full hospitality characteristic of the South.

Atlanta is on the crest of the ridge that divides the watershed of the Atlantic from that of the Gulf, and an altitude of 1,050 feet above sea level gives the city a bracing atmosphere, which is conducive to vigor of body and mind. The people are remarkably energetic, and this is evident to the visitor in the first glance that he gets from the car windows. Their vigor has made Atlanta a leader among cities.

A great many people have the impression that Atlanta is a Northern city in the heart of the South, and it is frequently compared to Chicago or

The interest which attaches to Atlanta's past has drawn to the city thousands of men who helped to make history here many years ago. This constant visitation has caused Atlanta to be talked about as no other Southern city has been during the life of this generation.

Another attraction is the magical growth which has never halted and never been fully explained, but seems. to have in it something distinctive and different from the rise of any other community. There is an indescribable. something about the city which impresses every stranger and fills the mind of the citizen with enthusiasm. A distinguished visitor at the At

lanta Exposition declared that the region surrounding this city is the most American part of America. The masterful spirit of the Anglo-Saxon is manifest here in the magnificent reconstruction of a city that was burned to the ground forty-six years ago. In the surrounding country the rising tide of industry has overflowed and obliterated the scars of war. General Sherman's army destroyed a hundred millions of property on its march through Georgia, and it took many years to make good the loss, but now the State produces, in one year, enough cotton

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have made it the railway and commercial center of the Southeast.

Atlanta stands at a point where the Eastern traffic, flowing down the Apalachian chain, meets in confluence the great stream of commerce from the West to the Southern seaboard. The vast traffic of East and West which flows into Atlanta radiates through the Southeast. Thus, from a railway point of view, Atlanta holds a commanding position and has become the headquarters for a large part of the railroad business done in the Southwestern States.

and cotton goods to pay the enormous indemnity of that campaign.

General Sherman was impressed with Atlanta's strategic importance, and pointed out that any port of the Gulf or South Atlantic could be reached from here in twelve hours. The city became headquarters for the Department of the Gulf during the Spanish-American war, and an effort was afterwards made to remove these headquarters to another point, but the government, profiting by that experience, has finally fixed their seat here.

The topographic conditions which gave Atlanta its importance in war

As the metropolis of the Piedmont region, Atlanta will profit by the great stimulus to trade and industry which will come from the opening of the Panama canal. There are already large exports of cotton goods to China from Georgia and the Carolinas, and this trade will grow rapidly when the short route to the Pacific is opened.

The system of local transit, covering 170 miles of electric railway, is one of the best in the country, and is probably the most extensive for a city of Atlanta's size. This has caused a rapid extension of the residence district and beautiful homes have been erected sev

eral miles beyond the city limits in several directions.

Atlanta is Southern headquarters for most of the great national corporations that do business in this section. It is the third insurance center of the country and easily the first in the South.

Steel and stone skyscrapers have shot up in rapid succession and the heart of the city looks like the lower part of Manhattan Island. There is no other city in the South that has the metropolitan appearance Atlanta presents. It has one square mile that can hardly be equaled anywhere on this continent outside of New York, Chicago and Philadelphia.

The growth of the city is by no means confined to office buildings. The manufactured products of Fulton County, including Atlanta, increased from fifteen to thirty millions from 1900 to 1905 and are now fifty millions. There are nearly twice as many wageworkers and the city is constantly crowded with well-to-do strangers who have come to engage in business. Atlanta's importance as a business center is indicated by the fact that Georgia produces a cotton crop worth one hundred millions, or more than the gold product of the entire country. The States making up the Southeastern group, of which Atlanta is the natural center, produce a cotton crop worth about three hundred millions, and turn out cotton goods worth one hundred and fifty millions. The total manufac

tured product of these States is 600 millions. The supply business for all this vast industry is immense, and Atlanta gets a large share of it.

Atlanta is the greatest publication center in the South, and its newspapers are easily the first in the South. The records at the Post Office Department show that the various publications pay the Government more on second-class matter than it receives from Baltimore, Louisville, New Orleans, San Francisco or Pittsburg.

Atlanta is a clean, well-governed city. The tax rate is only 14 per cent on a moderate valuation of property, which aggregates $100,000,000. The United States census credits Atlanta with the lowest tax rate, with two exceptions, on actual value to be found in the South, among cities of over 100,000 population.

The suburbs, so easily accessible in every direction by rapid transit, are pictures of restfulness and refreshment. There are golf links, beautiful drives, lakes and beautiful country clubs, known as the Piedmont Driving

Club and the Atlanta Athletic Club.

Atlanta is the convention city of the South. The city, in co-operation with public-spirited citizens, led by the Chamber of Commerce, has recently completed the finest Auditorium-Armory in the Southern States. It seats 6,500 people and has a smaller hall for conventions, seating 900.