MOBILE, mo-bel, Ala., city and county-seat of Mobile County, situated on the western side of Mobile Bay, at the mouth of the Mobile River, 30 miles from the Gulf of Mexico and 50 miles below the junction of the Alabama and Tombigbee rivers. Mobile is 139 miles by rail from New Orleans; 179 from Montgomery on the Louisville and Nashville; Mobile and Ohio; Mobile and Bay Shore; Gulf, Mobile and Northern; Alabama, Tennessee and Northern; Southern; Pensacola; Mobile and New Orleans railroads.
General Plan. The city is built upon a level, sandy plain from 6 to 35 feet above the river, rising gradually to the table lands 200 to 300 feet above sea-level, six miles west of the river, thus giving the fall required for efficient drainage. The streets are rectangular, many of them broad and shaded with live oak. magnolia, crepe myrtle, camphor and in some sections with pecan, dogwood, holly, sweet and black gum and sycamore trees. Government street noted for its fine homes, broad lawns and oak's. Dauphin street West End Reed and Ann, Georgia and Rapia, Old Shell road, Hall's Mill, Fulton, Cedar Point and other roads to gether with tours through the citrus, fig, pecan and trucking section surrounding the city are among the many inviting and interest ing drives.
Public Parks. Mobile has 13 public parks; Bienville, in the heart of the city; Monroe, fronting the hay; Washington, Oakleigh, Bay Shore, Arlington, Ryan, with statue of Father Ryan, the poet priest; Gulf Coast Fair Grounds and Race Track, Monroe Ball Park, Dixie, Eureka, Fearnway, the site of the monument commemorating the death of Eli Frohlichstein, who fell in the taking of Vera Cruz, Mexico, in April 1914; and Lyons, this latter fitted with all modern means for recreation. The Bay Shore Park acquired in 1915 has great natural resources and scenic beauty. In addition to the public parks, there are private parks open to visitors, Ashland place the home of the late authoress, Augusta Evans Wilson Flo Claire, Monterey place, Creighton, together with the children's public playgrounds on Church street. Duncan. on lower Government street, on which is Admiral Semmes' monu ment, also the Monterey and Reed lots for neighborhood children; while at Springhill is the fully enuipned and nopular Country Club.
Public Buildings. The chief structures are the government building erected in 1852 at a cost of $379,564; the new post office, completed in 1916, constructed of Alabama marble at a cost of $425,000; county courthouse and jail, city buildings, including the city market, armory and drill hall. Mobile also has three modern railroad stations. Barton Academy. Masonic Temple, cathedral of the Immaculate Concep tion, McGill Institute, Springhill College. City Bank and Trust Company building, Christ Episcopal Church, Southern, Inge-Bondiirant and Mobile infirmaries. Battle House, several theatres and modern hotels, Medical College of Alabama and Jewish Temple.
Educational and Charitable Institutions. Mobile has 24 graded public schools for white and seven for colored children. For secondary and higher education it offers Barton Academy and Conti Street High School Wright's Uni versity Military School and tie Emerson In stitute for colored pupils. In addition there are several Catholic and Protestant private schools, the most important being Springhill College, a Jesuit institution founded in 1830. There are five libraries, the Y. M. C. A., Mobile, Mobile public, Cathedral and Mobile County Medical Association. Charitable insti tutions include the Hannon Home for the Aged. Colored Old Folks Home, Protestant Orphan Asylum, Saint Mary's Catholic Female Asylum, Salvation Army Lodging House. Church Home, Benevolent Home for Old Ladies, Seamen's Bethel, etc.
Commerce. Mobile is one of the leading cotton markets and shipping points of the country, the natural centre of the Alabama Tombigbee cotton region, the nearest tide water shipping port for the soft coal. iron.
cement, lime, lumber, turpentine, resin and agricultural products of the southern, central and northern sections of Alabama and large amounts from upper Mississippi and lower Tennessee. A weekly line of large freight and passenger steamers plies the Mobile and Alabama rivers to Montgomery (410 miles) and to Demopolis, at the junction of the Tombigbee River (231 miles) and smaller ves sels ascend the Warrior to Tuscaloosa (360 miles) and at high water to Columbus (380 miles) on the main stream navigable the year round. In addition to the regular lines, there are power barge lines which bring coal, iron and other products to Mobile, New Orleans and other Gulf ports. It is the third largest tropical importing city in the United States; has steamship connection with Europe, Cuba, Central America, Mexico, Windward and all Caribbean Sea islands, Brazil, the Pacific Coast of the United States, western coast of South America. Australia, New Zealand, Hawaiian Islands, Japan and China, via the Panama Canal, to which Mobile is the nearest, deep, fresh water railroad connected city in the United States, situated far enough inland to be beyond the reach of any gun fire from ships on the high seas. Mobile's imports for the calendar year 1913 were valued at $3,675,180. Its exports were $44,238,747. For the calendar year 1915, the total imports were $3,443,228, and the exports $21,317,683, the export figures not including the 84.798 long tons of bunker coal furnished vessels at this port and valued at $256,133. It will be noted above that the ex ports for the year 1915 are less than half those for the year 1913. This was mainly due to the European War, the calendar year ending 31 Dec. 1916 showing exports to be $30,627,633 and the imports $3.997,317, showing still the effects of the war, though trade is rapidly being re covered, the trade with Cuba, West Indies and Central America, increasing by leaps and hounds, beyond all former ratios, its trade with Cuba tieing second only to that of the port of New York. The calendar year ending 31 Dec. 1917 shows Mobile's imports to have been $2. 873,680, and its exports $35,010,182. Mobile's trade territory from which to draw materials for export, is rapidly being extended and the same is true as to imports. The above figures include for exports cotton and subsidiary products, coal, coal oil, crude oil and by products, iron, iron pipe, cement and cement products, lime, whiting, fuller's earth, lumber and allied products, tar, turpentine, resin, live stock, canned foods and other canned products, flour, lard, salted and pickled pork, salt, soap, cotton goods and notions, gun shells and other ordnance stores, general foundry and machine shop products, agricultural and mill machinery, belting and other mill supplies, fire and burglar proof safes. scales, talking, typewriting, comput ing and other machines, also store and office furniture and fixtures, electrical supplies, hardware, cordage and ship supplies, hay, grain, garden, flower and field seed, household furni ture, sewing machines, musical instruments. Among its imports, are Cuban magnetic iron ore, zinc, ammonia sulphate, sulphur ore, iron pyrites, sodium nitrate, fire brick, tropical fruits and other products, coffee, molasses, sugar, sisal grass, chicle gum, mahogany logs and lumber, iron, satin, sandal, lignum vitae woods, dye woods, cork, cigars, Cuban tobacco, Peruvian bark, opium and other drug materials, camphor, sponges, bird lime, dried bone, phos phate rock, asphalt, lemons, limes, olives and olive oil, raisins, currents, nuts, nrunes, mat ting, bamboo poles and rods, together with a miscellaneous line of embroideries, laces, rugs, toys, etc. The importation of Cuban molasses or black strap, as it is now called, used in the making of stock feed and explosives, has in creased to a greater extent than any other article of late years.