The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1884-11-14
PENSACOLA.
| A Quaint Old Southern Town, Full OF In
\ terest to Strangers.

A Quaint Old Southern Town, Fun OF In
terest to Strangers.
II the Southern tourist will leave the
beaten tract of travel at Mobile. and 60
by steamer to Pensacola, he will enjoy
q very pleasant break in the monotony
of railroading. Mobile and its bay are
full of historic landmarks, and when
the steamer leaves Fort Morgan, and
heads to sea for the short run down the
coast, there is much that is of interest
in the marine landscape
The approach to Pensacola, as the
Mary Morgan runs in, is of ever-vary-
ing beauty. Long lines of sandy beach
and dark woodland point in converging
lines to the distant harbor. Closer in
is the tall lighthouse pointing finger
like heavenward, with a background of
dark trees and peeping cottages, below
which runs, like ribbon of satin, the
snow-white beach for miles. Presently
the long ocean swell ceases, and we are
passing the forts On the left are the
ruins Of Fort McRae, now only few
massive arches of tough masonry totter-
ing amid the surges ripping under their
gloomy shadows, while opposite is Fort
Pickens, gray, straight faced, and
sturdy, crouching, as it were, on the
lands end of historic Santa Rosa Isl
and. In spite of its battle record it
looks quite modern. with the great guns
gazing vigilantly out to sea. In the
distance the remains of Fort Barancas
lie sleeping with the memories of Cen
eral jackson and the Spanish COM
mandant who blew it up at the capture
of the place by the American army in
1912.
As we enter the harbor we find il
land-locked and of immense magnitude,
its further shores appearing as if on the
horizon. 1t is shelter for the navies
of the world.
To the left appears the town. fronted
by the massive buildings of the navy
yard, the great derricks holding aloft
boilers for expectant hulls. The size OF
the place can only be guessed at from
the steamers deck by house roofs and
distant spires.
The lower part of the town has an
essentially nautical flavor. The sandy
streets are filled with motley crowd OF
mariners. The talk is of ships and car
goes, and the bell of the Norwegian
chapel, nesting almost under the yard
arms of the ships at dock, mingles with
the forecastle bells striking the hour,
tolled maybe by some ancient quarter
master of sexton; and strangely out
of place seems a back-country ox-cart,
whose great broad wooden-tired wheels
and crates of "gonies," or land-turtles,
rolls silently over the sand.
The wharves are immense structures
thickly laced with car tracks. walled in
by masses of closely packed shipping
whose interlOcked spars and masts are
as forest through which a road is cut
out. Here the smaller iron steamers.
those 'oeean tramps," nestle beside the
great three-masters to secure share of
the vast forests of lumber annually ex-
ported, which by train loads continually
pour on the docks.
Out on the broad harbor are fleets of
vessels clustered about great timber
RATS which have been foated out to
them, and from which their gaping
holds are being rapidly filled. Tugs are
towing out RATS to ones further distant.
Here are two just spreading their wings
to sail. There is enc just arrived and
dropping anchor, and in the offing
more are inward bound. 1t is an ami
mated scene rendered doubly delightful
by balmy air, cloudless sky, and the
odors of pine freshly cut.-Harpers