CITIES, AMERICAN. (MOBILE, MONTGOMERY.) 



167 



convent school having 150 pupils. Business 

 colleges and a complete system of public 

 schools are to be added to this remarkable list 

 of educational facilities. The State Library has 

 30,000 volumes, and is especially rich in law- 

 books. The society of Lincoln is of an intelli- 

 gence and culture unusual in towns so far 

 west, and the wealth is considerable. The city 

 is therefore well kept and handsome. All of 

 the principal streets are well shaded and 

 paved, and street-cars run in every direction. 

 Gas and elictricity light the streets and houses. 

 Many examples of modern architecture, com- 

 mercial and domestic, adorn the town, and 

 some of the churches are costly and handsome. 

 Mobil*, the only seaport of Alabama, on Mo- 

 bile river, at the head of Mobile Bay, 24: miles 

 from the Gulf of Mexico. The population in 

 1880 was 29,132; in 1888 it was estimated at 

 40,000. The Government has appropriated 

 '00 for improvement of the harbor, 

 where deep water is needed. At present 

 vessels of 151 feet are floated. During the 

 year 138 vessels entered the port, with a ton- 

 nage of 1 28.250 tons. It is the outlet of 2,000 

 miles of navigable rivers, passing through rich 

 agricultural, iron, and coal regions, and it is 

 important as a coal port. The trade in coal 

 for the year was 39,433 tons, of which 648 

 were imported. Next to New Orleans it was 

 the largest cotton - receiving market of the 

 South prior to the civil war, the average an- 

 nual exports for five years being 632.308 bales. 

 The receipts (which have been greatly dimin- 

 ished by increase of railroads and construction 

 of interior compressors) for the year 1886-'87 

 were 216.142 bales. Timber has largely re- 

 placed the cotton interest; the shipments, for- 

 eign and coastwise, reach yearly 30,000,000 

 feet. From 150,000 to 200,000 pie'ces of white- 

 oak for wine-barrel staves are shipped yearly, 

 bringing from x 120 to $150 a thousand: and 

 the Seaboard Oil-Refining Company, of New 

 York, has its staves for oil-barrels manufact- 

 ured here. Cypress shingles are a leading 

 industry; 130,000,000 were the combined 

 product of eight mills in 1887. The dust, com- 

 posed of long, stringy particles, is used in con- 

 structing roads through the marshes by which 

 the city is surrounded, forming an elastic, 

 soundless road-bed. The wool trade is in- 

 creasing, and the sales of rosin and turpentine 

 during the year reached 132,092 and K 

 barrels respectively. Truck-farming in the 

 suburbs began in 1879, and is a profitable in- 

 vestment. The value of the crop of the past 

 year wa* 294.971. There are five railroads, 

 one recently completed to Birmingham, and a 

 steamboat trade with Montgomery. There is 

 a line of steamers to Liverpool, England, and 

 one to Xew York. Water - works costing 

 $500,000 have been recently constructed, and 

 1 '00 were expended on new wharves dur- 

 ing 1887. There are 5 banks, 9 insurance 

 companies, 34 churches, 1 daily and several 

 weekly newspapers, 4 orphan asylums, a United 



States marine hospital, a Jesuit college, acade- 

 mies, and numerous private schools. The 

 High-SohooL for colored children, is a large 

 building. There are electric and gas works. 

 Mobile has the only American Anti-Friction- 

 Metal Company, with a daily output of 5,000 

 pounds, tan-yards, paper and wooden box, 

 barrel, harness, saddlery, wagon, and other 

 factories, and cotton-mills in operation and 

 constructing. African Village, a few miles 

 distant, contains all survivors of the last slave- 

 ship that entered Mobile Bay (in 1859), the 

 majority of whom were freed by the emanci- 

 pation proclamation before being sold. Many 

 of the older ones speak their native tongue. 



Montgomery, a city, the capital of Alabama, 

 in the county of the same name, on bluffs of 

 the Alabama river. 400 miles above Mobile 

 Bay and 40 miles below the junction of the 

 Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers. The population 

 in 1880 was 16,713; in 1886, nearly 30,000. 

 Navigation is open all the year. The city 

 lies in the prairie belt, between the north- 

 ern and southern pine regions, and its resources 

 are in agriculture, mineral development, and 

 yellow pine and hard woods. It was incorpo- 

 rated in 1837, and made the capital ten years 

 later. Since 1880 it has enjoyed a "boom," 

 and shares in the prosperity of Birmingham 

 and other mineral districts. During this 

 period, over 2,500 dwellings were built and 

 occupied within its limits. About twenty-five 

 per cent, of the inhabitants are engaged in 

 manufactures. From 120,000 to 140,000 bales 

 of cotton are handled yearly. There are 7 

 large storage warehouses, with capacity of 73,- 

 500 bales, 2 compresses, and 4 ginneries. 

 There are 3 railroads, with lines in six di- 

 rections. The bulk of river trade is con- 

 trolled by a city steamboat company, giving 

 hills of lading to Xew York and Liverpool, r/.z 

 Mobile. The total tonnage yearly of all freight 

 is SoO.000 tons. A narrow-gauge railroad of 

 fifty miles, southeast to the timber district, has 

 been constructed. The total capital invested 

 in business for 1887, was $15.5'J"'.000, and the 

 annual volume of business was $30,185,000. 

 The grocery trade reaches 7,000,000, and the 

 dry-goods trade $3,000,000 yearly. The city 

 is lighted by gas and electricity, and has an 

 electric railway of fifteen miles. Power is 

 applied overhead. Water- works supply 5,000,- 

 000 gallons of artesian water, and the drain- 

 age is perfect. There are 5 banks (2 Na- 

 tional), 3 daily newspapers, 2 theatr 

 hotels, 1 infirmary, and 9 churches for whites. 

 There are 5 public-school buildings (3 white 

 and 2 colored), a business college, and private 

 schools. A St:\te University has been recent- 

 ly founded. Two land companies have parks 

 at Riverside and Highland Hill, the former a 

 manufacturing suburb, the latter a place of 

 public resort. Land is given to manufactures, 

 which include an iron furnace, foundries, and 

 machine and car shops, and boiler-works, cot- 

 ton, cotton-seed-oil, flouring and wood-work- 



