And hallowed by the passing of his feet. KATE FORT CODINGTON. [_Editorial from "The Constitution," Atlanta, Ga., Sunday, February 18, 1917_] THE WORK OF JOHN P. FORT No man of his day accomplished more in the nature of everlasting benefit for the state in which he lived than the late John P. Fort did for Georgia. He was a man of vision--a dreamer--but with the energy and the faith and the resourcefulness to push ahead, explore his vision, and make his dreams come true; and in the doing of which he made of himself a notable public benefactor. Especially thankful should south Georgia be for the very revolutionizing of the health conditions of that section which he did so much to bring about. South Georgia was once afflicted with a malarial condition which seriously impaired the many advantages of that part of the state. The development of the country had been held back through generation after generation, despite its fertility and adaptability to agriculture, simply because of malarial conditions. John P. Fort turned his attention to the problem. "It's the water," he said. And he set himself the task of finding a remedy. With no guide save his reason and determination, he managed somehow to bore a hole into the earth more than five hundred feet deep; and was rewarded by a stream of pure, life-giving water. That was Georgia's first artesian well; and, as he says in a remarkable letter to Alfred C. Newell, written in October, 1907, and reproduced in the magazine section of this issue of _The Constitution_: "The well has furnished drinking water during the summer time mostly for a circular area of ten or more miles in diameter for twenty-six years, parties coming in wagons with utensils to convey the water away for drinking purposes." That well, still flowing undiminished, proved the rejuvenation of South Georgia. It was followed by the boring of hundreds of others, and the result is that to-day residents of South Georgia are as free from the taint of malaria as are those of "the hills of Habersham." The genius of the man again was manifested when, sensing the possibilities of the timber resources of south Georgia swamps, always before his day looked upon as worthless and inaccessible, he managed to get capital interested, and, under his guiding hand, the cypress lumber production of the state became one of its great industries. What he did for the fruit--especially the apple--industry in North Georgia is known to every man at all conversant with the state's development.