American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1878-05-04
tn" Sc; Shore &
Cur Coast.

bEAk DIX - no UHtt-EUHf OuA
Gulf Coast of Mississippi was to
most OF our country as a land tar
away ii not quite ina ginary. being
known and visited chiefly by health
seekers from the nearest cities till
the New Orleans aud Mobile rails
road with its ebb and flow OF travel
and trade, brought not only our
seaside, but a vast tributary inter>
ior, INTO daily and direct communi.
cation with the metropolis of the
South.
Now, thousands know for Them
selves our larbOr, our forests, our
fruits and flowers, springs and
baths, Oyster-beds, fisheries, &c,
and a climate which in cOmpensa-
ton for sandy soil is special
stimulant to vegetation while It
renders hea,thfulness supreme. So,
for the slim settlements and wild
life of thirty years ago, we have
commercial towns, newspapers,
hotels, schools, and churches, and
near Biloxi, the celebrated Sea
Shore Camp ground.
Nine miles west of Biloxi is Mis-
sissippi CRY, the prospective and
natural terminus Of the Gulf and
Ship Island Railroad which has lain
so long in embryo while so long the
one great need of a country, agri
cultural aud pastoral, but with far
more important, commercial lnter>
ests, to which such a road is indiS
p"nsable.
1t is to be hoped that this or
some other new power will very
soon import new industries, to work
for US much -needed reform by
Introducing money for the people.
Where capitalists pay wages only
in goods. they not only appropriate
the profits OF labor, bnt form the
monopoly which absOrbs and spends
abroad our whole circulation, the
laborer perforce resIgning his right
of choice as to the outlay of his
earning, aud working, just as the
horse or the OK, for the support of
an annual life: whereas, wages paid
in money would encourage industry,
stimulate enterprise and by difus
ing prosperity, make our fair suns
mer sea shore a trOpic Arcadia.
But the raIest attractions of cur
sunny land are tor those who do
not ''live by bread alone" Having
an inspiration, scenery and a
history all its own, it Is rich mine
for the poet, the artist and the
archeologist. A distinguished res
ident, who is author, artist and
tourist, says that our skies are in
comparable and that no verdure ia
more beautiful than the Mississippi
and Louisiana palmetto brakes.
Especially is the approach from
New Orleans a scene of unique in
aud unimaginable sp.en
dor. 70 the lover of the green
earth, there is singular beauty in
the seemingly boundless, Louisiana
praiIicswamp, its shining lakes
which are fragrant fields of floats
ing lilies, its brilliant birds and
gorgeous land flowers, and its few
great trees waving their drapery of
long moss in the sea-breeze which
so delightfully."- mod'fies our semi
tropical climate. Or the passenger
may be fully employed counting
or studying the stupen>
dous railroad bridges, which next to
natural objects are the most inter
esting structures Immediately along
the route, although our coast is
having been a rendezvous
of Latitte and other pirates who
arc said to have left buried between
Pass Christian aud Biloxi untold
treasure, which is even sought for
by men too hungry for gold to fear
the ghOstly tribunal of dripping
pirates all ready to arraign and
destroy them for the robbery and
At Pass Christian, and covered
with gigantic trees, is an Indian
and on Old Fort Bayou are
the centenarian remains of French,
Spanish or Indian tort, while Biloxi
is a name in story /; and though the
quaint old town Is famous chiefly
for its antiquity. tire bay is a Charm
forever; its romantic shores being
lit scenes for the rare old deeds of
legend and of song.
In it's depths lie historic cannon
we'll known TO our fishermen by
whom at low tide they are often
seen, and which in the dawn of our
history were thrown overheard to
release from the shoals a French
ship of war which had entered the
bay during the high waters of a
great storm.
The wooded shores are galleries
Of sound which make the bay an
acoustic marvel. crossed part OF
t one still evening with a native
of whose loud hallot
he many successive and distinct
'everberatiOns from the vari distant
shores were almost startling.
Here, AS OH Pascagoula Bay, is
It night often heard low, contin-
los, musical muImur, infinitely
weet, wild, weired, pIaintive and
is origin battles research. Some
lttribute it to an unknown fish,
'thers to air currents along peculiar
hore formations while the prints |
I've bay.sbore CreOles and our
ocal poets explain it bv the tradi-
ion that ages ago, the Biloxi In
lians, driven, nearly exterminated !
" stronger tribe, from their
uniting grounds around Biloxi bay,
we're beseiged III u fortress by the
Bay of PascagOula, till maddened
y famine, but still defiant, and
creened under the dense forest