Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1883-06-07
Happy HOLLOW.
A Different Scene from that Presented
in the Days Of Mrs. Mccarthy
and Her Goat.
A Trip Along the River Front from
Beaie Street to the Transfer +.
Bail and River.

The stranger within our gites, il he came
in BY the water way, little dreams Of the
vast transformation that has been made in
the sceue which greets his eyes as be walks
up the leEee into the city. 4 few years ago
il was not a very pleasant place for a prom
enada, even in The daytime, and 1t wss a
bold man who dared to walk along the
levee at night. Yesterday, and on almost
any fine, sunshiny day, lsdIes, elegantly
dressed and wearing costly jewels, may be
seen going from place to place rs II
MOTHER M'UARTY's GOAT
bad never roamed there at his own sweet
wili(iam) with many a human brute equally
az shaggy and rough and impolite. Mrs.
McCarty, too, has hied away, leaving her
rival, the locomotive, 10 u%ndlsputed posses
sion.
HAPPY HOLLOW,
before the dark days of 1878, was occupied
by a number of miserable shaulies tenanted
by people who probably never heard that
Cleanliness is next TO godliness," aud If one
OF them hsd been reminded OF il, the reply
would probably have been that they pre-
ferred "a little d il their'n." A hollow il
certainly was, but not a happy one. Itwas a
cesspool of filth and infsmy, the receptacle
OF filth and the asylum of thieves snd ruff
ans Of the very worst type. 1t was here that
plaques were born, and TO it's sxistetco the
city owes no small part Of htr misfortunes.
The fearful scenes witnessed there in 1878
viii long blur The memory Of those who wit
messed them, and
N AWFUL SCENE
in particular will illustrate the destitute
condition OF the inhabitants OF the place.
NUL-- II -. "a .--z
two men, on sh expedition OF u anity,
found their way through a miserable door
| into . more miserable and fqualid hut and,
had the scene there presented teen anywhere
else or al any other time, it would have
turned their hood to ice. Upon the floor
in a corner lay a boy feebly struggling in the
last agonies of death. Ga a rickety bed in
a corner was stretched the body Of a man,
his head thrown back, his limbs stifened
ard his CLASSY eyes staring with a fixed ex-
preston Of horror at a figure by the bed.
Here too the eyes OF the visitors turned and
knew that what they had imagined to be a
living figure was the corpse OF the dead
mau's wife, sitting bolt upright IN her chair.
In her lap lay an infant, as If nursing at the
breast, stone dead. A ghsstly saffron hue,
which dyed the faces of the man, the woman
and the infant, was fact stealing over the
features of the dying boy, and in a few
moments more he fell back dead. All that
has been done, ii it we're only to blur the
memory of that scene, has beeu we'll done.
The moan OF the dying boy is now echosd in
the shriii
SCREAM OF THE LOCOMOTIVE
and his labored breathing in the putting and
blowing Of the stesm-engine. The very
ground is changed, and the hollow has be-
come a plane, the rosd-bed Of railroads and
the st-amping-ground of irou.horses inslesd of
goats. A vast improvement has been made
and ia steadily going on. The average width
OF the levee is $50 feet, and an old steamboat.
man said yesterday that it was the finest on
the Mississippi river, without exception. Ii
is paved with block stode and kept always ia
thorough repair. There are only two through
tracks on the levee, one belonging 10 the
Mississippi and Tennessee and the other to the
Chesapeake and Ohio. There are, however,
a number OF spurs and sidetraek-, and in
Happy Hollow there are perhaps a dozen of
these sidetracks. No more will be allowed.
The wall OF the cotton compress, which was
burned, has been rebuilt for a distance of
about $50 feet, and set further back, 80 as 10
allow the Chesapeake and Ohio to make an
easier curve. This track is built within the
space formerly Included by the burned wall
NEW CAL
The Memphis and Little Rock Railroad
Company have just completed a splendid eel
of scales for weighing cars and freights il
Happy Hollow. A number of tout piles
we're hfst driven, and CT these 3 found atior
| OF solid stone masonry was laid. The plat
form OF the scales is thirty.two feet long by
Heven and oBe-balf feet wide. Two track
traverse it. Cars passed over one of them
do not stiect the scales, but when going ovel
the other a lever is sprung and The weigh
almost instantly registered. The wood and
iron work above ground is quite ornamental
and the ~scales, as a whole, the finest in the
country.
PAVING N LIGHTS.
By the terms of it's contract, the Chesa
peake and Ohio, which has lis depot at ths
foot of Gsyoso street, will pave all that por
lion of the levee from Union TO Beale with
block stone before September next. Ths
levee then from Beale 10 Market will be 8
broad, wide pavement OF block and rubbls
sgone. Telegraph poles have recently been
put up, and on The tops Of four of them the
Electric Light Company has placed lamps
as an experiment. They have given entire
sstisfaction, and it is probable The city will
continue them and put up a number of 9th
era besides, The principal question is IS to
the fund from which the snlodpt necessary
to keep them shall be drawn. 1t is urged on
one hand that the gas lamps can be kept up
without extrs charge, and that it would not
be right TO drain The whaifsge iund for
more expensive lights. The steamboat
men, however, are almost unanimously
in favor of electric lights. They say ii
makes it safer for them and easier TO land
aud handle freight at night, protects them
from the depredatioDs of thieves and makes
the levee easier OF access from the city. For
these reasons they are perfectly willing that
the amount necessary TO provide the lamps
should be taken from the wharfage fund,
realizing it would be better spent in that way
than in any other. Lights are needed more
Than anywhere else at the foot Of Adams
street ahd at Beale and Union streets.
a MATTRESSES
which have been put down along the bank
from Market TO Jefferson street, have given
perfect Satisfaction. They are put down
close under The banks, weighted TO The bot
tom with heavy rocks, and produce a sort Of
eddy in the current. A sediment forms and
solid land makes out. All The money that
has been spent in this direction has been well
spent, and the sentiment Of the river meu ia
that it should be continued.
1t il estimated that it would cost $500, 900
to put the improvements Oh the levee that
are now there. 1t will not be necessary 10
90 anything more in twenty five years, at
least, and all Wharfage moneys will be ap-