whipping-post, are all recorded. This marks a great advance on Hodgson's unpleasing description of the place in 1820, and, in fact, Mobile had begun that progress which soon distanced the progress of her rivals and made her in the thirties a great city.
She was the natural result of the growth of the interior, whose products in those days, before railroads, could go nowhere except to Mobile. This growth brought trade, and with it immigration. In 1830, the cotton exported exceeded one hundred thousand bales; in 1837, over three hundred thousand, and by 1840 was almost four hundred and fifty thousand. The population grew to twelve thousand. The results were apparent everywhere. The United States Bank and the State Bank had branches, and others were organized. There was paper money galore. Water and gas were introduced; lands for Bienville Square were bought by the city; the Presbyterian, Christ and other churches were built; a public school system, the first in Alabama, was organized, and the Barton Academy erected; Hitchcock's Press was operated, and the Cedar Point Railway and Grant's Pass show attempts to get nearer to Dauphine Island and the Sound. A
