The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-11-27
PENSACOLA HAS IMBIBED
 NEW SPIRIT OF PROGRESS
BY WALT FER HARPER

By every known right Pensacola be- longs to Alabama.
 That 1t was cut off into Florida Is per haps chargable to the early struggles be- tween the Spanish and French settlers along the gulf coast.
 Pensacola was taken and retaken. abandoned, rebuilt and struggled up and down SO often in it's infancy that it vas glad enough for peace and took but lit tie notice that it was being left out of the greatest state of the union when the final adjustment came.
 Pensacola wanted to be let alone and didn't care much what state 1t was in
 Pensacola means City of Sorrows" But there is nothing about the deep water city now to indicate that the name is ap- propriate. You had probably heard before you visited the place that it was sleepy and slow. Perhaps it has been, but it. is not sleeping now. It Is wide awake and hustling. You are impressed with the fresh beauty ot the streets, the residences the public buildings and the evident prosperity of the business dis trct.
 But that the old town, which, by the way, makes out a very good claim to be-
 ing the oldest town in the United States, admits that it has been asleep, that 1t was not always as progressive as it ap- pears today.
 Even Frank L. Mayes, the progressive editor of the Pensacola Journal, will ad- init that the town once slept but he in- sists most eloquently that the town IS now awake with both or all eyes.
 MT Mayes was recently asked to con- ihtata fo f1Na booster publication, which in itself is striking proof of the new spirit of Pen sacola.
 This is the way MT. Mayes talks about his own town:
 You'd request that I write of The Awakening of Pensacola, assumes two things-first, that Pensacola was once asleep; and second, that she is now awake. l suspect that both of these assumptions are correct and I know that the latter is true.
 Just when this metamorphosis began or was completed I cannot state. but that, I assume, is not really material. will, therefore. write briefly from per- sonal knowledge of the changes that have occurred during a residence of almost b years in the Deep Water City.
 "Flfteen years ago Pensacola was al- most as dilapidated and as run-down-at- the-heels a looking place as you can con- celve of
 .She had no sidewalks to speak of and most of those she had were of wood. Her only street paving was a short stretch of brick pavement in what then con- posed the business section of Palafox street. Her city hall was an upstairs room of a dingy brick building that looked it for the rendezvous of Bill Sykes or any other disreputable charac- ter. and some such were frequently seen there. She had no sewerage system and no publicly-owned water system.
 "Her miniature street cars were pulled by miniature mules, and sometimes the passengers had to get out and help push the car up hill. Her streets were not only the worst imaginable, but on a dark night even a sober man had hard work to get home without breaking his neck, or at least a leg. There was practically no street lighting Even the city gov ernment had many of the characteristics of q present-day cold storage egg. There were no office buildings, nos bank build inss no modern hotels, no show windows in inc stores There was not an improved public square in the city.
 ..The Plaza was a garbage dunn. es- caned convicts hid in the Seville Square weeds and Garden street ,fes jungle. A ditch on each side of Palafox street rained down into a larger dltch on Garden street. anu tniS iai d iaSiiib river of water whenever a heavy rain'l falI and bred mosquitoes from stagnant water when the dry season came on. do not remember any such thing as lawn around any of the private resi- dences. but if any existed in those days, tbev were hid by high and unsightly pick of fences. Cattle and horses roamed at ] will through the public thorougnfares ana hrowsed upon anything that appealed to ti o; tasta-and browsing it may be said, | was good. There were two small, 4-page daily papers, but they had no telegraphic | service and their other services to the community would not have got either one | or them Carnegie hero medal.
 ..Ail this was 15 years ago. Much of it might have been truthfully said hve years ago.
 "But today the scene has shifted; the curtain has gone up on a transfguration, | and the high lights and the low lights, ,yith calcium in the wings, reveal the | most beautiful picturesque and progress | give seaport city in all the southland
 eve have II miles of paved streets with 10 miles more to be paved within | six months We have cons,ruc.eo, ana in progress of construction, more miles of cement sidewalk than any other city of the same population in the south. We have a modern street car system and lighting system, mu- nicipal- owned water system, 40 miles of sanitary sewers.
 .'We have a handsome city hall, our public squares and parkways are beau tiful with well-kept lawns, trees and semi-tropic foliage, and the fences | around the private residences have come down, revealing the work of the landscape artist which nowhere shows to better effect than in this perennial