The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-05-28
HISTORIC TYBEE ISLAND.
MAGNIFICENT SCENERY ALONG
THE TYBEE RAILWAY.

on the Beach-An All Rail Route from
the Interior Without Change of Cars
Health Giving Breezes Hover Over
the Island Where John Wesley
Landed in the Long Ago.
Tybeel There is poetry in the name. 1t
is one of those musical appellations the In
dams gave TO island and river, bay and es-
tuary. The North American Indian was
only one remove from nature. He was its
child. He employed no letters. He heard
the wind sigh through the trees, and he
shaped sounds which he applied to the places
be loved, whether under bowers where he
woocd the Indian maiden, the coverts where
he hunted the brown deer, or the bays and
inlets where he angled for the f1nny inhabi-
tants of the waters. Thus he named Oc-
mulgee, Ogeechee, Oconee, Appalachee-
and the sweetest of all is Tybee.
HISTORIC ISLAND.
Tybee must have been to the red man In
his day what Tybee will be to thousands of
| civilized Anglo-Saxons in the future. He
| must have disported in its surf, wantoned
| with its breakers, stroiled upon its beach
and roamed through its groves, finding
every object recreative and enjoyable, and
when tempest lifted old oceans waves
mountain high he must have listened in
awe as the breakers Numbered on the beach,
and recognized that the Great Spirit was
eloquent alike in the whispered ripple in
| the reeds of the salt meadows and in the
roar of the surf. But what Tybee was
| when the Indian, free as the waves that
rolled shoreward, occupied it, we can only
conjecture. 1t may have been historic and
prehistoric to him. We know 1t is sub
| historic now.
We know that when topgallant mast
rose, and yard after yard lifted as the
whIte-saled ship came shoreward bearing
John Wesley to the New World, that the
friendly shore of Tybee was the first land
| that charmed the eye of the tempest-tossed
mariner after long and anxious voyage,
| and that underneath the tropic foliage of
| ~ bee the first invocation to heaven from
| Wesleyan lips was uttered. If Methodism
seeks its ancient shrine in the New World
let it look to Tybee by tho Sea.
The Tybee of yesterday was almost unin-
| habited. Its profu % vegetation, its grand
| breezes and its beach, which stands peerless
and unrivaled among the seaside resorts of
the continent, were practically neglected
| and desolate. But change has come over
| it. 1t is being recognized for what is.
| THE TYBEE OF TO-DAY.
The mountain would not 20 to Mahomet,
The sea, in the plenItude of its pride, would
not come to Savannah; Savannah has gone
| to the sea, and Tybee now is Savannahs
| park, her outdoor promenade and her bath
ing resort. 1t is all rail to Tybee, and all
roads point to Tybee.
It is only fifty minutes ride by the Sa-
vannah and Tybee railroad. But what a
ride! Miles of green salt meadows stretch
out on either side. To the left, as you go
Tybeeward. is one of the old-tirne Southern
plantations, and almost hidden away be-
meath the foliage of the grandest live oak
groves of the tropics, with its spirituelle
hangings OF air moss, is the
primitive model of Harriet Beecher
Stoves celebrated "Uncle Toms Cabin. -
the outrageous oaks of the Deptford plan
tation, will always have glance Of interest
from the visitor to Tybee.
CONFEDERATE EARTHwoRKs.
Further on, Fort Barlow is always a
point of interest. Here is the largest defen-
sive earthworks known to military history
on the North American Continent More
than twenty acres were incloSed, and here
the soldiers Of the lost cause guarded the
approaches to the chief seaport city Of the
South with q determination and val0r
which challenged the admiration
of our friend, the enemy. 1t
commands the South Channel, the Savan-
nah river and ST. Augustine's creek, and
inviting as Tybee is many stop at Fort Bar
tow to drink from it's cold flowing artesian
well and stroll through avenue and bride
path, for here in sylvan shades the tales OF
valor, now quarter of a century old, still
have O charm whenever told.
On from Fort Barlow, and until Tybee
is reached, one does not lose sight of the
white sails OF the merchant vessels coming
up the channel to line the city's front from
the extensive wharves of the Ocean Steam
ship and Central railroad wharves on the
west to the scarcely less extensive wharves
of the Savannah, Florida and Western rail
way on the east. In fact, as the train
rIshes on through miles of green meadows
one can almost recognize friends on steamer
and sailing craft, which continually ply
the waters on either side of the railroad
from Tybee roads to Savannah.
FORT PULASKI.
The frowning guns are still mounted or
the parapets Of Fort Pulaski, which is il
plain view as the train hurries to the sea-
Crossing Lazaretto creek, after q seventeen
mile run. the north end of Tybee island is
reached. We have passed romantic groves
historic earthworks and outposts, frowning
forts, no longer needful since the warlike
sword has been turned into the peaceful
pruning hook, and the little birds have fash
toned nests in the mouths of the voicelesS
cannon, past DeauUlIul lSldnuS, past Une low
ering light house Of Tybee whose beacon
light radiates twenty miles to sea, and we
skirt the ocean beach for mile through
wondrous avenues Of palmetto and palm
with cottages by the sea on either side, and
the Furber's Point House, the Ocean View
the Ocean House and the Seaside Pavilion
clustering about the depot where the trair
halts
TYBEE BEACH.
The beach is crowded with the old anc
the young, the rich and the poor. There is
no caste here. There is no stilted style
Fronting the mighty ocean one takes &
rigid lesson in humility.
The beach is long enough and broad
enough and free for all. It's impossible fol
the selfish to monopolize the pure air Of
Tybeol there is enough and to spare. 1t il
as free as the waves which beat upon the
beach.
Here the air is pure. 1t is one perpetual
May ON Tybee Island. 1t is a paradise here
at all seasons. Many places owe their rise
and decline to the booming advertisement
Tybee can trust to time. She needs no adj
vertisng. Her beach stretching for six
miles from north to south without danger
point, her breezes tempered by the tropics
in winter and cool and invigorating in the
summer, her groves, and bride paths and
lovers walks, her unrivaled fisheries, oyster
beds and clans, all will outlive the fretful