Excerpt from Railway Prospects in the South

F arenaand industrial center. Probably at some ample harbor upon the seacoast, or at least upon the banks of some navigable stream. N 0 one in that day and generation would have had the temerity to predict that, far te moved from water transportation, there should be builded up this great metropolis of industrial traffic, whose in¿uence would pervade the entire South, and rival its greatest seaports. That Atlanta exists as a dominating factor in the commerce of the South, indi cates that some new principle has become a part of our economic development.

Before undertaking to say a word or two in regard to the present Railway Prospects, which is the subject which has been assigned to me, it will doubtless be profitable to re¿ect a moment on the manner in which the railway construction was begun in the South and throughout our country generally. It was in the South that the Operation of railroads with steam as the sole motive power was first undertaken, and this action adopted by the Charleston Hamburg Railroad Com pany on January 14th, 1830, marks an epoch in the transportation development of this country. It was this year that the railroad company just mentioned, in pursuance of the conclusions reached by its board of directors, issued an order for the construction of a loco motive which had been designed by a citizen of Charles ton and which was built at the West Point Foundry in the State of New York. The name borne by this locomotive, the first used in regular service, was The Best Friend of Charleston, and it is needless to say that the name so adopted was a fitting title for the instrument of commerce then put into use and which has become so large a factor in the civilization of our country.

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