The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-08-02

treat of Cahaba
 The grave of St Stephens, the olden cap isaI of Alabama. is upon a blun whose bank is loved by the waters of the Tom bIgbee moving silently and placidly to the sea. It is royal place for tomb. Nature loves the place. She has in each returning spring shrouded the dead town in perennial robes of gfeen She has. one could fancy, made the spot her especial care. and in the spring or summer the site of the town is like the grave of some Beloved one whose memory endures, ano for whom affections tender solicituoe IF exercised.
 The honeysuckle blooms along the thoroughfares deserted for so many years. A carpet of verdure IS spread over the streets and sidewalks that re- sounded to the tread of the pioneers The magnoiia blooms above the old mar kets and trailing vines partly conceal the grass grown foot-paths. Underbrush. dense and green, spring from the cellars or stand scattered and sickly upon the rocky hill side. Underneath the old town lies dead and in no hope of resurrection. Above 1t all rises a forest of trees. trop- icaI and almost prfmeval. It is in the domain of the pines and they lururiate where St. Stephens stood. In the old streets, in the obliterated yards, upon the O trees are growing This forest of trees. some of them more than three feet in diameter almost prevents one from real izing that they stand upon and cover the site of a town, at one time chief in im- portance in Alabama. Now and then along the old deserted streets is found gnaried and ancient china tree, the green of it's branches in contradiction to the dead and hoary bark. Constant and last ing witnesses are these old trees to mans occupancy of the old spot. China trees were ever an accompaniment of the white mans civilization.
 There is not within the confines of the old town a single human habitation. No human being lives within its old bound aries No decaying house of old St. Ste- phens remains about which fancy may build a romance. Not one brick of the old town remains upon another.
 The stiffness of its old grave yard upon he western hill where sleep a goodly company of old pioneers Is the same as he solemn quiet which reigns in the grass covered streets years ago alive to the stir and hustle of business.
 Its arboreal lovliness, it's profusion of verdure. gives it the solemn appealing beauty of an old cemetery.
 Dead in the Forest.
 Winding in and out among the forest trees and dipping over the sharp hills is the ancient road that leads from the town to the open country west of it. As one approaches the site of St. Stephens Q flash of white marble comes from 8 leahy wilderness on the right of the road. Out of the tangled growth of vines and crape myrtle which all but surround 1t, a shaft of Italian marble rises gracefully and majesticalIy. It is the monument of the fair Caroline Craw- ford, the bride who died in her nine teenth year. The love of a tender father and an adoring husband has in lasting marble perpetuated her beauty of mind and character. Her graces and her love- Illness are recorded in the white stone underneath which she sleeps and ''her infant slumbers upon her heaveless breast" @ ..,s-s.
 Like Caroline Crawford, St. Stephens lies dead She died untimely and in her youth, but her memory Is perpetiated in the lasting records, She has passed from the realm of living things. She sleeps un- der the trees with her children slumbering upon her heaveless breast.
 St. Stephens was distinctly a pioneer town. It was an outpost of civilization. It's history is the history of the frontier towns where gathered the strong men who won the wilderness for civilization. It arose about a garrisoned fort, grew rapidly, but died young.
 The Spanish built Fort St. Stephens | in 17S9. The fort was placed upon a high bluff at what was supposed to be ] the head of navigation of the Tombigbee river. Spain. then one of the dominant nations of the world, claImed portions of Alabama and Mississippi as part of her Florida possessions. St. Stephens marked the northern boundary of the claimed territory. The fort was built to establish and to maintain that claim.
 Tn United States was then the infant of the nations of the world. Its inde- pendence had but few years before been recognized by Great Britain. Great Britain had declared that her former colonies were free to the 31st degree of latitude which lay considerably south Of St Stephens Both Spain and the Unit ed States claimed considerable strip of territory which lay between St. Stephens and the 31st degree of latitude. The United States was young and promising. but not strong enough to enforce its claims by force of arms.
 It therefore resorted to diplomacy in pushing a manifestly just claim. For ten years the American and Spanish diplomats fought peaceful battles over the disputed territory.
 The Making of History.
 The adroit and earnest presentation of the claims of the United States by the