The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-08-01

pany.
 And so it is that after 200 years this comparatively isolated portion of Ala bama soil, whose every spot speaks of historic adventure, is about to take its part in the progress of the world. The Mobile and West Alabama Railroad Company, of which Judge Austill is the President. Is projecting gigantic termi- nal facilities at the eastern end of the island, where ocean vessels drawing thirty feet of water will i'll their bunk CTS with Alabama coal. and where Ala bama will have its only deep sea port The Mobile and West Alabama Com pany is to build a railway line from Florence, direct to Mobile, and thence to Dauphin Island It will touch the heart of the coal fields of Walker and Tuscaloosa counties. the foundation of the whole scheme resting on an outlet to the deep sea for Alabama coal
 Rail to Deep Water.
 From Mobile to Cedar Point south west the distance, following the route surveyed for the railway line, Is twen- weight miles. Cedar Point Is on the mainland. Here 1t will be necessary to build about two miles of trestling across Grants Pass to reach the neck of Lit- tie Dauphin Island. Thence the rail- road line would continue to it's object i've point at the eastern end of Dauphin Island, and near Fort Gaines, q distance of about five miles from where 1t touches Little Dauphin Island. This would give a rail route from Mobile to deep water of thirty-three miles. The water route from Mobile to deep water at Fort Morgan, a stones throw from Fort Gaines, is thirty-three miles.
 The most advantageous feature of this rail route already surveyed to Dauphin Island. lies in the fact that no heavy bridge work would be required except a draw at Grants Pass. The stretch of water lying between Cedar Point and Little Dauphin Island is shall low enough to wade except for a dredged channel which in the ante- bellum period was the gateway be- tween Mobile Bay and Mississippi Sound. the route of the splendid mail steamers plying between Mobile and New Orelans, the steamer line that was the pride of this entire country before the Louisville and Nashville connected the Alabama and Louisiana cities.
 This pass" or channel. takes its name from Grant. a young engineer who was sent with a party of engineers by the Government many years before the war to locate a channel that would shorten the route between Mobile and New Orleans. The chief of the party reported that the scheme was imprac- ticable, but MT. Grant was not daunted. He organized a company to dredge channel and secured a charter from the Alabama Legislature which permitted the company to levy a toll for vessels travelling through the pass. Grants Pass was the result It has earned an immense fortune for its owners and 1t is still a toll channel The dollhouse is located on Grants Island, and all vessels passing through must pay their tethers to the toll keeper The pass is now the property of wealthy Mobile people.
 Judge AustelIs Story.
 Judge Austell tells an interesting story of the rebellious conduct of the fractious wife of the Irish toIl-keeper of Grants Pass soon after the outbreak of the war between the States. Captain Cary of Barbour County who command ed a battery of the 1st Alabama Artil- lery was sent with his battery from Fort Morgan to fortify Grants Pass. fudge Austill was member of the battery. The S-ish toll keeper sur rendered to the battery and made ready to leave on a boat for Mobile Not so the wife. She and her husband, she said, had been put there by MT. Grant to hold the pass and like Horatius, she would not be swerved from her purpose even if her life mate had showed himself to be a poItroon.
 Well said Judge Austil1, we par leyed with her until Captain Cary lost patience. Then he ordered a sergeant to take a squad of men and rush upon the house and seize the old woman. She armed herself with a broom and held the squad at bay until by strategy she was overcome seized and borne fight ing and scratching to the boat on the back of an artilleryman. Members or the squad remembered her some time because she used that broom to good purpose. And this was how we cap tured Grants Pass from the Irish"
 The government has already surveyed the harbor at the point where the rail- road terminals will be loeated and It has been officially estimated that thirty-foot channel to the gulf can be had for only $6O,000.
 From the point where we came upon the Irish adventurer asleep under the cedars our party walked through a per feet road of oyster shells to the village of Dauphin Island There Is nothing of Isolation or desolution In this island village The population of the island is 500 and not a negro. The well kept store of sutton and White does thriv- ing business In a grove of fine old trees hard by the store are probably two score cottages. There Is school of seventy-fve pupils, two churches, Protestant and Roman Catholic. and United states postoffice where malls are delivered once A day coming by sailboat from Coden.
 pr. John Collier.
 Dauphin Island has many interesting citizens Chief among them Is pr. John Collier an English gentleman. now ninety years old. but hale and hearty. His early life is a mystery to his neighbors. More than fifty years ago he visited Dauphin Island. At a dance of the young people one of the island maidens entwlned herself about the heart of the young English man. His island wife has been sleep ing in the quaint little island yard for the dead many years. but Dr. Collier has never left the island. It is the dearest place to him in all the world and his numerous island progeny bIesses his old age. Whatever he was in the mother country he alone of the island folk know. but no one ever asks They are content to know that he has been a friend and a parent. a rarely fine old gentleman and loyal to his own.
 The people of Dauphin Island are as generous in their hospitality and well oo,,,n .o x,tsttors as they are courteous