The Chronicle-star combined with the Moss Point advertiser., 1947-01-31
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BY NOLI.E T. ROBERTS

The little item in the paper
last week, relating that the
Pascagoula River was twenty
three feet at Merrill and ris-
ing, drew few comments, but
it might have been the story
of the week in this newspa-
per a quarter-century or so
ago.
For in that day, the river
was the source of all things
good and MANY of the aggrava-
tions IT living as well.
The river bore the timber to
the market at Moss Point and
was the source of virtually all
cash income, and mail and sup
plies and passengers moved up
and down its channels and in
to the creeks and bayous and
the dump" between Pasca-
goula and Gautier and the
bridge at Escatawpa were but
dreams in the minds of pro-
gressive citizens.
Uncle Jim Blackwell and H.
A. Fails had livery stables at
Paseagoula and Moss Point
and horse-drawn trolleys sway
ed and joggled between the
two cities, both thriving ports
that harbored lumber hungry
schooners from all over the
world.
Merrill lies at the junction
of the Leaf and the Chicka-
sawhav Rivers in north George
County, near the Greene Coun-
ty line, and its name was a
by-word along the Pascagoula
River system. High water is
always measured at Merrill,
just how we aren't sure.
But as far back as our mem
ory goes, we have heard men
say periodically that 'the
Rivers twenty feet at Mer-
rill' and knew that it was
time to see about those swamp
hogs and cattle and to check
on that boat tied in the mouth
of the slough.
Before that, we are told, it
was signal to get those logs
overheard and float them
down river on the high water
while they could be launched
with mipimum of effort and
moved at great speed, by riv-
er traffic standards.
Nearly all men in the coun-
ty were loggers or saWmill
workers during those days. ex-
cept for the handful of mer-
chants and other city folks in
Moss Point and Scranton. And
the merchants were as depen-
dent on the river and the tim
Der as the men logging on Big
Red Creek, for the mills would
not run without the logs and
the payrolls would cease with
out the mills and the mer-
chants would have no market
for their wares.
And az citizens in the coun-
tv seemed 20 realize their de-
pendence upon each other, we
are ted. and the farmer or
logger from Wade or Daisy
Vestry was welcomed into the
stores with open arms on his
occasional visit to the city.
1t seems to us that we have
largely lost a unity that ex-
isted in the county during
those other days, and that our
cities IN the county have un-
Willingly adopted their own
'isolationist" policy in the
county, much as the United
States went isolationist as
world power after World War
l.
Whether the exhausting of
the timber, the advent of the
mail order catalogue. the gen
eral use of the automobile, or
a combination of these factors
brought it about, is not clear.
Neither is it clear whv we
cannot profit from the lesson
learned in the near national
calamity of l941 or the fun
damentals taught in Christian
ity and proven in history: that
man is dependent upon all
other men and the closer the
physical proximity. the more
dependent he becomes.
We cannot change the fact:
we ean only recognize it and
profit bv it, or ignore it and
suffer the consequences.
wouldn't have been used in
the days when they were cut
ting heart pine. One wonders