assembled on Sundays when notified by a special messenger that a preacher was in town, while celebrations, oratory, and even dancing, kept it lively at night
A motley population rises before our eyes as we run through the list of their amusements. There is the speculator at the horse-races, the frontiersman at the Indian ball game, the vocifferous patriot at the regular celebration of the Fourth of July and Washington's Birthday, and even the spirits of defeated Indians and English seem to gaze grimly from the background at the hearty observance of Jackson Day. Yet among all these the most significant fact is the earnestness and delight with which the drama was cultivated. A company composed of local amateurs on December 17, 1822, presented Shakespeare's play, Julius Cæsar, in the upper story of the old building still standing at the corner of Commerce and Tallapoosa Streets, and if we may believe the newspaper "it went down to the satisfaction of a numerous and splendid audience." Of the actors, one afterwards became Governor of Alabama, another United States Senator, another a State Supreme Court Judge, and a fourth, Governor of Georgia.
