appearance of the houses, but in the statistics of the United States
census, by which Atlanta is credited with a larger percentage of
home-owners than any city of its size in the Southern States.

The water-supply for domestic and manufacturing purposes and for sanitary
use is hardly equaled in any city of Atlanta's size, and the rates per
thousand gallons for families or for manufacturing purposes are merely
nominal, and probably lower than any on record.

[Illustration: KIMBALL HOUSE.]

Conditions in Atlanta are highly favorable to manufacturing industries,
and this is attested by the great variety of articles made here. There
were in 1900 395 establishments, employing over 9,000 operatives at good
wages, and pouring into the channels of trade an annual pay-roll of
$3,100,000. The value of the raw material consumed was more than
$8,000,000 and the product between sixteen and seventeen millions. Since
then the product has increased to $27,000,000 and the number of wage
earners to 14,000.

The manufacturers of Atlanta in their variety have a guaranty of stability
not to be found in those of any city where industry is confined to one
family, as of iron or cotton, however important that may be, and the
extent of this variety is to some degree indicated in the chapter on this
subject. Among the articles made are many specialties, for which there is
a demand in almost every State in the Union, and concerns making them have
enjoyed prosperity through a long series of years.

The trade of Atlanta covers more or less all of the States between the
Ohio and Potomac rivers, the Gulf, the Atlantic ocean and the Mississippi
River, and in some lines extends to the far Southwestern States and into
Mexico, while in a few it covers the entire country. The tendency of the
jobbing trade of the Southeast is to concentrate in Atlanta, and little by
little the business of other centers gravitates to this city.

Atlanta's commanding geographical and topographical situation was, at the
outset, one of the causes which led to the development of a great railroad
center, at which powerful systems from the East, the West and the
Southeast regularly compete. As a distributing point Atlanta enjoys
facilities hardly equaled elsewhere in the Southeastern States, and as an
accessible place of rendezvous for all kinds of organizations and
interests, it is a favorite, and has come to be known as the Convention
City.

Atlanta's financial instituti