The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-12-13

banna, matches In interest and romance tabled Atlantis, the beautiful city beiiev- cd by the ancients to have sunk beneath the waters of the western seas. In Cahaba's story only the elusive charm of mystery is lacking. It Is not for poets and romanticlsts to weave rosy fancies of the rise, fall and oblivion of the Alabama Atlantis. The history of this town of yesterday Is written In the Arch ives of the State. The Impress of Its cui- ture. its rare social life. it's political pre- eminence yet endufes. Its meraory is fondly cherished by men and women. with dimmed eyes and frosty A heads, whose hearts to this day beat quick at remembered pleasures of youthful days spent in this city of the Old South before fate had set 1t apart for neglect and for getfulness. t
 Time has not yet efHacsd 1t, but the years are slowly. pitllessiy eating away the ruins of Cahaba. A plain. ten miles from Selma where the Cahaba River 3oins the Alabama holds all that is real. all that is material, of the dear, dead town. d Upon this plain. prone and inarticuiete. the skeleton of Cahaba is moulderinG to3 dust. From the rank vegetation there rises here and there tottering house gray with age. the heary relics of happy and contented homes. The hearthstones are dull and ooud now, and no laughter of children has rung for many years through the deserted haiiB.
 Ouite deaolate. a hals score brick striic- lures stand guard above the eternal now and murmur of the river. hut the busy scenes they once knew, they may never know again. The rattling doorways, the mouldering floors, the moss upon the bricks. tell of their numbered days.
 The green plain Is scanned with long red and black scars, the renains of once aa.. nr2 deserted streets, the friendly china trees yet cling to ife although the earth has long since claimed those for whose shade and comfort they were planted.
 IN A FERTILE FIELD. ..-
 It fla. perhaps, the most fertile spot m Alabama, this spot where Cahaba hvcd and died. Under 6 summer sun, the corn stands strong and erect, the dark green cotton plants intertwine and 'interlace, concealing the rich soil that g'vss " sus- tenance; the trees are bowers or veroue' and the gray and messy ruins are defin- iteiy outlined in the tangled vegetation.
 The ruins of Cahaba on summere day are like the remains of some great creature whose bones show white and clear out of the fertile richness of it's own mouldered body.
 The Alabama River was both it's erea~ tor and it's destroyer. The river at the birth of Cahaba in ls19 was the great highway for the pioneers. the thorough fare of commerce. It was the day of the keel boats, whose motive power up stream was long poles in the hands of sturdy negroes. Railroads were gifts and conve- niences of the future. The dirt roads were few and dangerous with mud in ths win- ter Land tF&veling was GiMcuIG uncer- tain and often dangerous. '. s...,.
 The, navigabIe rivers, with hosts thet could be foated down stream and polad up stream afforded surer and easier mode of transportation. All towns of i'm portance of that epoch grew on river banks. ..A.s.t
 The special committee from the Lsgis- lature which chose the fertile plain upon the little bun at the confluence of the Alabama and Cahaba rivers was praised for its wisdom. The new Capital was near the centre of the State. The volume of commerce from the seaport. Mobile, to the northern and inland portions of the State passed to and from at the foot of the little bluff crowned by Cahaba.
 But the Alabama River in the summer and fall was quite different from the Ala bama River in the winter and spring. The river under summer skies, dark but clear. rippled smoothly and musically to the Gulf. In the late winter and spring 1t became a yellow destructive torrent. It foamed over and above its banks. This yellow flood first cut the peninsula in two, dividing Cahaba in half. The torrent would race through the new channel for hours and then the foamy waters would slowly and steadily lap their way outward on either side until practically the entire plain would be covered with a yellow flood. Out of this flood would rise the stores, the business houses and the homes of Cahaba, while the river currents tug ged and ate into the foundations of the town.
 The river from the outset made warfare upon the town. Again and again the wa ters took possession of the place, driving the inhabitants to the second stories of the residences or to the highlands In the rear.
 There was but one outcome to such an unequal contest The river was vito rious. It drove the legslators away and robbed Cahaba of the honor of the State Capital. It tore down the old bri k Cap itol in time and in the years destroyed thousands upon thousands of dollars worth of property within the limits of tho town. As crowning and final injury the river. in 1868, tore from Cahaba it's re- malning honor, that of being the seat of government nf Dallas Cornty.
 l. AL DEATH BLOW.
 This misfortune. it came through the votes of the citizens of Dallas. was the death blow of the historic old river town. People. who had been loyal in their love left Cahaba as though plague had fallen upon the place. Property was sacrificed. Handsome homes years in the building and beautifying. were sold for a song. Other homes and business buildings were abandoned to neglect and decay-to hope less neglect. They stand to this day, some of them. mournful monuments to past grandeur.
 In flood years the yellow waters race triumphantly over the site of the old town swlrling around the deserted buildings and eddying in and out of the cd yards in the higher ground to the north and east. There Is none to dispute the victory and supremacy of the waters.
 Cahaba challenges interest not only in that 1t was the Capital of Alabama from 1873 to 1926. nor yet because 1t was once a city, alive and prosperous. but now dead and deserted Its history belongs not ex- clusively to the musty records of the State. Its social life, the intelligence the strength of its people, the eminAnce and influence of its men establish it's claim to uniqueness. its worthiness of attention and of interest.
 Its span of life reached from the pioneer Alabama to the Alabama of the carpet- bagger Its years were those of that eIu- sive romantic epoch which Is cal'ed the Old South. It rose. prospered and lived with the old order of civilization. Horn In the hardy days of 1S19 when the state was lusty with the strength of the soil and strong in the confidence of youth. it endured until the old order had been shot to death on a hundred battlefieIds