traveling salesmen. The American Gro
cer Company, with seven traveling sales
men, does a yearly business of $500,000
and both work the territory from the
Missouri line to the Rock Island main
line and within 20 miles of Little Rock.
There are no desirable business houses
lying idle and few, if any, cottages for
rent. The number of brick store build
ings is over 60 and a-number of new
ones will probably be constructed this
summer. More factories, more labor
employing concerns is now our cry, and
the city will be found equal to the neces
sity of more homes and further busi
ness blocks.
NEWPORT needs industrial enter
prises, factories that will utilize
the raw materials of this section,
that will employ labor, that will thus
keep our money at home and in
crease the field of business and the
professions. No town of the state
presents a better opening for a cot
ton factory. Railroad competition of
different systems, equalized to river rates
by a navigable stream; a healthy city .of
good schools and churches, where skilled
labor would willingly locate; a hospi
table people, who would make them sat
isfied with their new homes; these are
the advantages of Newport. They may
be held in common with some New Eng
land cities, but there is another factor
which gives to the progressive, well sit
uated Southern town a strong lever of
advantage that is bringing to the home
of King Cotton the hum of mills once
far removed. The 75,000 to 100,000 bales
of cotton handled at Newport furnish
an abundance of raw material; the long
staple from the bottoms, the short staple
from the uplands offer to the manufac
turer his choice. An experienced man
with means and reputation for fair deal
ing could, no doubt, secure home en
couragement and stock for such an en
tornrico
In the product of the saw mill, we are
likewise ready for a furniture or wood
work factory of most any description.
The home pride of Arkansas would in
sure a close-by market and save freight
both ways. Considering the amount of
available timber and the number of saw
mills upon which one could depend for
a supply, together with other advantages,
it is remarkable that the opportunities
of this field have not been embraced.
Wholesale houses in numerous lines
such as dry goods, leather goods, hard
ware, drugs and musical instruments,
are invited to that remarkable success,
which has attended two of our largest
establishments, wholesale grocer houses,
that have 15 to 20 men continually upon
the road, covering eastern and northeast
ern Arkansas. This month an eminently
successful merchant of a neighboring
city with less population and with ship
ping facilities not half the equal of our
own, announced his retirement as a re
tailer in dry goods and will give his
whole attention and capital to a more
profitable wholesale trade in this line.
The cities which laughed at the idea of
wholesale houses prospering in smaller
places have been forced to fight for the
business lying at their very doors and
now have a wholesome respect for our
wholesale grocer houses. Their signal
successes could be repeated in other lines
by men of capital and acquaintance with
the business.
Sheriff H. S. Simmons.
1— J. E. Doherty.
2— W. B. Empie.
Newport needs a church or independ
ent school and business college. Beyond
the course of an excellent high school,
there is nothing to offer at home, and
the Newport boy and girl must be sent
away to complete their classical educa
tion or secure a business course. Either,
and probably both, should find in our
city good locations and people appre
ciative of their value.
For the wage earner of nearly every
trade there is continuous work open in
this section. The brickmason,' the car
penter, the expert saw mill employe, in
fact, nearly all skilled mechanics may
find work open in the state, which has
only begun to receive the outside atten
tion her wonderful resources deserve, at
wages far in excess of those paid in the
North.
LOCATIONS, as well as men, are
strong factors in the making of
cities; and while the public spirit
of our citizenship is not to be dis
counted, the natural location of New
port has and will continue to, lend a
helping hand.
Three miles north of this city is the
junction of the White River branch and
main line, but all trains on the former
road run out from Newport, and upon
its completion to Carthage this gap will
either be double tracked or a cut-off
made by way of Jacksonport, directly
south to this city. The large, handsome
brick freight and passenger depots of the
Iron Mountain recently erected here are a
surety that both the freight and passen
ger business transferred from one to the
other line of the great Gould system will
be handled here. Newport thus becomes
the natural distributing point for the
rich mineral territory of north Arkansas
opened by this road.
The construction of a road costing
$75,000 per mile, calling for five tunnels
NEWPORT RESIDENCES.
3— R. M. Johnson.
4— J. H. McHugh.
5— J. E. Wilmans.
10,537 feet in total length, over two mile:
of bridges, including six steel structure:
2,842 feet in length, with a maximun
grade of only one per cent and a maxi
mum curve of six degrees, would nevei
have been undertaken by such railroad
builders as the Goulds had not their in
tention been to use the Missouri Pacific
from Carthage and the Iron Mountain
from Newport in another great north
and south road, a through line from
Kansas City to Memphis and the gulf
port of New Orleans by the filling in of
this important gap.
While trains may be routed from
Newport via Bald Knob and the Mem
phis branch for a short while, an im
portant cut-off from this city to Fair
Oaks, on the Memphis branch, has al
ready been surveyed and the commence
ment of construction only awaits the
completion of the White River exten
sion, now promised by the coming Sep
tember.
Newport ought to be the first division
point out of Memphis, being the proper
distance, or the second out of Carthage
or Joplin, the first falling to Flippin or
Cotter. Upon the authority of high of
ficials, it can be stated that Newport is
practically certain to secure a freight
division.
THE resources of the eastern half of
Jackson County, her valuable tim
ber and agricultural lands, have
been little developed until the last few
years. The rich Cache River country,
by reason of poor drainage and lack
of railroad facilities, had been neg
lected until a lumber road from
Bonnerville on the Frisco began to
penetrate the forests of that section.
Entering Jackson County nearly due
east of Newport, her course was west
ward for a few miles, thence cross
ing Cache and southward, following the
6— S. R. Phillip*.
7— C. Q. Henry.
! river. Ihe intention of the builders is
i to tap the Rock Island and Iron Moun
i tain at Martin Junction.
The Jonesboro, Newport & Western
is an independent road, named after the
two prospective terminals, 45 miles in
length and at an estimated cost of $600,
000, including first-class equipment.
The president of the company is J. S.
Stearns, of Ludington, Mich., and the
general manager is Ed L. Westbrooke,
of Jonesboro. The promoters have un
limited confidence in the early construc
tion of this line, connecting with the Cot
ton Belt, Frisco, Jonesboro, Lake City
& Eastern at one terminal and the Iron
Mountain and Rock Island at Newport.
The right-of-way for this road has
been partially cleared in Craighead
County, where it strikes the Bonnerville
line at Pitts, which will be used for five
miles to a point three miles west of
Grubbs, thence to Newport.
.■■■Mi—i i-m — -■ ■■■ ■■ .r m
J. R. Mayhan, City Recorder v
and Fire Chief.