The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-02-21
IHHas Passed the Infancy Stage.
Fruit and vegetable Community which is scattered Over several Miles
 sf Pise Eais ana Pine
 DaIes in south Ala bama.
aY w1LL n. sHErHAN.

therefore a history. It is a Western colony some eleven years old and it has passed through the mutations of pioneer life. It Is q fruit and veget- able community scattered over several miles Of pine hiifs and pine dales A colony is much like 8 baby, in one particular. It is subject to difficulties to ailments and to troubles peculiar to itself There are certain adverse con- ditions to be passed. The infant has first 10 be able to take and assimilate lnourishmeut. The colony has first to | he able to draw people and keep iehough of them to have things grow Ing all the time. The baby has to run the danger of croup and measles lavoid their danger of delayed frosts and blights and diseases in their or lchards
 1 Fruitdale having encountered and passed through these imperilled stages affords an opportunity for study which | one does obtain In the younger coni- munitfes of South Alabama pioneers. So look in is we'll worth while in this trick farming community on the main line of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad close against the Mississippi line. The wife's Folks.
 Artemas Ward in the dark days of the war between the States, caused the country to laugh by saying he stood 1 for continuing the war to the bitter end, and until he had sacrificed every one of his wife'e relations on the altar of his country" This bit of humor finds responsive echo in the hearts of the business men who are engaged In the enterprise of buying Alabama lands and settling them with Northern and Western immigrants. His wife's relations have moved immigrant after immigrant back to the old country and the old home. It Is not so hard | for the men to sever the ties. nor IS 1t so difficult for him to become enafn- ored Of the beautiful and iuxuriant cli- mate. But old scenes and old affections call more strongly to the woman and too often she needs must hear the call Too often the Ionesomeness of pio- neer life expresses her and she falls sick. with that distressing spiritual Imalady, nostalgia. The charm that man sees in the fields and the woods she | too sees at first. but the charm wanes and she longs for the older scenes. The | stan has not so much of time to dwell upon the past or ponder over the water that has run under the bridge and hs finds new interests and new associa-t Iticns.
 The man is often a mechanic, or some other worker with his name on a pay rcll. and with an envelope coming to l him on a Saturday night. When he un- idertakes the new life he does not feel the absence of the weekly envelope near so much as the woman does She has become accustomed to take the en- lvelope and handle the money. and when the envelope quits coming in | she does not fell that there is near so much of assurance and certainty as there was of the old life. And she misses the pleasure that comes from spending and buying.
 | An vnzhn rxzif satisfied the days of the husband in the new land are limited.
 The Moving COiOnist.
 A Baldwin County land officer had such an incident to relate. an incident 1 invested to some degree at least with pathos.
 T sold a sixty-aeres farm to an old Michigan man." he said Tt was fine bit of land and the old man was de- lighted with 1t and the. climate A de- lightful winter spent here made him love the whole country. accustomed. as he was. to the rigors of the Michigan climate. He took special pains with his place and improved it at heavy cost. He looked to spending his last days down here.
 But his wife longed for her old home, her relatives. and her old friends. She chafed because she had been transplanted and longed to go back After many months she made up her mind. She was going back anyhow. met them as they took the boat for Mo bile. The old man told me to sell his place. n ~
 He said. I loved the life down here, but my wife could not be satisfied She made up her mind to go back We've | been married nearly forty years. We've been married too long to live apart. And we won't do it."
 But all pioneer civilization is shift ing and unstable. until time adjusts and establishes t. The colonists came and went in Virginia until the rough edges of the pioneer life had been worn away Ih Massachusetts the colonists moved back and forth until conditions had ad- Justed themselves.
 In that decade between 1910 and 1920 the Gulf States. then known as the Southwest country were opened for from Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia, but only a part of them stayed The others went back to the old scenes. A generation ago the I movement to Texas which began at the time of the establishment of that State as a republic free from the domination | of Mexico. evolved into a veritable hegira The Southern States lost some of their best citizens to Texas, and some went whose leaving improved the moral tone of their old communi- fies. But all of them did not stay There is hardly a community in Ala bama. but what holds some citizens who has lived in Texas and who came back to spend the rest of his life in his original home.
 So of the pineers who blaze the way only part, big or little, remain and reap the best of the prosperity which may come to the community they help 10 found.
 The Older COIoney.
 This rapid fire development in Ala bama is, therefore, the making of his tory in the act of repetition. The Middle Western coloney at Fruitdale is one of the older Illustrations II beng eleven years old, it is supposed to have attained ripe ago as colo pies go. on the Gulf Coast, It's life has been filled with mutations and changes. As an old citizen expressed 1t
 If we had all the people here who have lived in Fruitdale at one time or 1 another in the eleven years of it's life we would have three times as many | people as we have now, Still the population Is larger than 1t has been | at any time since the coloney was founded"
 Then the old citizen fell into the dis | cussion. most popular. in all the pio- neer communities. the discussion of the sticking qualities of this class or that | class. the speculation as to whether this man is or is not a sttcber.
 The Indiana people are the poorest stickers we have,' he said. At one time nearly all the people we had al Fruitdale were Indianianas. But its diff