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                                              6IH, completion in August, 1882, of the LOUISVILLE. EVA'NSVILLE 
                                                  ST. Louis RAILROAD-better known in Louisville and Kentucky
                           -                     as the "Louisville  St. Louis Air Line "-was an event of much
                                            importance to the commercial interests of the Falls City, opening up to
                                            its merchants aterritory fully one hundred miles in length and fifty
                        .    -. - -     miles in breadth; a region heretofore destitute of railwav facilities, and
                                            giving to them not only a competing line but the shortest line to Rock-
                                    - -    port and Evansville, Indiana, and Owensboro and Henderson, Kentucky;
                                            to Vincennes and Terre Haute. Indiana, by way of the Evansville 
                                            Terre Haute Railroad, which it crosses at Princeton. I ndiana; to Cairo and
                                      -   points in Southern Illinois via Mt. Cannel, where it intersects the Cairo,
                                            Vincennes  Chicago Line; and by the Louisville  Nashville Railroad
                                        -  from 'Mt. Vernon, Illinois, to St. Louis and all points WVest and South-
                                            west. At Brown's Crossing the Peoria, Decatur  Evansville Railway
                                            gives a valuable and direct line to Peoria, Decatur, and Mattoon. Illinois.
                                              The Main Line of the road is 1d2 miles in length ; the Evansville ai-
                                            vision, fifty-five miles; the Rockport Branch, seventeen miles; and the
                         T-eginnx at a  mle ro Cannelton Branch, twentr-three miles, making a total Of 277 miles. The
      and most valuable timber in Indialla, and, section of country through which the line passes is as feitile and product-
                                            ive as any portions of the rich States of Indiana and Illinois. It is in a
                                            high state of cultivation, its crops of wheat, corn, rye, oats, tobacco, etc.,
               ou roor F. EVA l             finding a ready market in Louisville; is already thickly populated, and is
                                            enjoying an era of progress and development that is as remarkable as it
is gratifying to those who have its welfare at heart.
    Beginning at a point thirty miles from Louisville the road traverses for sixty miles an extensive belt of the finest
and most valuable timber in Indiana, and, about fifty-five miles from Louisville reaches the I.diana coal field, forty
miles or more in length and sev eral miles in width. Within this area is an inexhaustible supply of good coal, which,
owing to its superior quality and low cost of mieing, has revolutionized the coal business of New Albany by reducing
the price of other coals and has saved that city more than once from a coal famine during low stages of the Ohio river.
    During the past year the line has becn equipped with a full complement of new passenger coaches and passenger
and freight locomotlives. The new passenger coaches are patterned after those now in service in the " fast trains " be-
tween New York and Boston and are models of comfort, convenience, and elegance.
   The o Air Line  is the only line running otuble daily solid trains between Louisville and St. Louis with Pullman
Palace Sleeping Cars of the latest improved pattern on all night trains, and Monarch Parlor Buffet Cara on day trains.
With its steel track, solid stone ballasted road-bed, the principal bridges of steel and iron, and its short line, it has grown
tobethe popular route from the citbthe Falls to the  ound Cityjust west ofthe bigbridge. Asanevidenceofthis
we have only to quote the follofing echo from the National Encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic at St.
Louis in October, I88th  1t a regular meeting of George H. Thomas Post No. 6, G. A. R., held last Thursday evening,
October 6th, it was unaniious a   resolved that a vote of thanks be extended to the officials of the St. Louis Air Line Rail-
road for the extraordinart facilities and courtesies extended the Post and their friends on their recent trip via that lin-
to the Grand National Encampment at St. Louis, Missouri, and for the promptness with which they were landed and
returned to Louis-ille on schedule time. By order, E. A. Richards, P. C.; John Hensler, Adjutant."
    There are maiis y places of interest within easy reach of the people of Louisville and vicinity. Corydon, the ancient
capital of Indiana with the capital building still standing, thirty-one miles; Milltown, with its picnic park and Blue
river, famous for its bass and pike, where is also located the lime kiln of J. B. Speed  Co., of Louisville, said to be the
largest in the world, is thirty-four miles from Louisville. The world-renowned Wyandotte Cave, as large as the Mam-
moth Cave of Kentucky, is only eight miles from Milltown by stage. At Marengo. only thirty-nine miles from Louis-
ville, is located the famous Marengo Cave, ranking next to Wyandotte Cave, which is about a half mile from the station,
and at English. onily fifti two miles from Louisville, is the " Hazelwood Sulphur Springs," the summer resort of South-
ern Indiana. By January I ix888 the branch now under construction from Lincoln to Cannelton, Indiana, will be in op-
eration and will place within easy rail communication with Louisville, Troy, with its 8oo inhabitants; Tell City, with 3,ooo;
and Cannelton, with 2,500. A new iron bridge has just been completed over the Wabash river at Mt. Carnel, Illinois.
    Wm. T. Hart is President and Otis Kimball, Secretary and Treasurer, with office at Boston, Massachusetts. The main
offices in Louisville are in the Board of Trade building, corner Main and Third streets. The officers are Geo. F. Evans,
General Manager; Judge Alex P. Humphrey, General Counsel; John J. Collier, Auditor; J. S. Odiorne, Cashier and
Paymaster; W. H. Folsom, Purchasing Agent; L. S. Parsons, General Freight Agent; G. W. Curtis, General Passenger
Agent; Bland Ballard, Assistant Attorney; W. S. Martin, Master of Transportation; T. L. Dunn, Chief Engineer; and
W. A. Stone, Master Mechanic.
    Geo. F. Evans, the General Manager. has been connected with the company since its organization early in 188i
when he entered its service as Secretary and Treasurer. In March, i884, he was appointed Assistant to the President in
connection with his other duties; on December 31, 1884, he was made Receiver by Judge Gresham of the United States
Circuit Court; and, upon the reorganization of the road in October, i886, was elected General Manager.



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