguous land, gives the corporation a complete manufacturing and storage plant
ready for operation as soon as the canning machinery is installed. Embraced in our holdings
are 11 mill-constructed warehouse buildings of 10,00(1 square feet each, a magnificent concrete
refrigerating and cold storage plant with 5 capacity of 20 carloads of fruit or vegetables, also
five additional concrete buildings which will be utilized for -potato curing and storage ware
houses, also a general office building and store building for our commissary and general mer
chandising business, and 40 additional large buildings will be used for dwellings. This will
comfortably house a village of six hundred people. Electric lights, city water and sewerage
will afford every modern convenience. ■ jgjr f , _
Business: The business of the corporation will consist of two distinct departments, namely:
Canning^uad General Storage. -■
Canning: This will include all of the above enumerated fruits and vegetables. Contracts are
now being made daily with the farmers of Middle Georgia; they are agreeing on their part to
plant a specified acreage of various crops of vegetables desired and we are agreeing on our
part to buy same from them at a fair market price. This will prove a tremendous help to the
farmers in giving them an opportunity of growing crops which the boll weevil will not destroy.
General Storage: Macon's facilities for a general storage business are entirely inadequate and
-undeveloped. We have had applications in the past 30 days for space to store hay, grain,
automobiles, machinery of all kinds, cotton seed meal, cotton seed hulls, cottonseed, and many
other items of merchandise, totalling an enormous tonnage. Application^ of this kind in the
past were necessarily turned down, as there was no place in or near Macon which could, han
dle the volume of business ready and waiting for a storage warehouse. We are now installing
a sprinkler equipment in all of our warehouses, which gives us the lowest insurance rate in
Macon.
Values: It is conservatively estimated that our holdings are worth more than twice what they
cost and subscribers to stock will get the benefit of this reduced cost in acquiring our properties.
Profits: Our initial installation of machinery will handle 20,000 cans of fruit or vegetables per
day, which is 600,000 per month, or 6,000,000 cans per year. A conservative net profit on
this business is two cents per can, or $120,000 per year from our canning department. We ex
pect to double the capacity of our plant before next summer, which will double our profits:
From our storage department we are already assured enough business to warrant net earnings
ejf $60,000 per annum. Based on the above earnings total net income would be $180,000 per
annum, or 60 per cent on $300,000, or $30.00 per share profit on each $60.00 share. Of the
6,000 shares to be issued, 3,600 have already been subscribed, leaving a balance of 2,400 to
be taken.
Subscriptions will be booked in the order received, arid after the 2,400 are sold no more
subscriptions will be accepted. Liberty Bonds in payment of stock will be accepted at
current market quotations; stock to be paid for, 10 per. cent cash with subscription, 80 per
cent in 30 days, 30 per cent in 60 days, 30 per cent in 90 days.
Farmers are especially invited to participate with us in view of the’large volume of busi
ness we will have with them.
Phone, telegraph or call on R. F., Willingham at Willingfcam’f V^rah^use, phone 400, cor-
ner Third and Pine Streets, Macod, Ga.
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