The net result, however, is that Mobile has faced the political questions growing out of the war, the commercial conditions arising from the building of railroad systems eastward, the development of independent cities in what had been her exclusive territory, just as she has met so many other problems in her long history. What she could conquer she has overcome, and for what she must lose she has substituted other industries. Lumber, coal and iron far overbalance the loss of cotton, and there is no mean array of manufactures, while her railroad and steamship territory yearly increase. To-day her population, trade and prospects are greater than anything she has known before. She has had little of the outside capital which other towns have enjoyed, and she has had no “booms.” But the great fire of 1890, the storm of 1893, and even pestilence in 1897 did not daunt her. In wealth, culture and industry this Latin-American town has carved out her own place. Her shady streets and drives invite visitors, and her pleasant homes shelter quiet but energetic people. Born in romance, baptized in fire, educated in commerce, her past is interesting, her present prosperous, while her future promises to surpass them both. [Illustration] FOOTNOTES: [8] This gun, called the Lady Slocum, could long be seen on Government Street in Mobile, but is now in New Orleans. [Illustration] MONTGOMERY THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY BY GEORGE PETRIE Montgomery is best known to the general reader as the “Cradle of the Confederacy.” He turns to its history, if he cares to read it at all, to get a clearer local background for the stirring scenes enacted there in ’61. And it would have been hard to select for them a more appropriate setting. For in many ways Montgomery was then a typical Southern town. Situated in the heart of the cotton region, surrounded and supported by large plantations, it was the centre of much wealth and refinement. As the home of Yancey and other men of unusual ability and divergent politics, it had been the battleground where all phases of secession were keenly discussed. Moreover, although founded by a New Englander and originally named New Philadelphia, it had from the first taken a vigorous part in the economic and political struggles which gradually separated North and South. [Illustration: OLD CANNON OF BIENVILLE.]