Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1870-06-23
PROPHETS.
VauarIes of the SIsslssIppI and Of Editors
Historical Facts.

from an old citizen reminds us of an in
/ cident in the life of the late Col. j. II. Nc
| Mshon. He was sanding al the corner
/ of Adams and Main streets when II was
stated that the telegraph line, the first
ever built in the world, from Baltimore
to washington was finished and that it
had announced to the amazed people of
washington, within five minutes of the
event. the result of the action of Demo-
cratic convention then in session In the
commercial capital of Maryland. Nc
Mahon,said "this seems almost incredible,
vet it is a very simple affair if one saw
and understood il and let me here pre-
dict, that l shall live to carry on familiar
conversation, while in Memphis, with my
friends in New York; and this is not all"
said the dreamer, al will live to talk with
England and Franc and viii be brought
as near to them, intwenty years, as WASH
iugtOn is nov to Baltimore" In the same
conversation he said that SEINE great
ship would be freighted with wire to be
sunk TO the oceans bed. Twenty years
did elapse before Colonel McMahOn's
predictions were verified, n yet the fact
that a little gold will enable a citizen Of
Memphis to converse, as face to face, with
inhabitants of the TenOtest lands, is not
mNe marvellous than that Colonel Me-
Mahon anticipated the event. He was
not the first prophet who was laughed at,
LlE DGGduo0 AC HS AAoEC
because he could think There are W
gentlemen still living who listened to Col.
McMahon's vaccinations.
WHAT OUR VENERABLE CORRESPONDENT
SAYS.
About fifteen years ago, when one of
our CITY editors was IN the City Council,
be predicted that, at some future time, a
bridge would be erected over the Missis-
sippi river, at this point, and that there
would be an unbroken railroad track,
from the Atlantic 10 the Pacific, by way
of Memphis.
Since tbat prediction, the Ohio has been
bridged at Parkersburg, Cincinnati and
Louisville, the Mississippi at Rock Island,
and the Missouri at Omaha; and, now,
one of the most remarkable structures of
modern times is about being thrown
across the Mississippi at st. Louis.
The developments attending the con-
struction of the st. Louis bridge, which
are known to your readers, give reasOna-
BILE assurances that the alderman's pre-
diction may yet become a practicable fact.
These observations have occurred to the
writer since reading Mayor JOhnsOn's
message recommending the appropriation
of $1,000 by the City Council for the pur-
pose of sounding and boring through the
bottom of the river, in front Of the land
ing, to ascertain if a safe foundation can
DG ODGdinbuO h MAAOa W WV SoAAobAO
So perstructure for a permanent wharf,
and to prevent the bank of the river from
washing away or sliding in.
This is one of the best suggestions the
Mayor has made. We cannot have a per-
manent wharf nor a safe landing until
some plan is adopted to prevent the banks
from sliding. The current is continually
changing, so that accretion and abrasion
to and from the banks are constantly 60
ing on and the process will so continue
as long as the water continues to flow
along the banks of the stream unless it is
prevented by eontrivances built from the
hard and immOvable foundation, under
the sand and mud, al tbs bottom of
the stream, so thai it cannot be
undermined nor washed away by
the action of the current. Until some inn
provement approximating this plan is
perfected we will never nave a permanent
wharf.
By way of illustrating the above propo-
sition, we will direct attention to a few
facts well known to many of your readers.
WAen the writer was a boy the lower
lssding was right gP against the bt!g at
Market street, and our respected fellow
citizen Col. f. Titus furnished supplies to
boats from his large establishment on the
northeast corner Of Market and Front
streets; his store was nearer tothe steam
boat landing then han the Tyler cotton
press is now.
All the bstture between the river and
the bluf, from Jefferson street to the
mouth of Wolf, has been made, and many
buildings have been erected on it, which
have caved in as well as nearly half of the
bstture in the last thirty-three or thirty
four years.
For many years the principal landing !
for teamer and hatboats was in
Wolf river. The steamer William u.
Robson, the largest boat of her
day, received cotton at the mouth of
Bayou Gayoso. above the saw mills 1t
appear strange to many of your
readers, but ii is true hat the principal re-
and forwarding business ofthe city
was done between Market street and the
OF Bayou Gayoso, three quarters of
a mile above the mouth of Wolf river.
of our river-wise men say that the
best landing will soon again be at the
same old points and Iand marks that il
was thirty-hve years ago. Suppose the
prophesy of the river men should prove
true, and in the course of n or two
years the best landing Will be found
nearer to Chelsea than to Fort Pickering,
how long will it remain? Only a little
lust as soon as the washing out
and caving process stops, the filling up
process begins; hence il would be but a
few years before it would again be diff
to reach the wharf for the
bar. Mayor johnson and his Boards
should rave the approval of the cOmmu-
nifty in this effort to secure q safe and per-
wharf. The present and CONNER
cisl prosperity of the city demand that
every practicable effort should be made
by the city government to secure a safe
and permanent wharf adequate to the
present and future wants of the COM
of the city.
Messrs. Editors, would il not be we'll to
this experiment about to DO made
to HopefieId, and not cOnfne or limit the
engineers to the landing in front of the
city, but allow them to test thoroughly
the character of the bottom of the river
from bank to bank, with the view of de-
termining the praetieability of erecting a
across the river at this city?
If the fact is reliably demonstrated that
it is practicable to build a bridge across
the Mississippi here, it will be equiva-
Memphis and Pacific railroad.
Engineering is nearly reduced to a
mere matter of dollars and cents; if it is
found practicable to build the bridge, |
The means will be furnished to accom-
plish it. If our own citizens rave not
Inc enterprise and means to do it, the
interest of the country will
build it.
viii not the city council make sddi-
,ional appropriation to extend the sur
7ey across the river. There is no geolOg-
cal reason known why the experiment
,hould not be satisfactory. The result
If the experiment at st. Louis points to
his End. Our friend may yet see his
prediction realized, and praise the bridge
hat carried him safely over. l..