Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1901-02-14
IMPRESSIONS OF MOBILE.
"A Former Grand Rapids Man is Pleased With
This Famous Southern City.
MOBILE, ALA. Jan. 80, 1901

now living IN a town W0efe the gOSpol
has been preached 200 years. The
town is located on the east side of the
Mobile river, near the head of Mobile
bay. The bay is 30 miles long and 10
to II miles wide, and narrow strip OF
land or bog divides the river from the
! bay, and the river enters into the bay
t or miles south of the city. The
river is deep and wide and admits
vessels coming in here that draw %
feet of water and is navigable for
city. Mobile is called one of the best
harbors on the gulf coast. Large
ocean steamers come in here nearly
tropical fruit, such as oranges, lemons,
bananas from Cuba and other foreign
| lands. [ have seen them load II car
loads of bananas from the steamers
upon cars to be shipped north in one
day. The principal articles for eX-
| port are cotton, lumber. rOSin, etc.
Mobile has population of $4,000,
$1,000 whites and $4,000 blacks. but a
man up tree" would say that there
were as many blacks as whites. The
black people do nearly all the work
and seem to be a very happy and in
dustrious people and are hustling for
all the jobs in sight. The streets are
generally narrow. They have one
street called Government street which
is very wide and where the wealthy
people live and is to Mobile what
Grand avenue is to Milwaukee. The
land is very level and only ? to feet
above tide water, and the sewage
system is very poor. They have good
supply Of water brought from Spring
Hill, miles from the city. The
winter is one redeeming quality for
the city. They have two parks in the
city. Binville park is in the center of
the city. Shodad park has large live
oak and magnolia trees. with large
fountain in the center and is a fayOrite
resort on a hot day. The thermometer
| has ranged from Sc to IS degrees above
zero for the last two MONTHS have not
| had but one frost since [ have been
| here. | came here the last of NOvem-
Der to escape the cold winter weather
and am stopping with an old friend of
mine from Grand Rapids, Mich,
| [ omitted to say that Monroe park,
three miles out of town on the bay
shore, is a summer resort. Daulphin
street is one of the principal streets
of the city for business. The govern
ment postotfice is very large, covering
nearly a block, and is built of gray
granite brought from Vermont. The
two leading hotels are the Battle
House and the Binville House. They
have a Y. NJ. G. A. building built
with Milwaukee cream pressed brick.
The building cost S35, 900 and is COM
plete in all parts. 1t has fine library
and reading room aud the finest
Turkish bath rooms that | was ever in,
with all the other apurtenances tC
make up tirst-class Y. Nj. G. \.
building. They have very fine club
house nearly completed opposite the
Y. NJ. G.. A. building that will cost
$50, 900, also two National banks and
two private banks, all doing flourish
ing business. The First National
bank has a capital stock of 800, 00O
and surplus fund Of 100000 and
$4,000, 900 on deposit. So you see there
is no lack of money here The town
is full of churches. The Catholic
church takes the lead. They have a
large cathedral and seven churches in
the city. The Episcopal church is
next in wealth, then comes the NJ. E.
church and the Baptist and Presby-
terrain churches. They all have large,
fine churches and large congregations.
| Nearly all the young people go to
church here, which is very different
from some of our churches in Wis
consin The cOlOred people have two
large brick churches, and | was told
that they are crowded every Sunday
[ have attended all the other
churches. The Barton academy is a
large. fine school building They say
they have plenty of public school
| buildings but / have been nearly all
over the city and have not been able
to locate them. Then, they are so
tyears behind the times, in my judg-
ment, in educational matters.
| Mobile is a good business city and
we'll governed. 1t has two large
cotton mills, doing good, paying
business also number of saw and
single mills doing a good deal of
business for a small profit. Saw and
delivering mills run lumber on to
vessels for S11.5O, culls out. The
Louisville & Nashville R. R. Co. has
it's shops here and employ about 800
men. There are good many old
brick buildings that were built by
the Spaniards, more than 100 years
ago, with light brick walls around
their lots about ten feet high, and
they have very ancient appearance.
many of them are of the COrinthian
style. Well, there are the Alabama
crackers. | don't blame the negroes
for not wanting to associate with
them.
Last week [ went out to the Catho-
lie Orphans Home for boys, with Mr.
and Mrs. Graham. They call it the
Brothers Home. There are about 100
boys there and everything looks very
nice, and they have L acres of land
all under cultivation, mostly to
garden products and strawberries.
Father Paulinas showed us around the
premises and gave us bunch Of
roses when we left. They have fine
college at Spring Hill and 1900 acres
of land connected with the college
They have a very beautiful place out
there. We also visited the home of
Augusta Evans Wilson, the author of
San Elmo, VaShti and Beulah and
many other interesting works. She
has a fine home on the outskirts of
the town. The house stands back
from the road about 20 rods and the
lane leading to it has a row of large
live oak and Palmetto trees on each
side and the tops of the trees meet
together overhead. You can hardly
see the house for the vines and shrub
berry. She has 30 acres of land and
the house stands in the center of the
tract. The land is nearly all covered
with native trees with walks through
themi in every direction. The build
mo is q arpp white bOnSp built in