THE ALABAMA OPPORTUNITY. 9 



In casting about for material to represent the richness of 

 Alabama and its splendid opportunities I have been impressed 

 with the letters written by Will T. Sheehan as staff correspon- 

 dence in the Montgomery Advertiser, one of the leading papers 

 of the South and a paper of the highest standing. I have been 

 particularly impressed with the value of these letters, in such 

 a cause, from the fact that they were not written to boom Ala- 

 maba to the outside world. I feel that they are more of value 

 because when they were written it was not suspected that they 

 would be put in a publication exploiting Alabama's resources 

 and chances. They had no such end in view. 



The Montgomery Advertiser sent out Mr. Sheehan to lay 

 before the people of the State the wonderful development, the 

 remarkable progress of the State in recent years. As a news- 

 paper man of training and experience he was put in the field 

 to tell the people of one portion of the State what the people 

 of another portion was doing. He was simply to show Ala- 

 bama in 1905 for the benefit of the readers of the Advertiser. 



The entire expense of the undertaking was borne by the Ad- 

 vertiser. Neither the Advertiser nor its staff correspondent 

 were under a dollar's obligation to the State, to any county or 

 town, to any man cfr any set of men. 



So much of explanation is due because of the space in this 

 publication I have set aside for those letters, which have been 

 here reprinted without change. 



It has been my wish and my endeavor to have every section 

 of Alabama represented in this publication. There are sixty- 

 six counties in Alabama and even if it were practicable to se- 

 cure a letter or a chapter from every county in the State the 

 whole would be of such a bulk, that it could not be embraced 

 in a publiiation intended as a handbook of the State. The let- 

 ters which have been given a place in the volume have been 

 selected, out of the great number written for the Advertiser, 

 with the special purpose of representing every section of the 

 State. The letter from each county mentioned as a county is 

 selected because it best represents that section of which that 

 particular county is typical or representative. 



I came to feel that even this method of selection could not 

 give every section its particular dues. Even then some por- 

 tion of Alabama might go unrepresented, a thing I most ear- 

 nestly wished to avoid. 



