Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1878-08-25
POINT CLEAR, ALA.
A Delightful Longing Place in sum
mer-AbsOiute Efficacy of Quaran-
tine-The Appeals Editorial of
the SeVentee nth-Cuba and
the DaSOs.

From an Occasional Correspondent of the Appeal
POINT CLEAR, Ala, August 20.-Our
pretty little yacht, the Acacalot, has Just
taken party of ladies and gentlemen for a
sail down the bay. The wind is from the
north this morning, and they expect to make
the run to Bon Secours bay (below US on this
eastern shore) and return In time for tea,
after gathering shells and taking lunch on
the coast. There was a storm outside two
days ago; we heard the breakers laundering
as they came in. Even at this distance of
fifteen miles the sound was like a cannonade.
The sea- gulls are flying IN flocks about us;
we know by these tokens that the gulf has
cast up its treasures, torn from the depths of
the sea ''by the black pillows might" and
we are expecting to find many gem in the
way of sea shell and coral on the beach be-
low. We are having the warmest weather of
the season just now. There is but little air
stirring from six O'Clock in the morning until
twelve, but at noon breeze springs up from
the north, and then the bay Is alive with
pleasure boats. This morning the water is
as smooth as glass; the north wind mas
blown even the faint waves of low tide out
to sea; and the calm, crystal mirror, fringed
on the eastern shore by the majestic and fine
forest, and then, south and west by the
horizon-line of the sea, with its mountain
wall of cloud, makes picture for Clifford or
liens. The gentlemen of Point Clear, wish
residents and visitors, are good sailors, and
as all southrons sing, 1T Is very pleasant to
hear the voices of the sailing parties in some
familiar chorus, IrGHcediltO, On,0Grd Boat
lett, or the SlOeet Bye and Bye, as they come
in to the pier in the lovely starlit evening
The absolute efficacy of quarantine as pre-
ventive of yellow fever has been proven by
Mobile. There has not been a single case in
the city, while the line of the Jackson rail
road, over which New Orleans trains were
allowed to pass, is pathway Of graves. The
APPEAL editorial, of Saturday, the seven
teenth instant, which came to me yesterday,
is a sermon which surely ought to be framed
and hung up in the mayors office. The peo-
pie of Memphis are generous, publIc-spirited,
intelligent, and brave. They are worthy to
have leaders capable of governing such
citizens. On the map of the United States
there is no inland city so favorably situated
for health, agricultural and commercial pros
perity. Placed on the highest bluffs along
the river, with three States at her feet,
laying their treasures in her Golfers, and
with agricultural and mineral resources
yet untouched, Memphis, In spite OF
the yellow-fever, ought to be metropolis;
and there is no. earthly reason why yellow
fever should ever be epidemic there. But all
men know, to-day, that there Is no reason
why it should be the plague of any city, even
in the tropics 1t is born of filth; if Havana
was kept as clean as it should be, there would
be no yellow-fever to introduce into our sea-
coast towns; but if the Cubans are so welded
to dirt that they cannot be divorced from it,
we, of New Orleans and Memphis, of Mobile,
Fernandlna, Galveston, and other seaports
should establish, all the year round, rigid
quarantine against West Indian vessels,
including the Dago fshing-smacks. For
these Dag2 people Dago, a corruption of
Diego, Is the name given to the lowest class
of Spanish Italian and Portuguese creoles),
who have no fear of the disease themselves,
90 and come with entire recklessness, bring
ing, In their carg0es and their clothing, the
fell disease that seems to choose the better
classes, while the filthy creatures whose I'M
cleanliness begets 1t, go unframed. The re-
pairing OF streets, excavatlng cellars and
drains IN summer, too, Is a source of incalcu-
liable mischief TO southern cities. IT old SAM
tary laws were passed IN most southern
towns, and | think they were once in force in
Memphis, making 1T Unable offence to dig
the streets or to make cellars from May to
October; work of this sort can all be done in
the remaining seven months, and with
daily sanitary force at work throughout the
year, New Orleans and every other southern
town would be safe against epidemics. Here,
in these delicious pine lands and orange
groves, with the salt sea washing the shores,
the yellow fever, cholera, and the diseases
generally called tropical, are utterly unknown.
Yellow-fever cannot develop here; the air is
so perfectly pure. We hear glowing accounts
of Florida, as a winter home; here, the nat
ural advantages are far greater than at Jack
sonville or on the st. Johns river rhe hu-
nudity In winter is ten degrees less than
there; the oranges are equally as fine; the
grapes, figs and melons are unsurpassed; the
lands are high and rolling; abundant springs
and creeks of pure, fresh water are every
where, the pines, magnolias and live-oaks are
the forests In the south; railways, with Pull
man palace-cars, make daily and close COM
mnnication with Mobile from all parts of the
country. Already settlement of Chicago
people Is found at Magnolia, a few miles dis
tant from Point Clear; and with climate
as mild as Nice in winter. and delicious in
summer, the shores of Mobile bay ought to
be "a garden as beautiful as Italy along the
Riviere. ANNIE CHAMBERS KETCHUM.