Morning journal and courier., 1885-06-10

SentineIs of the N1ght--In New Orleans Aga1n--Changes--The Canal Street Dummy--Dead Mobile-Ice Cream PoPu1ar--Trapping AlIigators--Pen- sacola--The United States Naval Sta- ton.
 PENSACOLA, Fla, May 2o. l To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 The lighthouse of Egmont Key bllnked solemnly at the dim outline of our rsceding ship, now turning blood-red eye upon us
 and now substituting the full glare of it's or | dinary white orb. I stood for time and | watched the silent but faithful monitor, com l menting mentally upon the exciting life of l those mortals whose lot it is to stay and guard this or any of the other lonely senti. | nels of light that I have seen on more dan gerous coasts or islands in various parts of 1 the world. Verify, if had an enemy in the world I do not think I could be so vindictive as to wish him assigned to the care of an is- plated lighthouse. Then stole softly up the upper deck, and taking my position all l alone in the faint shadow cast by the pilot
 house, watched, as never tire of doing on dark night, another lonely sentinel, also in 1 the dark, whose tireless eye was fixed un swerving1y upon little illuminated disk be- l fore him, and whose hands turned unceas- 1 ingly-now to the right, now to the left-the great wheel that mysteriously kept the ship from straying out of her appointed course. And away forward on the forecastle deck paced another shadowy form, ever peering l out over the black vasty deep, and speaking only as the half hours were rung out, to plight assurance that no harm boded. An, 1, 1 silent beacons shine through the long night,
 that we voyagers may reach our appointed l haven in safety! Methinks it is not so very different in the voyage of life.
 The customary lapse of two days and half after embarkation at Tampa landed us | in the Crescent city again. I could see some changes during my absence of two months. The vendors of exposition souvenirs were not so numerous in front of the postoffce, the dime museums with which Canal street swarmed during the winter had many of them l folded their tents and silently stolen away l Qeaving behind some unpaid board and ! washing bills mementoes of their visit, I I doubt not), and Buffalo Bill with his Wild West aggregation had gone to take my place | in Cuba. I cannot honestly say that so many changes had been effected in the sanitary condition of the streets. There was the same | old green scum in the gutters, though per | haps there was a little tinge of sickly violet l | fore. One new dead dog broke the monoto- ny on Canal street, but on the other hand | two dead rats that I had watched with tender solicitude all through February and part of l March had disappeared The fate of these rats is shrouded in impenetrable mystery. I 1 cannot imagine who had the presumption to l remove them. | The Canal street dummy looked dummier | than ever, but oh marvel of marvels, it had been provided during my absence with a new and tolerably substantial track. Some hy- percritical people may maintain that this was | a tardy movement to make after carrying ! millions of Exposition tourists all winter long over the old rails, but such view is narrow and uncharitable. The truth is that l there was broken-down ice cart right in the way of the new road-bed The owner of this vehicle didn't have the enterprise to remove | it, and the city authorities didn't have the 1 enterprise to order its removal. Of course | no order of the city authorities would have been carried out, but then some people hold | that it was their duty to issue the order just | the same.
 l After waiting all winter for something to ! happen a meeting of the dummy railway l directors was called. It was found that the old rails must positively be abandoned, as l the trains had way of strolling all over the l street as they rocked and thumped and som- ersaulted their way out to the West End
 ''Should the company wait longer should ! l was the question that agitated the direc- 1 tors. I do not know how it was settled, | although I have done my best to get in formation on this important point. only
 know that the cart suddenly disappeared and the track was built. Perhaps it went to join the mildewed rats. While casting | about for light in this matter I ran across one of the passengers who had travelled l with me on the voyage from Cuba. He had spent most of the time on board in leaning 1 over the gunwale and enriching Neptune's mysterious domains; but every time would salute him with the trite inquiry, ''Seasicks" | his reply would be: "Oh, no-a slight gas | tric disturbance accompanied by a violent l headache, dizzy sensation and"- And then he would fill out the sentence with an attack | of prodigious retching. When approached ] this individual-a southerner-with refer | ence to the disappearance of the ice cart he | wiped away a saline globule from his | mournful eye and conscientiously responded, | ''I reckon some inquisitive norGherner got l tired of seeing it around all the time and | dragged it off some dark night"
 From New Orleans I journeyed east via l the Louisville and Nashville to Mobile, where spent one day-a day which seems I more like an epoch in the retrospect. l I owe Mobile no grudge; one cannot very I well bear grudge against 8 corpse. Mobile | is so dead that a galvanic battery could not | cause a quiver of the inanimate clay. I do
 not gay that it is altogether ugly corpse. | Some of it's features are tolerably good. But Montgomery and Birmingham have snatched the laurels from poor Mobiles
 brow and are plating them into their own | commercial crowns Upon landing l was l immediately struck with the novel depot scenes As many of the trains halt for meals at Mobile, the colored people have ! organized an immense brigade designed to l meet the wants of the hungry multitude. A | score two of men, women and children ! have their stands just outside of the depot premises where they mingle amicably until | a train comes in. Then all is fercest op- | position. Every car window is besieged | with & multitude of uplifted hands bearing | trays of bread, meat, fish, eggs, ice cream, | etc. Ten cent lunches are quite feature. l The interior of the car presents an even | more bewildering spectacle Before the | train pulls into the depot the coach is com paratively clean although wearing 8 gro l tesque look in the case of north-bound trains | by reason of the punches of bananas, loads | of Florida moss stalks of sugar cane, live alligators, and countless other souvenirs which northerners are taking home. The | bananas are usually hung from the hat racks, where they dangle until they are l black, mushy and loaded with dust. can with difficulty speak calmly on this subject, as bunch fell plump on my head during | the ride t. Mobile, and the owner has not | yet furnished indemnity for the damage done But ten minutes after the arrival of | the car the interior presents a most woeful appearance. Eggshells, bread erusts, banana pealings and fshbones are scattered about | with wild picturesqueness which might | suggest the transit of a cyclone through the | coach.
 It is amazing how much the whites and
 blacks alike think of ice cream here in the l South. In Mobile I noticed this fondness il- lustrated with especial force. Ice cream carts and wheelbarrows paraded the streets everywhere, especially toward night, while | any quantity of small boys tramped about with portable supplies of the favorite dish. Much of the stuff is doubtless made of con-
 densed milk and corn-starch, for it sells as low as five cents plate. One man there,
 a swarthy Italian, called his product Exposi- ton ice cream, and supplied it in solid blocks, cubical in shape. During the day in question I strolled into
 a large hide-house on Water street with the
 purpose of learning something about the al- | ligator business. The proprietor in response | to my inquiry said: "We have now aban- doned the business of sending out men to explore the bayous for us. There are houses
 in New Orleans, Florida, and I believe one in
 Morgan City, that prosecute alligator trap ping on large scale, but in our case it
 ceased to pay number of years ago. We
 now buy of any trapper who may come along 1 and make favorable terms" Why they