MEANDERING IN OLD TUSKALOOSA
February 24, 1876 A preacher, of the Northern Methodist persuasion, hitched his horse to a tree in the street, last week. It cost him V. The gas business is gradually reaching a paying basis and before twelve months we expect to see stock quoted at a premium.
A small Indian girl, smoking a pipe, was the sensation on the street Tuesday. Her mother was looking on with approving smile.
Mr. W. H. Johnson has leased the fish traps for the coming season, and says he expects to have plenty of fish in a couple of weeks, unless the river rises again. --What has become of the fire company? Let it be reorganized and kept up.
They have not had a washing for some time, and the machine must be in poor fix for a fire.
New York DAILY GRAPHIC, May 29, 1874
...Tuskaloosa, the ancient capital and present literary centre of the State, and formerly one of the most beautiful cities in the country. The once princely dwellings enshrined among the magnificent forest trees now show too plainly that the wealth that once made them so attractive does not now exist. The hospitality of the people is nevertheless unbounded, and the entire party unanimously declared that they never had experienced better treatment.
From W.C. Richardson
... the whole gorgeous show and spectacle fled. Poor Tuscaloosa! Now came vows of penitence and acts of retrenchment. She had been living too fast; the costly mansion had to be given up, the carriage and horses sold, and the expensive furniture carted to auction. A sudden fit of enforced economy invaded every household. Improvement came to a dead halt. Paint and whitewash, mop and broom, were things of the past. Neglect was followed by decay. Old signs creaked over the doors of deserted offices, old fences reeled, old tenements tottered. There was no annual meeting, in fact - no meeting at all - that would bring back again the whole wealth and glitter of the State to our doors, to fill once more every tavern, saloon and theatre with the clatter of life and vivacity. The old rookery was abandoned. One by one the State officials moved away, following the fortunes of the fair Montgomery, "the rise and expectancy of the fair State followed in their wake, the butterfly belles followed after them, and the old town was left to plod on in darkness as before."
HISTORICAL IMAGINATION https://www.jstor.org/stable/43254801
from the February 21, 1816 VIRGINIA ARGUS (Richmond)
1816 The Black Warrior is there between 40 and 50 yards/ wide, and not easily forded at a common It is a gentle stream. There are shoals below which are about 32 miles in length but it is not rough water for more than 4 miles, and even there boats have no difficulty when there is a moderate swell in the river. From the highest navigable part of the Black Warrior to the town of St. Stephen's it is about 350 miles. St.Stephen's lies about 40 miles above the place where Fort Stoddert, on the Mobile, once stood, and spot only the progress of an enemy, coming by water, can be arrested by a force stationed on the land./ Tennessee The to formation of a road, therefore, from the the Black Warrior, sufficiently complete to admit of wagons carrying weight, may be an object of infinite importance to the United States in a future war, and would, in the mean time, be of the greatest advantage to the state of Tennessee and the settlers on the Tombigby and Alabama, and give a wonderfully increased value to the public lauds adjacent to those rivers. It would encourage surely the settlement of the country and nothing more importance to the safety of our southern and western possessions, than that there essential country,
from the January 9, 1817 NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER (Washington, D.C.)
NEW CHANNEL OF COMMERCE
The merchant instead of shipping His goods from New: York and Philadelphia to Charleston and Savannah and from thence -transporting ' them by land to Ross's on tbe Tennessee river a route experimentally known to be qfraught-with delay hazard and loss will hereafter ship directly to therMobile or (to some designated port on' the Tornbigbee or Alabama from whence there is an excellent keel boat navigation to the falls of the Black' Warrior rom Cuba toMobile is said to be about 3 days sail froni JVIo-bild ip the falls of the 'Black! Warrior is-16 or20 days travel and from the falls to Huntsville only eight days -over an excel lont road so that in 25 or 30 days a cargo might be brought from the Hayannah to Huntsville It is evident then that our sugars Arines$ liquors and groceries ofc-very kind wijl come much cheapen tons from ’New Orleans or any of the West india Islands iby wayof Mobile and up the Black Warrior in: 2 5 or 306days-than t hose which we receive in three fouror six iiiohths'uplUionssiSstpkplKQhlo: anil Tenncsseej iverst-'Huy acquaintance with Captain Crump who has frequently traversed the country from Huntsville
The Old Capitol at Tuscaloosa 1826-1846 Proud stands the Capitol on "Childress HIlI,"* Still nobly bowered in primeval oaks, And hears the Warrior waters dash their foam And thunder down the Appalachian rocks; And sees, across the stream, the purple woods Rise tier on tier until the Sipsey ridge Berims the western sky. Its walls upreared On Roman arch and Grecian architrave, Strong laid in native Alabama stone, The mordant years defy. Beneath its dome The deeply pious, democratic- Murphy, With Scotia's accent rich upon his tongue; The gallant Gayle, who dared "Old Hickory's" frown; The peerless Bagby, with every gift save thrift; And many another leader, bold and true, The buoyant steps of the adolescent state. Firm guided on the path to fair renown. Its halls now silent- -save for the merry shouts Of school girl laughter- oft echoed to the voice Of lusty backwoods orators who spoke The tongue of Pitt and Burke and Sheridan.
'Twas here Calhoun's compeer, great Dixon Lewis, With brains that matched his mastodonic frame, First trained his logic on the rights of states And earnest gave of those maturer powers Which later shone in Washington. 'Twas here The great-souled patriot-poet Francis KeyHe who the starry banner sang to fameBrought words of balm to a defiant state. And here Opothleyoholo's pathetic wait O'er wrongs inflicted on a banished race Deep moved the souls of men as westward on He led the remnant of his mighty tribe. Who kaows but when the sable wings of Night Are thrown around the porticoes and dome Of this time-hallowed shrine, its corridors Again are peopled with the shades of those Who held high sway in the historic past? Perhaps from yonder windows the lightnings chained By man's invention they see along the streets Which, in their time, in darkness sheer were trod. Maybe they hear the mighty engines throb That tell the ways of craft and trade unknown To days that gave: them birth and make a new The city old in which their deeds were wrought.
The memories of the Capitol are one With those who sleep in near by "Greenwood" graves, And them it binds with those who live today And those to come in the long lapse of years; For, sharers are the living and the dead With those unborn in all that makes the state. And prize fore'er should be the sacred pile That ties the generations as they flow In all the glories that are won by each Alike in war and every art of peace. THOMAS C. McCORVEY. University of Alabama..
A SERIOUS ACCIDENT NARROWLY AVERTED. The GAZETTE called attention a day or two ago to the danger attending the practice of breaking wild horses on the streets of the city. Its assertions in the matter were fully verified yesterday morning, when by some means one of the horses which had been saddled for the purpose of being ridden, managed to get loose, and running up Monroe street, toward Broad, frightened several other horses that were hitched to wagons. A lady with two small children was seated in one of them. The horses had been taken out and hitched to the wheels of this wagon and another team which was frightened ran into them and added to the general confusion and excitement which followed.
The lady screamed and endeavored to get out of the wagon, but could not do so until she received assistance in getting the children out. Fortunately her horses were gentle and easily controlled; had they been foolish or easily scared they would undoubtedly have run away, and as they were hitched to the side of the wagon the probability is that they would have turned it over and seriously injured if not killed its occupants. We again call the attention of the city authorities to this dangerous practice. There are plenty of enclosed lots in the city in which to break these wild horses and they should be used instead of the public thoroughfares of the city..
AN OLD BLUE LAW IS DISCOVERED And Is Immediately Put into Force by Officers. BE CAREFUL WHERE YOU HITCH It's a Serious Offense to Violate the Ordinance Relating to Hitching to Posts. Don't hitch your horse to a telegraph pole. You will be arrested. Don't leave him unhitched.
You will be arrested for that. Just sit still in your wagon and be arrested for vagrancy. With several arrests in the last few days for hitching to telegraph poles, persons who occasionally find it necessary to leave their steeds at the curb for a moment, are puzzled AS to what to do. It seems that among some musty records there has been discovered 811 ordinance which prohibits hitching horses to telegraph poles. Why such a measure was ordained, the oldest inhabitants have now forgotten.
But with the first of the month drawing nigh and the city's coffers just about depleted, it is easy to see why it is enforced. Those who are fortunate enough to own horses face a perplexing situation. If they hitch their horses to a telegraph pole, they will be arrested. If they hitch them to trees the Civic Improvement Society will get after them. If they carry around heavy weights in the vehicles, the humane society will take notice.
And if they leave them unhitched and a runaway occurs, they will be arrested and sued tor damages. If a farmer comes to town and hitches his horse to a post while he steps into a store a moment, he will fall into the clutches of the law. Such an instance has been noted within the past few days. Some laws are being rigidly enforced..
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home