J HE OCALA BANNEREft PAGEThN
p
How British Cities Man¬
1 age Public UtilitiesH-
owHoWBirmin ham WhenJOSep h ChamberlainSocialist I
Was Mayor Purchased Its Sltim District and Made It I
the Most Valuable Tract of Real Estate In the WorldI
e I
<J
By FREDERICK UPHAM ADAMSIi
j
f Copyright 1901 by Frederick Upham AdamsI VI
1875 the most squalid district in
INEngland lay like a festering soreadjacent to the business center ofBirmingham It was thus de¬
scribed by Counselor White in an elo±4 quent plea before the town council for
I improved conditions-It is not easy to imagine the dreary
desolation which acre after ajre in thevery heart of the town presents t-
ot those who will take the trouble to vis-
it¬
ttLittIe else is to be seen but bow-ing
¬
roofs tottering chimneys tumbledown and disused shops heaps ofbricks broken windows and coars >
rough pavements damp and sloppy Inone case I found a house of only tworooms about nine feet square and sixand a half feet high and in this hovel
p lived husband wife and four childrenAmid such deplorable conditions 12000 of our fellow townsmen are spend ¬
t ing their lives with no bright tilingabout them and nothing of joy or glad-
ness¬
in their homest Joseph Chamberlain was then mayor-of Birmingham and the city had notyet attained the proud distinction of
wo the metropolis midland England norz
had that brilliant young man climbed I
far toward his present fame He had I
evinced marked talents in municipalaffairs and was an enthusiastic advo-
cate¬
of public ownershipso much soIn fact that his political enemies de-
clared him a Socialist It was due tohis efforts and energy that Birming-ham
¬
had purchased the gas plant and
t the waterworks from private ownersI
and the success which followed theseventures gave him a prestige of whichbe was not slow to take advantage
2
The desolate tract populated with thou-
sands¬
of miserable persons aroused hisSympathy butfie was more than t so
dal reformer1he was one of theshrewdestbhslness men in Great Brit-
ain¬
He surveyed the field as a gen ¬
<eral does one of a coming battle HeL formulated a plan one so startling in
SIts originality so radical in its scopec and SQ stupendous in its magnitude
that his friends and supporters hesi-
tated¬
when he proposed it to themMr Chamberlain urged that Birming-
ham¬
proceed to purchase every foot ofland in this contaminated area and heincluded in it fifty or more acres prac-
tically¬
i in the tenter of the city lieproposed to ignore all existing ireotJines and to devote a large percentage-of the land to broad thoroughfares lieproposed to demolish every hou o inthis district to lease part of te siteto reputable landlords who woulderect dwellings under the supervision
I of the city authorities and to lease theremainder of the land for business
cr purposes tHe admitted that for yearsJbis investment would impose a burden-on
S
the taxpayers but contended thatIn the end it would prove a splendid
i Investment More than that the erad-Ication
j
of the slum area would increase I
the value of every foot of property in I
the cityThe future statesman formally intro ¬
I
duced the matter to the town counciland in one of the most masterlyspeeches of his career urged its adop-tion
¬
He claimed that Birmingham-could never aspire to the commercial j
supremacy of its natural territory soi I
5 Ions as it permitted thousands of Itsc townsmen to live in misery
601 believe lIe said that the townand above all the next generationwill have cause to bless the town coun-cil
¬
of Birmingham if it carries outthis scheme and exereises what I ven-
ture¬
to call a sagacious audacity Weknow how from time to time upon ourcoast vast operations have been under-taken
¬
by which large tracts of landhave been redeemed from the sea andwhat was formerly the sandy bed ofthe ocean has been converted into smil-ing fields I say that no less uieritorious and no less necessary is the work
5 which we are undertaking in this inland city by which we hope to wrest
5 from the fell grasp of disease miseryand crime populations whichwould otherwise be abandoned to them-
I heard it said the other day that5 the position of these people was their
I own fault Their fault Yes it is le-
gally¬
their fault if they steal and whenthey do we send them to jail and ifthey commit murder we hang them forit But if the members of this councilhad been placed Ader similar condi-tions
¬
if from infancy we had grownS vp in the same way does any of us
5L believe that he should have run no risk5 of the hangman or the jail For my
part I have not sufficient confidence Inmy own inherent goodness to believe
i that anything can make headwayS against such frightful conditions as I
p have described The fact is it is no-t more the fault of these people that
they are vicious and intemperate thanIt Is that they are stunted deformed
p debilitated and diseased The one isdue to the physical atmosphere Themoral atmosphere as necessarily and-
s surely produces the other It is theonly occasion for which I ever wish tolive beyond the ordinary term of hw
t1s r
S55
I
man life in order to see the results ofthese improvements and to hear theblessiugs which will be showered onthose who have the courage to beginthem
The above is a brief extract from aspeech which aroused the staid Bir-mingham
¬ I
councilors and aldermen toenthusiasm as by a unanimous votethey indorsed and adopted the plan oftheir youthful colleague This was in1875
Few men have lived to see so wild adream come true As I stood in Corpo-
ration¬
street which traverses whatonce was the foul center of Birming ¬
hams slum district I wondered whatare Joseph Chamberlains sensationswhen he gazes on that magnificentthoroughfare the finest in Great Brit-
ain¬
outside of London Where the hov-
els¬
once reeked in filth great marts andbusiness palaces rear their fronts Thedistrict from which respectable personsturned with loathing is now the fash-ionable
¬
shopping district Delicate fab-
rics¬
have taken the plrce of the rags ofthe pauper As if Aladdins magicianhad waved wand the grewsome dis ¬
trict has disappeared I would ratherbe Joseph Chamberlain and walk upCorporation street Birmingham thanbe able to pay the llussian nationaldebt
At an expense of SSoOO009 the citypurchased about fortyfive acres ofslums and proceeded to transform anirregular strip having an extremelength of about a mile Starting sitXew street one of the best businessthoroughfares It surveyed a riad roulthrough the center of its new andstrange property Having laid out newstreets in every direction the munici-pality
¬
offered the frontage to those whowere willing to build in considerationof seventyfive year leases There was-a demand from powerful interests thatthe leaseholds be extended to ninetynine years but Mr Chamberlain wasfirm in his resolve that Birminghamshould come into full possession of itsreward at the end of the shorter termHe Insisted that it would be possible-to rent every square foot of the landon the terms specified and his judg-ment
¬
was accurate lie also predictedthat the average annual charge againstthe taxes would not exee > 160000This would meet the interest on thebonds and make up the deficit after al-
lowing¬
I for rents and other revenuesj In brief he estimated that the eventual
cost of the investment would not ex-i
j
ceed 4500000t The scheme has been greatly enlarg-
ed since its inception but when the last-I
I payment is made in 1050 Birminghamwill own In fee simple the most valua-ble
¬
I tract of real estate in the worldand the price paid will fall below thatset by the boy mayor who has achance to live to see the partial fruition
t of his audacious sagacity If offeredfor sale in the open market today theformer slum hole would realize irI
000000 Its improvement did morethan any one tbing to make Birming-ham
¬
I the metropolis of the midlandcounties It is no exaggeration to as-
sert that the decision of the council of1S7H had the direct effect of doubling I
the value of every square foot of landin the business district and it would-be impossible to put n money value onthe blessings which have come with alowered death rate diminished crime-an aroused local pride and the prestigewhich comes from a great campaign j
valiantly and successfully pushed tosuccess i-
So He Appointed ToneoLI began to practice law in Dakota i
in territorial days said the lawyerfrom Chicago Our judges were sent I
to us and some of them didnt knowany more about law than they didabout the political beliefs of the moundbuilders One of themIll call him-Joneswas so appallingly ignorantthat it was a great relief when on the I
admission of North Dakota to theUnion he left the bench and began topractice law ills successor was a manwholly without a sense of humor andthe only good thing he ever said in hislife was wholly accidental A man wasbrought to trial charged with sellingliquor to the Indians The judge askedhim if he had a lawyer to defend him
4 Xo said the man I dont want a
lawyerWellsaid his honor looking about
the room till his eyes rested on hispredecessor Ill appoint Judge Jones-to defend him Washington Post
The Chronometer-In 1713 the English government of¬
fered 10000 15000 or 20000 to any-one discovering a method for determin ¬
ing the longitude at sea within sixtyforty or thirty miles John Harrisoncarpenters son made his first chro ¬
nometer In 1735 and was sent the nextyear to Lisbon and back to test it Thetrial was successful but the inventorwas awarded only 500 He producedother instruments in 1739 and 1740and finally In 1759 he constructed achronometer In the form of a watchfive inches In diameter which was only
j 1 minute 5Pf seconds in error after aj voyage to Jamaica and back This was
equivalent to determining the longitudewithin eighteen miles but full pay-ment
¬
for his invention wa withheld-till 1773
I-
O1D
SOME FLORIDA INCIDENTS
OF CAPTAIN TCILLASD3-
FAGTICAL JOELS-
BYL COLONEL O T GREE-
NIt was during the early days of the
phosphate in Florida and more or
less skepticism existea as to whetherI
there really was phosphate in the
state or not Colonel John unn of
Ocala a very prominent man and
banker had satisfied himself of thereality of the mineral and had invest-
ed a large portion of his fortune in
the enterprise Among his friends in
Ocala was quite a noted character-one of the pioneers of Ocala a cleverdelightful gentleman Colonel Eichelberge who still lives among usNow Colonel Eichelberger conceived-
in his mind that his friend Dunn was
acting very rashly and without say¬
ing anything to anybody he took thetrain and went down to where are
located the finest phosphate mines in
the Withlacooche valley and fromthe pits in the land that Dunn hadoptioned and purchased he took nu ¬
merous samples and as the schedule
if the train was such that in order tond accommodations for the night he
went on to Homosassa and spent thenight with is friend Albert Willard-
one of the most noted bonifaces in
the state whose famous old placeThe Homosassa Inn has sheltered
many of the most distinguishedsportsmen of this country
Captain Albert was a great wagvery fond of practical jokes and norespector of persons and conditions-
and as the wee sma hours drew onand the bottle passed the coloneldisclosed to his friend Albert whathis mission had been He had takensamples of the phosphate rock andwas going to have them analyzed so
Ias to see whether or not his friendDunn had ruined himself
After Colonel Eichelberger had re ¬
tired Captain Willard took the gun-
nysack¬
I in which the rocks wereplaced emptied it of its contents and
Ifilled it up with pure limestone rocks
The next morning Colonel EichelI
b3rg returned to Ocala and in a Jewdays with a very long and seriousface called on his friend Dunn andshowed him the analysis of the rockwhich he had had taken and verysolemnly said
j John you are s ruined man andthe i described what he had done
I
Clonel Dunn was a very coollevelheaded man and although hewas at first startled by the earnest¬
ness of his friend who he was satis-fied
¬
was telling the truth according-to his light commenced questioninghim as to his doings where he hadbeen etc I
As soon as the fact had developedthathe had spent the night with Wil¬
I
lard and had disclosed his mission to I
him he was satisfied that a practicaljoke had been played and going to j
telegraph office in a few minutes had j
I
confirmed his impression and in-
formed¬
Colonel Eichelberger that hehad been the victim of a practicaljoke i
The language he used when thisI
became plain to him was very fieryand emphatic and he was very much-
in earnest so much so that it wasseveral months before Captain Albert I
came near enough to him to laughthe thingotf-
Nothing
I
Equal to Ohamberlains CciicCholera and Diarrhoea Remedy for
Bowel Complaint in ChildrenWe have used Chamberlains Colic
Cholera and Diarrhoea Remedy inour family for years Mrs J BCooke of Eederlands Texas Wehave given it to all of our childrenWe have used other medicines forthe same purpose but never foundanything to equal Chamberlains Ifyou will use it as directed it will al-
ways¬
I cure For sale by Antimonop-oly
¬
drug store m
The Elk Cafe
Messrs C M Whitesides and G RTroxler are now the lessees of theElk Cafe and the same is closed
I
while extensivetemporarily improve-ments
¬I
are being made upon it ItsI opening will be duly announced andit will be run in a style commensu ¬
rate with the citys growing needs
I FoiEoNYrAIfgj-ZdP ltUl ATm a-
MI 45SirM7t lr
I
Brain Xot E entlnl
5
Mrs HenpeckHeres a story abouta woman who lived a whole weekwithout any brains
Mr Henpeck Humph Thats noth ¬
ing Youve lived much longer thanthat New York World
I
i
As She in WroteThe letter below was written b a
Japanese tailor to an American lady inYokohama It speaks English for it¬
selfOur Dear Mrs I am very sorry to
say that it will take three days at leastto make up your kimono ordered at allfor tell the truth the dye house in Tokyo-was damaged by an inundation of the re¬
cent much rain so I beg you pardon mehaving breack of promise Yours verytruly TANI SHOKWAL-
P SHow are your honorable husbandI hope he will soon recoved
Hugh Allen in Lippincotts Maga-zine
¬
A Ponyn InfluenceLittle Dick Mamma I think Id be
a better boy if I had a pony like TomHunters
Mother Better in what way my
boyLittle DickI think Id be morecharitable
Mother surprised More charitableLittle DickYes Because then I
wouldnt feel so glad when Toms ponyruns away with him Pittsburg Post
PonndinK AcquaintanceMrs GrimesDo you know Mrs
Sykes She lives in the same hotelthat you do
Mrs JoslynNo I cant say that Iknow her but we are on pounding ac-
quaintance¬
with the Sykeses Theymake so much noise we have to rap onthe wall now and then to keep themauiet Boston Trausrrint
The Equitable row the retrialNan Patterson the New York gas in¬
quiry Roosevelt in the western wilds
the meeting of the Japanese and
Russian fleets and the session of theFlorida legislature do not come un-
der
¬
th subdued scare head lines of
Lenten talks
StubbornI Coughsand Colds
I CURED BYFOLEYS HONEY
AND TARObstinate racking Coughs that make J
your head ache your throat and lungssore and inflamed that rob you ofsleep until your system becomes so rundown that you are in grave danger ofPneumonia Consumption are quicklycured by Foleys Honey and Tar
FOLEYS HONEY MD TAR
soothes and heals the inflamed air pas-sages
¬
allays the feverish conditionsstops the cough and prevents seriousresults from a cold
FOLEYS HONEY AND TAR
is the only prominent cough medicine-on the market that does not containopiates or harmful drugs of any kindandon this account issafestfor children
It is unexcelled for Croup and Whoop-ing
¬
Cough and will quickly cure theracking cough which follows measlesand leaves so many children with weaklungs unless properly treated
Remember the name FoleyHoney and Tarand refuse substi ¬
tutes that cost you the same as thegenuine Do not take chances withsome unknown preparation
Consumption ThrtatinidiC Unger 211 Maple St Champiagn
HI writes I was troubled with aI hacking cough for a year and I thought-I had consumption I tried a great manyremedies and I was under the care ofphysicians for several months I usedone bottle of Foleys Honey and Tarit cured me and I have not been trou ¬
bled since n
Three sizes25c SOc 100The 50 cent size contains two and
onehalf times as much as the small sizeand the 100 bottle almost six timesas much
SOLD AID RECOMMEMDED IY-
Poatoffice Drug Stre1
0-
VI T AND
Let us illustrate vividly the difference in mean ¬
ing of the words might and willthe child mightlive the child will live Might implies doubt willmeans certainty Might live means might diewill live means wiUaot die
These two words aptly illustrate the differencebetween Johnsons Tonic and time horde of commer-cial
¬
remedies on the market and that vast horde of
inert professional remedies which only bear thesanction Priests of medicine
S
5
USE JOHNSONS TONICi-n
5
a bad case of Grip and you will live I
m Bse inert or commercial products andyou might live
Johnsons Tonic quickly drives out every traceand taint of Grip It is not simply good it is su¬
premely goodnot good as anything but better than jie-verythingageflmfle lifesaver Those who believe-in it are are in danger and jeopardize-their lives Summed up Johnsons Chill and Fever tTonic is the best Grip medicine on earth This isthe sober serious earnest truthJOHNSONS CHILL a FEVER TONIC CO-
At all iractuts Savannah Ga Take rafccttauesI
d S1i1 j3
F
J
THE CHAMBERS SHOE COMPANfi
eaacomi1ltreCeiiii1lof Trunks TA 2 T
O 2500 j
Suit Cases t 300 s 1500 tHand Satchels 125 S I5OQtC-
ome in and see them Ci-
j<
I
THE CHAMBERS SHOE COMPANY-
Opera House Bleck Ocala FIA-
If
1f
StraussRoyal I
Reserve 1
OCALA MINING LABORATORY tF T SCHREIBER
Consulting an l Analytical Chtmist Member 5
of the Society of Chemical Industry Lon-don
¬dEng Member of he Ameaican Chem-
ical¬
SocietyPO Box 703 I
OCALA FLA Oct 22 1904
Messrs Strauss Jo Wholesale WhiskyI Merchants Ocala Fla F r
Gentlemen In accordance with yourinstructions I visited your auhrufe en
I the 19th instant and personally selectedfrom your stock a sample of j
Strauss Royal Reservewhisky the analysis of which shows it to t 1
containRAIJ
Alcohol by weight per cent eo 30G6Alcohol by volume per cent 4301Degree proof per cent 8710Residue on evaporation p cent 0660Ash per cent 0011Reducing sugar per cent 0225Volatile acids per cent x
0027Amyl alcohol fusel Oil1 tier cent 0073 tJjThe above results show the whisky to be-
a carefully blended bran I of high gradeand that it has been disstilfcd from a clean pure grain mashThe amount of fusel oil an of volatile acids is very low
RespectfullyhS F T SCHREIBER Chemist t
i
I
FOUR FULL QUAlts S350 EXPRESS PREPAID
IL-I
STRA TSS CO SS
I Sole Ownel and DistributorsO-CALA FLORIDA
THE VEHICL AND HARNESS COiI JTCKSOXTIXIJECor tyth and Cedar St
FLORIDAi dt Everything Used by Carriage and Wagonmakei
a-
iCelebratedBlacksmith
I
vis Wagons for SaleOur SpeClaltiesLog Car urrjesDeliveWagons Saddelr agons Buggies
Etc We solicit your b1 ness and Guarant arnessatisfa tory Service
S v