126                 HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY

following year. At the present time the city pays over six thousand dol-
lars a year for the lighting of its streets and public buildings.
    The words of the prophecy above quoted might indicate that Main
street was at the time lined on both sides with one-story blocks that were
entirely inconsistent with the business enterprise of the city. In the past
fifteen years the improvement of the business architecture of the city has
transformed this street so that, as a whole, it could hardly be recognized,
and yet there are some well known and substantial landmarks still stand-
ing that were the pride of the business district of twenty or thirty years
ago. Perhaps foremost among these would be the First National Bank
building on the southwest corner of Meridian and Main, a three-story
brick building that has stood while the city was growing from its three
thousand to ten thousand population. Near by, the two—story Kruzan
block was erected in 1877 .At Walnut on the south side of Main are
the Croasdale three-story block, built in 1887, and the George A. Knight
block, erected the following year. The old Masonic building, at the cor-
ner of Sherfey, is also one of the older blocks.
    The north side of Main street. has been practically rebuilt within the
past ten years. The first conspicuous business structure here is the Davis
Hotel block, completed early in 1902, and about three years later the
Aver-McCarel block, and the handsome Citizens Bank building, which
may be said to have completed the reconstruction which was prophesied
by the Enterprise. The Sourwine Opera House block should also be men-
tioned among the modern business structures.
    In its public buildings, Brazil has both the old and the new. The
court house is the one which was built after the removal of the county
seat to Brazil. The city hall is one of the old residences remodeled for
civic uses. The public library was erected in 1903, and the Masonic
Temple, built in 1907, is one of the best buildings of its kind in the state.
    It is estimated that the nine large clay-working plants about Brazil
give employment to over eleven hundred men. A population of about
five thousand thus gains its chief daily support from this industry. Nearly
one-half the people of the city of Brazil are brought into this close rela-
tionship with the business of manufacturing clay products. If we add to
the clay workers those who are employed in the coal mines immediately
adjacent to the city, we can account for the regular occupations which
give the necessities and comforts of life to fully half of the inhabitants.
Outside of these two industries there is no single line of business which
compares in importance. There are several manufacturing concerns, one
of the leading ones being the Brazil Fence Company, but the mechanical
trades, the professions, and the mercantile establishments embrace prac-
tically all the money-earning vocations except the two first mentioned.
    The nine clay industries are located in a circle about the city of
Brazil, none of them more than two miles away. The principal products
of these factories, which are marketed in nearly all the states of the
Union, though largely within a radius of two hundred miles, consist of
building brick of the finer grades, of paving brick, of conduits, of sewer
pipe, and of miscellaneous clay products, including jars, crocks, stone
pumps, etc.
    The most remarkable feature of the business from the historical
standpoint is that it has developed within less than twenty years. The
manufacture of brick and some other clay products has been carried on
here for the past fifty years, but up to twenty years ago, perhaps, with the