cotton was sent to New England to be spun, bleached, woven, nay, even cut and made into garments for Southern customers; now there are mills in and near the cotton belt, and with its advantage of cheap labour the country bids fair to compete before long in the world's markets with Massachusetts and Manchester. Together with this came the invention of various processes to enhance the value of cotton. Cotton-seed, formerly useless, is now converted into oil, valued at $60,000,000 yearly, and into fodder and manure, worth $40,000,000 per annum. The cotton crop itself exceeds 8,500,000 bales, or 3,000,000,000 pounds, out of which $350,000,000 per annum are realised. Cotton is the backbone of the country, for its culture is almost a monopoly of this region, which produces by far the major part of the world's supply. Cotton and iron are the keystones of the prosperity, and this prosperity rests upon the soundest possible foundation, because no other region is capable of producing the former to any considerable extent, while as regards the latter the cost of manufacture nowhere is as low as in the Southern States. Nor is cotton and iron all. While other regions are becoming destitute of timber, the vast supplies of Southern forests are almost untouched. Agricultural produce which for so many years had to be imported from the West, is now raised not only in quantities sufficient to meet the home demand, but also to admit of exportation, and fruit and vegetable gardening have reached a very high state of perfection. Virginia kitchen supplies in particular find ready buyers in Northern markets, and sell at excellent prices, the season being six weeks ahead of that of the 'garden region' of Pennsylvania and New Jersey; and vast quantities of vegetables leave by steamer, while during the summer express trains, loaded with nothing but exquisite fruit, depart daily for the North. These various branches of farming and industry are carefully fostered by the railway companies. Most lines have doubled their mileage within the last ten years, and the growth of their business, as will be shown in subsequent chapters, American Railroads. 46 is perfectly amazing. Yet in spite of all this the South as yet fails to present a prosperous appearance, and, compared with Europe, or even with the North, looks poor. The reason is obvious. The region has but just emerged from an unprecedented state of poverty and destitution, out of which it has raised itself almost without outside help, for the South employs but an insignificant percentage of Northern or foreign capital; and however remarkable the results of 20 years' work may be, development is but in its first stages. One may forecast, but one cannot imagine whatthe South will be if farm, forest and mine are developed to their full extent. Of these possibilities, or one may say certainties, the Southern people are fully aware. The West has had its time of quick growth, and progress is becoming steadier year by year. Hence the device is no longer Go West' as it was in the early eighties, but, to quote the words of Mr. Chauncey M. Depew, the national orator: "Go South, young man, to the booming land of King Cotton!" In spite of the depression which, arising from the low price of cotton, has recently prevailed throughout the South, the best authorities assert that after decades of adversities and backwardness these States are rapidly attaining that economic prominence to which their extraordinary natural advantages entitle them. 6 CHAPTER LI. THE ILLINOIS CENTRAL. From the Sunny South to the Noble North, from Palm to Pine, from the land of King Cotton to the land of King Corn: by these and various other terms do the believers in alliteration describe a journey from New Orleans to Chicago, which along the Illinois Central lasts but twentyseven hours. Within this brief space of time one can cross three extensive 'belts' one of which is noted for its cotton, another for its coal, and the third for its corn and its cattle. The Illinois Central now embraces the following lines: Main lines owned: Illinois Central, Chicago to Cairo. . Centralia to Dubuque. Chicago, St. Louis and New Orleans RR. To this must be added the New Orleans and The main lines constitute direct connections between Chicago and Sioux City (via Dubuque) and between Chicago and New Orleans (via Cairo and Memphis), and intimate relations with other railways give access to leading points situated near, such as St. Paul, Des Moines, and St. Louis; for example, a through service between the latter town and Chicago is maintained in conjunction with the Vandalia Line. From the traffic manager's point of view the system consists of three distinct parts. The line to Sioux City is a Granger road, and its direction of trade is naturally towards Chicago. The lines in Illinois have a strongly developed local and a mixed through traffic, the coals from the Illinois fields constituting no mean proportion of their freight. The direction of trade South of the Ohio is towards New Orleans, and in consequence the system has a variety of traffic which has no parallel in so far that there is not another railway which at the same time is one of the leading carriers of cotton, coals, corn and lumber. 1 The Southern part of the system is no doubt the most interesting. New Orleans is one of the oldest towns in the United States, and the commercial outlet of the lower Mississippi valley and the regions adjacent thereto; and the rapid development witnessed throughout the South and Southwest has greatly expanded its trade, as may be inferred from the fact that the value of exports from this port rose from eighty million dollars in 1886 to a hundred and thirty millions in 1891. Cotton is the great staple of Louisiana, Mississippi, etc., and next come rice, tobacco, and other agricultural produce, most of which is shipped abroad. No mean proportion of these staples, and a goodly quantity of cereals from the North besides, reach New Orleans by the Mississippi, which opposite the town is a mile and a half broad, and sweeps in a fine curve round the com 1 The Illinois Central transports about 1,750,300 tons of coal, 600,000 tons of cereals, 575,000 tons of lumber and 600,000 bales of cotton per annum; a great proportion of these goods is exchanged with the 52 roads which its lines cross between Chicago and New Orleans. modious quays and wharves of the "Crescent City." The Levee is six miles long, and on the opposite shore, in the town of Algiers, there is an equal amount of river frontage. Yet this immense space is by no means too large, and during the cotton season one can often see a triple row of Mississippi steamers in the central part of the quay. Among the railroad connections of New Orleans the Louisville and Nashville, the New Orleans and Northeastern (connecting with the Richmond Terminal system), the Texas Pacific, the Southern Pacific, and the Illinois Central are the most prominent. The latter forms the principal communication with Chicago, which has the advantage of the shortest route, 915 miles in length; there are not less than five various ways along which railroad traffic between the two cities can be conducted. From New Orleans to Memphis the I. C. has, since the recent purchase of the Louisville, New Orleans and Chicago RR., possessed a double route; between Memphis and Cairo there is but a single line which has no other competitor than the Chesapeake and Ohio Southwestern. These lines lead through the cotton belt, which, if seen at the right season, is one of the most attractive regions of the United States, and clothes the world just as the West feeds it. The country is damp, level and hot, and one sees little but negroes and cotton plantations. There is no more beautiful sight than a cotton field in full bloom, the abundant flowers changing shape and hue as the day progresses. In August the blossom disappears, and the lint begins to protrude from the seeds. This goes on slowly until frost comes; the seeds do not ripen simultaneously, but gradually, so that picking lasts from four to five months. It is done by negroes, old and young, male and female, who gather the fibre in baskets. The large downy pendants, of a yellowish-white colour, hang everywhere on the shrubs, vividly contrasting with the large green leaves; and these cotton landscapes, sprinkled 1 Among the exports there are 45,000 barrels of flour, 23,000,000 bushels of grain and 3,000,000 bales of cotton. |