The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-05-13

Spirit or the llTIeSt dH tStMllIltSS Ol the contest, described it as the most gal lantlv contested as well as the most beautiful race ever run in this country.
 A few years before this race James Jackson had crossed the river and hJs horses had passed to his son-in-law, Thomas Kirkman, but if the spirits of the departed are permitted to revisit this earth we may be sure he was there to witness the triumph of his favorite.
 Referring to these great horses MT An derson says: ITO turn the pages of the Spirit of the Times is to live in another world far distant from this, and to form intimate friendships with the chief ac- tors (the horses) of a great drama, whose names, once household words in many states, are now unknown where their ashes lie buried. To call them back to earth and let them go through their parts again is to challenge the admiration of posterity for their services to the pub lie, and to secure for them an honored place in the history of this country
 "Peytona and Fashion lived until the war period and then went out with the tide that had made them great"
 OUTBREAK OF WAR
 So prosperous and happy was this idyllic life that Florence almost forgot her legend when it all came to an abrupt end by the outbreak of the war of secession, brought on as war usually is by noisy minority, composed of hot headed patriots and cold-blooded schemers, who, by their united clamor drag their reluctant country into the horrors of battle. It is an old, old story that has been enacted again and again upon our poor, bloodsrained earth. Seces- sion having been declared, the flower of Florence went to the front. but alas; did not come backl Being in the path of Streight's raid, Florence had her full taste of excitement and was the scene of many thrilling encounters between Roddy's men or Forests cavalry and the Yankees Here, too, the descendants of Glencoe and Leviathun and other great horses played we'll their part, for as in the days of White Horse Harry Lee of the Revolution, the thoroughbred was Of gallant assistance in the dashing charges of Forrest, Mosby Stuart and Morgan. The unwritten history of Florence in wartimeS would fill a volume, but we must pass on; we must follow Florence through the terrible reconstruction; those evil days, when in bitter poverty, her best and bravest, many of them asleep on Virginia battlefields; her very civili- zation destroyed, the iron entered her soul. Yet, still through days of grief, as through days of mirth, there were hearts that clung to the precious legend.
 And now, when the darkest hour had struck came a flash of light, the fore runner of the dawn It was whispered that a mysterious host of phantoms bold had appeared in the land, both horses and riders robed in white, with the red cross upon their breasts. Surely the spirits of ancient crusaders must be re- visiting the earth by the pale glimpse of the moon, to succor. the weak and oppressedl More than once at midnights s soelmn hour these ghostly riders had been seen sweeping through the wide streets of Florence It was the Ku-Klux Klan. organized by General Forrest when hope was nearly dead, to save the south, with the result that the terrorized ne- groes curbed their newly acquired inso- lence and the carpetbagger folded his ill-gotten gains and silently stole away
 The south, however, was still confront ed with many vexing problems, and Flor ence furnished her quota of leaders in solving them-four governors. Patton, Moore, the two O'Neals Gather and son)-- all being natives of the old town.
 GENERAL GOETHALS' WORK
 And now, in the middle '70s, Muscle Shoals was coming to the front as a real factor in the prosperity of Florence. When the canal is finished!' became the slogan of those days, for the government had begun to construct a waterway around the shoals.
 For awhile Gen. George Goethals was in charge of the work, making his home for years in Florence, and he has been credited with having said that 1t was his highest ambition to have been per- mitted to finish it. Who can say that he may not be again called to Muscle Shoals to conduct far more important enterprise?
 In the sos came the boom. Inspired by the success of the Elyton Land com pany at Birmingham a number of pro- motors formed themselves into a corpora ton to build a manufacturing city at Florence, the head of navigation on the Tennessee. The scheme was well adver- tised and when the land sale was held investors poured in from every side eager to purchase a handful of Florence dirt before 1t was all gone. Old fields, hills and ditches rapidly changed hands at fancy prices while the excitement lasted, but without much permanent benefit to anybody. The time was not yet ripe for the fairy tales of science to realize the prophetic fancies of the Red Man. It was not until about 10 years ago that modern science pointed out the real value of Muscle Shoals, for the manu- facture of nitrates and of fertilizer; and a company was organized to work for it's development Like all big projects 1t has been bitterly fought and powerful trusts with interests at stake have sought to crush it. But it Is useless to war with fate. The legend of the In- dans must eventually be realized-and the water sprite be united to her Prince of the Air.
 Does 1t not look as if the stars in their courses are helping Florence when for a fourth time a President of the United States enters her horoscope? In imagt- nation we can see the shades of the mighty virginians Madison and Monroe, and of Old Hickory. earliest sponsors of Florence. lowering over Woodrow Wilson at this important hour, while with them the spirit of the Mississippi valley watches anxiously for decision that will make that region truly the granary of the nation and the garden spot of the world.