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Winter
2003, Issue 67
Article Abstracts and Supplements
Woodrow
Wilson presented roosters donated by the "Big Four"
to Alabama delegates in a ceremony on the White House steps.
(Courtesy Marengo County Historical Society) |
Rooster
Bridge
By
Becky Willis
When construction of the nation's first cross-country highway came
to a halt in 1919 at the edge of the Tombigbee River, the citizens
of Demopolis, Alabama, went looking for help. They found it in a certain
fine feathered friend. Becky Willis tells the story of the Dixie Overland
Highway Association's plan for a road that would stretch from San
Diego, California, to Savannah, Georgia, which ran into trouble in
Demopolis-a city on the only major waterway east of the Mississippi
River where vehicles were still ferried across by boat. To pay for
the needed bridge, the citizens of Demopolis sought the help of an
imaginative fundraiser named Frank Derby, who came up with a scheme
that was just crazy enough to work. Derby planned to "Bridge
the 'Bigbee with Cocks" by holding a rooster auction. Willis
describes how the auction turned into a raucous and energetic scene,
all in the name of progress gained by the old-fashioned rooster.
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Dressed as Chickasaw Chief Slacabamarinico, Joe Cain led a
group of friends in dispensing "musickalities" to
the usually serene streets of Mobile one Mardi Gras. (Courtesy
The University of South Alabama Archives) |
Raising
Cain: The Resurrection of Mardi Gras in Mobile
By David Harwell
As
Mardi Gras approaches, many Mobile revelers might not recall the
amount of struggling and strife one dedicated rabble-rouser went
through to bring such a celebration back to life after the Civil
War. David Harwell explores the origins of Mobile's legendary Mardi
Gras celebration, which he attributes to the almost single-handed
work of a Confederate veteran named Joe Cain. In 1866, on Fat Tuesday,
"leaving his clerk's post at the Old Southern Market on Royal
Street, Joe Cain went for a ride." Dressed as the make-believe
Chickasaw chief Slacabamarinico, Cain, along with several other
ex-Confederates, banged on musical instruments while riding in an
ox cart all over city. Their tomfoolery was such a hit that the
people of Mobile soon began planning future Fat Tuesday celebrations.
Cain's traditions have been carried on ever since. Harwell explains
the development of many Mardi Gras traditions in Mobile, and details
how Cain's story, which faded after his death in 1903, has reemerged
to modern party-goers who now celebrate "Joe Cain Day"
each year on Shrove Sunday in Mobile.
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While working
for the H. P. Tressler Company in Montgomery, Alabama, Edgar
had his portrait made for his family. In October 1910, this
same photograph appeared on the front page of The New York
Times after an unscrupulous reporter stole it from the home
of Leslie and Carrie Cayce, Edgar's parents, to use for
a story. (Courtesy Edgar Cayce Foundation) |
A
Seer in Selma: Edgar Cayce's Years in Alabama
By Aaron Welborn
Before
there was the Psychic Hotline, there was Edgar Cayce. Who knows?
There may still be an Edgar Cayce. Aaron Welborn investigates
the enigmatic life of America's most famous psychic, faith healer,
and clairvoyant. From his early years in Kentucky, to his eleven-year
stay in Alabama, to his eventual death in Virginia, Welborn traces
the curious path of the photographer-turned-"psychic diagnostician"
whose following has spread around the world since his death. Cayce's
time in Alabama was intended to be a respite from the media attention
of his psychic gifts, during which he worked as a portrait photographer.
But when his son was blinded by chemicals in Cayce's darkroom,
Cayce hypnotized himself to diagnose his son's problem and prescribe
a solution in an attempt to save his son's sight. The attention
he gained afterwards convinced Cayce to follow his gift, traveling
all over the country diagnosing health problems and devising remedies.
Eventually Cayce decided to set up a hospital where his unorthodox
remedies would be followed, where he worked until his health faded
in January of 1945, when he passed away, never to return to Alabama.
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Trammel Row was judged best
watercolor in the 1947 Alabama Art League show, and earned
Moon a twenty-five dollar savings bond. The concave, bending
shapes in the painting demonstrate Moon's growing tendency
toward formal experimentation. (Courtesy Martha Kracke)
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Shiney
Moon: From Merchant to Artist
By Lynn Barstis Williams
When
the Mobile Museum's new building is finished, prominent exhibits
will include art works from the Dixie Art Colonists, including the
paintings of Carlos Alpha "Shiney" Moon. Author Lynn Bartis
Williams reveals how this former photographer and businessman became
a celebrated artist. In an effort to revive his daughter's interest
in her oil paint set, one day Moon picked up a brush and started
dabbling. His work proved incredible and with instruction from well-known
Dixie Art Colony leaders Kelly Fitzpatrick and Genevieve Southerland,
Moon's paintings grew bolder. He tended to favor southern scenes
in his artwork, but he also began reflecting the increasingly popular
styles of modernism and abstraction. Moon found himself winning
awards, instructing other painters, and presiding over various art
clubs. However, Moon's early death at age 47 kept him from becoming
the best artist that he possibly could.
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An ocellated flounder, mouth agape,
peers from its tank at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab Estuarium,
Mobile County. (Digital image by W. Mike Howell) |
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RECOLLECTIONS
"Business
Has Been My Pleasure": Gleanings From the Letters of Charles
Linn
By John Massey
NATURE
JOURNAL
Flounders
(And Other Flatfishes)
By L. J. Davenport
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This page created 02/11/03
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