Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 112, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 May 1912 — ALONG THE GULF SHORE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ALONG THE GULF SHORE

FROM New Orleans we cam* leisurely to Mobile, 140 miles east and north, stopping by the way at Pass Christian and Biloxi, resorts on the gulf littoral, popular with the New Orleans people and not unknown to northern tourists, as well, who find the temperate climate more bracing and enjoyable than that of the resorts farther south. Pass Christian is nearest New Orleans, and 57 miles distant, says a correspondent of the New York Evening Post. It is a very old town, of which both France and Spain had the founding, 'and has a resident population today of French, Spanish and English origin. It was named—the legend runs —from the old Spanish explorer who first discovered the deep "pass” or channel in front of the .main shore. Its admirers call it the Newport of the south, with this advantage over its northern namesake, that it is equally beautiful and desirable in both winter and summer. The drive of 14 miles over its firm, smooth shell roads, with the blue waters of the giilf oh one side, and stately and beautiful residences on the other, is one long to be remembered.

From Pass Christian the railroad skirts the gulf shore, at times crossing wide bays or bayous pn trestle work, then dashing into pine forests, through whose leafy vistas one catches the distant gleam of the gulf. Biloxi, 22 miles farther east, set up the claim that it is the oldest city on the coast, and, indeed, in Louisiana territory. Probably Iberville and Bienville did erect there the first fort, but Mobile contends that two full days before they had landed at Dog river, in Mobile bay, and had planted their lily flag on the site of the first permanent fort, which they called Louis de la Mobile.

However this may be, Biloxi is a picturesque old town* reminding one of the French quarter of New Orleans, and with its handsome residences and shell road along the ten mile beach well repays a visit. Between the two lies Beauvoir, and a short distance from its station is the fine old country seat in ample grounds, to which Jefferson Davis retired after his abortive confederacy went to ruin, and in which he death the Daughters of the Confederacy asked Mrs. Davis to sell it to them for an old veterans* home, to which she consented, taking up her abode in New York, and the old home now shelters a number of those who fought for the “lost cause” of 1861-5.

Four hours from New Orleans we reach Mobile, at the head of the bay of the same name, and thirty miles from the gulf. A bright, alert, progressive and pleasing city it is, of 52,000 inhabitants, a city which, like most of the gulf ports, sees in the opening of the Panama canal an opportunity for almost boundless commercial expansion, and is pulling herself together to take advantage of it Famous Shell Road. The city recently has been newly paved and sewered. She has an ample water supply of the best quality, Bienville water being so pure that it 'is used in chemical emulsions and in photography direct from the hydrant. The city is lighted by electricity, has an excellent electric street railway system, good schools, good hotels and Government street, flanked on either side with fine residences in ample grounds, will compare favorably with the residence section of any city in the Union. Mobile lies low on the bay, so low, in fact, that a strong southwest gale sometimes backs up the gulf into the bay and overflows the contiguous streets, but the land rises rapidly in the rear until in the suburbs one finds high pine lands, with fine country seats of merchants, green vegetable gardens and fruitful farms. Spring Hill, several miles westward and reached by trolley, has several fine old country mansions and estates of the old regime—two, at least, owned by titled foreigners—where the hospitality of the antebellum days is dispensed. Here in wide, well kept grounds, is the'Jesuit college, founded 76 years ago. The traveler will find many excursions by water of interest Boats ply to Fort Morgan and little towns along the “eastern shore” of the bay, and to the “Snapper banks” out in its blue waters. Mobile’s famous shell road, along the curves of the bay, was partially wrecked in the great hurricane

of September 1905, but has been repaired and is now again in commission. There is a good hard country road that leads to the bluffs, where the shell road in its original beauty may be entered. Four miles below, at South End, it becomes a wild, romantic forest road, leading down to Dog river, where the French took possession of the country, and where Mobile’s famous Fish and Hunt club has an elegant clubhouse, where the visitor with the proper credentials will find as good sport and as free-handed hospitality as can be desired. It Is, however, of Mobile’s coming commercial greatness that we wish chiefly to speak in this article. “Just look at her position for a moment,” said one of her business men to the writer. "We are here on Mobile river, which is formed 51 miles above us by the junction of the Alabama and Tombigbee rivers, both noble streams, navigable for steamboats for 40 miles, and piercing a country rich in all agricultural products,-espe-cially cotton, in lumber, naval stores, coal, iron, cement and other mineral wealth. We have four trunk lines centering in the city, traversing the richest and most productive states of the Union and putting us in touch with every section. We have fdur miles of water front, and can enlarge it above or below indefinitely whenever the need arrives. We have a 20-foot cham nel to the gulf, which we are about to make 27 feet, find we are 100 miles nearer Panama, the West Indian, South American and European ports than New Orleans or any other large gulf port. “Ip 1860 Mobile was the second cotton port of the south. We expect to get back there in a few years more. Further, a movement has been quietly going on for the last two years that' will make Mobile the greatest coal shipping port of the south inside of two years. I mean the Improvement of the Tombigbee and Black Warrior rivers by a series of locks and dams which will enable steamboats and barges drawing six feet of water to run to Mobile from the Mulberry and' Locust forks of the Warrior in the richest coal and iron measures in the world —a distance of 400 miles, If you wish to learn more of this, call on Mr. William W. Thompson, who can tell you all about this and of another article destined to add not a little to Men bile’s exports—cement” We had a very interesting interview with Mr. Thompson, a man of constructive ability, with all the energy and enthusiasm necessary to carry out his plans. Age of Cement “We have had the stone age,” he began, “the age of gold, of silver, of iron and steel, and now we are coming to the age of cement. Wonderful what is being done just now with this new building material. "Now, 70 miles up the Tombigbee river from Mobile, is St. Stephen’s, site of the first capital of Alabama territory, now wholly deserted, and where is perhaps the greatest 'deposit of cement rock in this country. Fop three-quarters of a mile along the river bank it rises, & solid cliff from 75 to 100 feet high, and extending back from the river no one knows how far. A company haa been formed to work this bed. It will build at St. Stephen's a colossal plant, ship its product by barges to Mobile, thence to the Panama canal and other 'markets. “Beginning at Demopolis on the Tombigbee (from which town there is now good water Jo Mobile), a chain of: seven locks has been constructed on the Elack Warrior, opening navigation to Tuscaloosa. Others have been let and it is expected that within two years there will be all the year round navigation to the Mulberry and Locust forks of the Warrior, 400 miles above Mobile. “When the improvements on the lower river are completed they will probably be continued up to Birmingham, and it Is certain that coal, iron, cement and perhaps oil and salt can then be laid down on the docks of Mobile cheaper than in any other city of the south, if not of the Union."