Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1899-08-06
FALL OF The BOON
OF CORPUS CHRISTI.
Lively Tale Of a Metropolis That Saw
Its Finish, and Blasted Many a Fond
Hope Of Future Riches.

CORPUS CHRISTI, TEX, July D.
A man who is familiar with the MS
tory of Corpus Christi for the last ten
or fifteen years cannot look at the
town to-day without laughing. Can II
be possible that this place Where peo-
pie from every corner OF the civilized
world only few years ago were run
ming over one another and breaking
their necks to buy corner lots? Ger
tsinly there never was time When the
railroads and steamships complained OF
their inability to transport the specu-
lators. capitalists and real homeseek-
ers. who were eager to get here ana
make inyes tments and buy slices OF
real estate After rubbing our eyes
and looking around we are compelled
to admit that this is the same old Cor
nus Christi. The familiar LANDMARKS
are unmistakable. There is the long
crescent-shaped bluff, cornered with
tbe nest residences to be found III
any little city of all this beautlIul
southland. There is General Iaylor
entrenched camp, where he matted WIN
his little army in 1845, waiting FOR re-
Inducements that never came, ana anA-
icus to tougher the sinews OF his boys
that they might be equal to the hara-
ships of the campaign that he lnteha-
ed to make in Mexico early IN the
sprjng. There is the ever PLACID pay
which all travellers say is prettler than
that sheet of water which inspired the
sentiment: "See Naples and die, ana
over yonder under a cloud OF purple
and gold you may catch a glimpse Oh
Mustang Island lying low and shad-
owy and silent in the morning hght'
though it is the fender of the bay,
against whose rock-ribbed reefs the
r,;ohtv ocean loses its terrors.
1t is Corpus, but not the corpus
of the boom, nor the terminus or the
great Pam American railway You
NAV cross over to st. James now WIN
out fear of being run over by street
car. and it is not likely that some
suaye gentleman will accost you in the
rotunda of the hotel and try to interest
YOU in line of ocean greyhounds that
1--WE are going to establish at once
hetween Corpus Christi and Yokohama
via Liverpool, Suez and Hong Kong
Wow can ride out five miles from the
pretty little city after breakfast ana
kill quail on corner lots that sold FOR
$4,000 only a few years ago, and you
NAV have the fun of chasing the coyote
to her den in an abandoned street car
eight or ten miles from the public
plaza. You will find graded streets
in the brush and costly foundations
covering whole blocks now overgroWn
with cactus and mesquite bushes OF
good size.
Away down yonder on the BLUM I'M
der the clouds, to the farthest norm
of the crescent, stands the Alta VISTA
Never did mortal eyes rest upon
loyelier wind-swept shore or a. gloomier
looking pile of pine, paint and glass.
There is not mound, roof or tree
to break the dull monotony OF the
landscape when one gaZes at the Alta
Vista. 1t stands alone, silent monu-
ment to the shrewdness of one man
and the confding simplicity of a thou
sad others. 1t cost big sum, for 1t
b;cI nd nndpr ifC
roof there are 156 rooms. It's doors
never opened to receive a guest. There
were others like it, and possibly the
great Miramar Hotel, on the beach at
the northern end of the crescent
shaped bluff, was it's superior in gran
deur, finish and beauty of its structure.
1t is in ashes. 1t disappeared with
the boom, and the insurance companies
waited, for the loss was great. The
costly piers, built far out into the bay
to accommodate the European and
Asiatic ocean stemers that never came,
are slowly yielding to the waves. There
was actually time when it looked as
if New York and Boston and Liverpool
were all preparing to move to Corpus
Christi. Those were great days-days
of joy and excitement, filled with I'M
ending dreams of future prosperity
and great wealth for all.
ROPES? WHO IS ROPES?
Ropes did it. Who was Ropes, did
you ask? Well, he is dead now, but
ii is no harm to say that he was one
OF the incest men you ever saw. He
was rather goodlooking and just about
the shrewdest Yankee that ever sold a
machine, and that had been his par
ticular line of business before he devel
oped into boomer. Old bankers said
that he was one of the snarpest finan-
ciers of the age. Farmers thought him
clever fellow. Real estate agents
said that he was genius, the brethren
who attended church thought him
shining light. The ladies said that he
was a "sweet man" He was every
thing that they said of him, and more,
for he did not find Corpus in the wild
erness, and he made it boom and the
l. L.