"A Little Empire" is County of Covington. 



COVINGTON County I heard described as "a little empire," 

 when I had been in its capital city of Andalusia a bare 

 five minutes. 



A proud citizen so termed it, averring in the next breath 

 that next to Baldwin County it was the largest county in Ala- 

 bama. He furthermore went on record as' saying that its ex- 

 panse of territory was equal to that cultured but corruption- 

 ridden state, Rhode Island. 



But coming down to arbitrary facts, I learned that this big 

 county had a territory of 1,012 square miles — a territory that 

 ic almost twice as large as some other counties of the State. 

 Now each square mile contains 640 acres of timber or farm 

 lands. The county therefore has' the enormous total of 647,680 

 acres of land and the most of it is the sort of soil that would 

 delight the heart of any thrifty intelligent farmer. 



These figures may be troublesome, but they are nevertheless 

 to be borne in mind if one cares to get a true and adequate 

 conception of existing conditions in this big and promising 

 South Alabama county. 



Man for man, Covington County increased between the cen- 

 sus' of 1890 and the census of 1900 faster than did Jefferson 

 County. And its percentage of increase, being larger than thai 

 of Jefferson County, was larger than that of any other county 

 in Alabama. 



I have heard it declared that the percentage of increase of 

 population of Covington County was larger than that of any 

 other county in the United States. , There was no official bul- 

 letin of the census department to back up this statement and 

 fortify it agamst any attack of doubt, and is therefore set down 

 here with a degree of qualification. 



FASTEST INCREASE HERE. 



But the other Covington County assertion, namely, that 

 the county increased faster than any other Alabama County, 

 stands for itself and needs no restriction or qualification. The 



