The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1919-05-19
N HUNDRED YEARS

Beginning on Monday, May 1o. Memphis will celebrate the
one hundredth anniversary of her natal day. and continue the
festivities to and including May "a, One hundred years is a
long time in the history Of a human being; in the history of a
city it is a short period. Some of the cities around which troops
have been fighting, Damascus, for instance, have been in exist
enee since the days of Abraham and Lot, and are worth fighting
tor even in these modern days. On our North Atlantic coast.
there arc houses in a good state of preservation that were
built by seafaring people out Of materials brought over from
Europe $50 years ago. Memphis completes her first century,
and into that century has been crowded an abundance of
crepuscular romance and sordid reality, of tragedy and comedy
and pathos. Memphis, though great and opulent, is still young
still in her infancy. Before she attains to her full sphercity
another century will pass. The founders and pioneers, whose
provision was prophetic in its clarity, have been gathered in
and their places given to others. They saw with the eye Of
faith, They wrought and strove and struggled. One hundred
years ago the stus Of Memphis was most unpromising. Great
trees reared their lofty heads; dank underground, vines and
briers made a network that it was difficult to penetrate. Indian
trails led here and there through the woods, crossing lagoons
and arroyas on logs and improvised footbrdges. Up till a few
years ago there were people still living who remembered when a
wooden bridge was flung across Main street near Jefferson
avenue to enable people to cross a sluggish lagoon that restored
in the hot sun and oozed through Court square, broadening out
into a pond where the Exchange building now stands MS
property, now so valuable, was little esteemed in those days
1t was sold for taxes on one occasion, and was bought IN Tor
$l06. The purchaser rued his bargain and refused to take inc
property, thinking it too high.
Memphis was barely so years old when she became a rcgu-
lar summer resort for pestilence. She was a bound Prone
theus, not to the rocks Of Mount Caucasus, but in mud and
debris and decaying vegetable matter.
Then came Col Warng, a Hercules, who struck off her
chains. He designed a sewer system. Waterworks were built
and Wolf river was turned through this Augean stable and all
waste matter was swept into the Mississippi river and carried
away w iN oNus A"A@A NhhhN'N NhNSS'N "Hc ShicNS viz VAIN
with his rod, and forth gushed an abundance OF water from
numerous openings, as pure as any water in the country. Sick
ness and death were halted, and the city became as healthy as
some of the mountain metropoi that are considered health
resorts. Wolf river, into which fatboats and batteaux put to
find a haven, became too small. to accommodate the traffic, and
the big river front was prepared for the accommodation Of great
steamboats,, and Memphis became an inland Amsterdam, and so
remained until the railroads came in and first divided and then
absorbed the traffic, a fair share of which the river is again
claiming and taking over.
Memphis has much in the way Of streets, parks, public build
ings, schools and churches; but she has nothing that her people
were never daunted nor discouraged. As soon as the bosom Of
people took up their work where they had left off and continued
on until they achieved their purposes.
Venice was built on little sand dunes in the sea. Memphis
was built in mud and bog and mire, Venice rose, flourished
and fell Memphis is going forward and progressing, and
not fatigue or fartering. 1t has surmounted all difficulties, and
grievous, and on her one hundredth natal day invites her friends
to see her, and does not shrink from a comparison with any city
of her size in the country.
Memphis is a basin surrounded on all sides by a great
watershed Of wealth producing soil, whose products flow in here
for consumption, manipulation or distribution. An inland city
with all the advantages Of such, and also a great maritime city
on a commerce that has its ramifcatons extending across the
seven seas.
The News Scimitar was not here in the beginning, but It has
always been animated by the spirit which was here in the begin
ming, and which has sustained and strengthened the city through
out all its trials and trumphs. Memphis opens wide her doors
to all visitors and gives them a cordial welcome.