The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-07-27
the front. Muldrow was the man of the

the front. Maldrow was the man of the l nour
 But all men make mistakes and this 1 early promoter made a fatal one in the
 selection of the site for his town. 1t was located on the west bank of %hs l Mississippi at a point about midway be- l t9een Quincy, H., and Hannibal. Mo. l TI4a locality was subject to slight an- nuIl inundations, and strong objection
 was entered against it on this account But Muldrow argued that St. Peters | burg had been built upon bog, that Chicago was growing from a marsh. and there was no reason why Marion City
 should not prosper upon the lowlands He carried his point and in so doing
 doomed his project. The next spring
 brought heavy rains, and the waters
 of the Mississippi rose higher and higher un,l the young town was completely submerged. Residents of the place had to move to the bluffs. and newcomers
 had to camp out until the flood receded. Every effort was made 10 keep up interest in the place. but confidence in it's future had been shaken, and the settlers be-
 gan to drift away After a hard struggle the town that might have beaten St
 Louis for first place in the Mississippi valley gave up the ghost. Now there is
 nothing left of 1t but the wreck of dismantled hut around which there is
 the accumulated floatsam of the floods of years. All other traces of it are ob- l liberated by corn field
 1t took twelve years to settle up the
 estate of this primitive plunger, and of | the many hundreds of thousands of dol lars hc had handled during his life there remained for his heirs only a paltry sum amounting to less than $l00. The rise flourish and fall of Muldrow have two no less noteworthy noYelists than Mark ! Twain and Charles Dickens material for two of their best characters His ca-
 reer furnished some of the suggestions
 for Col. Mulberry Sellers of "A Gilded Age,9 and he is the MT. scadder of Martin Chuzzdewitt" The noted Eng fish novelist visited Missouri in 1S42 and Marion City, the old rival of St. Louis, Is the Eden of the above named book. While Muldrows great and numerous speculations cost his friends and the pub lie in general many hundreds of thou | sands of dollars, 1t may be said to his credit that he always backed his pro-
 jects to the full limit of his own means, thereby proving the honesty of his ln- tentions. The reason that he failed at almost everything to which he turned his hand seems to have been due to the fact that he was ahead of his time. His prophecies were reasonable enough but
 premature. All that he predicted has since | come to pass. Missouri is Kingdom
 whose every hill bristles with the belfry l of a school house or the steeple of
 church. It is dotted with thrifty little | cities. and it's metropolis Is the fourth in
 size in the United States The products of it's rich mines and fertile fields add much to the wealth and sustenance of the world. In all directions the great iron horses of the railroads tug and
 strain at the burdens of commerce-the dream of empire has materialized in just two or three decades since the pro- Xya fathers
 In San Francisco there is a unique
 sport that has like anywhere in this country. It Is the racing of toy boats
 on a turf-circled, shallow lake in Golden
 Gate park. Of so much importance are
 these races that the San Francisco papers
 give space each Monday to accounts of
 the Sunday events, and it is said that
 considerable money often changes hands
 on the races of these tiny boats. The
 lake and it's sport are due to the gen.
 erosity of Sugar King Spreckles, who
 saw scme children reproved in the park
 one day for sailing boats on the swan
 lake "They shall have a lake of thelr
 own" he said and with the ready per
 mission of the park commissioners he
 bought a sand dune adjoining the park and transformed 1t into green sward
 set with trees and flowers with a crystal lake iG the center. All things are pos | sble to the rich. This lake, an acre
 in extent, he gave to the children of the
 city who come every day to sail tiny i boats across it, carefully watched by ! pax attendants.
 Grown people grew Interested and asked permission to sail boats, too It was a
 novel request but granted. and every
 Sunday morning from 10 to 1 the visitor
 to the park may see white haired men,
 middle-aged men and young men sailing
 boats OF the lake with all the enthusiasm
 of the children who look on and give advice. Retired sea captains, mlllionaires men stopped from long hours at The desk, professional men, all are found taking part in the sport. The curiously rigged vessels, measuring about three feet long by eight inches wide, vary in cost
 in proportion to their elegance, $100 be-
 ing no exhorbitant price for one The
 Sugar King" keenly enjoys watching
 the men and children at their sport, and takes as much pride in this investment as he did in his beautiful palace, which
 was sacrificed to the flames over a year ago.