Wn pam iy —— Bellefonte, Pa., Feb. 14, 1896. To Florida With the National Editor. ial Association. The Carolinas, Georgia and Florida as Seen by a Watchman Tourist.—Pine Forests, Sand Swamps, Palmetioes, Palms and Magnificent Hotels. Often times when people take long pleasure journeys into countries ‘they bave never before visited and are for- tunate in returning to their homes with all the faculties still in their possession I have heard less favored ones remark: ‘“‘now we will have that trip for break. fast, dinner and supper until we are simply bored to death.” Fearing that such things might have been said of me, during a recent absence in Florida, I fully resolved never to mention any- thirg 1 bed seen or heard unless abso- lutely forced to do so. That this tale of travel is being written is no indication that I bave forsworn myself nor would I have you believe that the public bas clamored so loud for something that they must be silenced in such a way. It is simply a combination of circum- stances, not necessary to explain here, that has persuaded me to tell, in the briefest way possible, what I saw of the Carolinas and Georgia from a car win- dow and impressions made during te days in Florida. > ll l I The 11th annual cenvention of the Naticnal Editorial Association having been appointed by the executive com- mittee of that body to convene at St. Augustine, Flcrida,” January 21st to 25th, 1896, I was made the alternate of the editor of the WATCHMAN and with carte blanche credentials journiedto that quaint old town along with twenty-four other delegates who represented the Pennsylvania association of editorial workers. © The place of rendezvous for the con- tingent from the eastern States was Washington, a city with which you are all so weil acquainted that I am for- tunately saved the difficult task of nar- rating its many interesting places. Ar- rived at that poirt on Friday, Jan. 17th, we left the same afternoon in a special train of four Pullman coaches and one bagguge for the South. There were about one hundred and fifty people on ‘the train and so much time was taken up in getting acquainted with fellow traveler’s that I did not see much of the low sandy country that stretched along the Potomac and as it was quite dark by the time we reached Richmond very little knowledge of Virginia land was in my possession. School boy learning told me, however, that we had crossed the Rappananncck at the small town of Wilderness, had whizzed through Bow- ling Green and gone over many fields made famous by the bloody conflicts enacted upon them and not yet recov- ered from the impoverishment of an awful civil war, It was 9 o'clock when we rolled into Richmond, the city which “President” Jeff Davis gave to history as the eeat ofhis forlorn hope. Supper was served in the rail-road station restaurant there. I mention this not because it is an unusual thing for those of the editorial profession to take supper when they can get it, but simply to explain how I misconstrued 8 most unseemly performance to be an everlasting disgrace to the profession and a serious reflection on the manners of what had appeared to me to be a very intelligent party of people. No sooner had the train stopped in the shed and the porter’s call: “Richmond ! the train will stop thirty minutes for supper. All out this wayf:please!” bad sounded from ear to car, than one of the wildest scrambles ensued. Men and women rushed pell mell for the pie counters and eating tables. Fat fellows jostled the thin ones and crowded them away. Women had their skirts tramp- led upon and had to retire, all the while heaping the choicest (?) invectives on the heads of the clumsy fellows whose calumniation only ceased when fair lips’ were sealed to hold the pins that were nec- essary to repair gowns that had broken connection at the waist. I was utterly "astounded. It was my first experience with such an excursion and I laugh now to think how green I was. While I waited carefully until the rush was over and even stood on ceremony as to whether I or several other tail enders should enter the restaurant door first the rest of the party were industriously making away with what there was to eat. They had been there before and knew just what todo. A gnawing that gnawed in vain that night told me that the principle of first come first served was particularly applicable to railroad eating houses where one hundred and fifty people were to be served with ac- commodations intanded for one third that number. That was my first les son and I determined to get there after- wards, no matter what the way. After leaving Richmond we ran over the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Po- tomac R. R. to Petersburg, that town where many of you will remember there was considerable mining done in the early fall of 1864. From Petersburg to ‘Weldon, a small town just over the line in North Carolina, we traversed some of the most historic battle grounds of the war, made especially interesting to us by the fact that we passed through Reams, the place where ex-Governor Beaver lost his leg Like a flash the train sped by Yellow House which was General Warren's headquarters during his campaign along the Weldon rail- road, the fruits of which were denied him without cause, when he was re- lieved, the following yeer, during action at Five Forks. Every inch of ground from there into Weldon had been tramp- led by soldier feet. When we arrived at the latter place it was midnight. Notwithstanding wheat seemed like Styg- ian darkness the train had nov sooner stopped in the long frame shed than swarms of little pickaninnies came tumb- ling towards the cars to earn a dime or nickle by throwing a somerset or sing- ing a song. There were a few of us who went to hunt something to eat and found the little darkies. About the only thing we could see was chalky eyes and shiny teeth and the way those little fellows would dive for money that was tossed into the sand at their feet was funny in the extreme. Having been very desirous of hearing a genuine southern darkey melody I in- duced some of them to sing ‘‘a real jolly old song for me.” They started off “There's something gone wrong in the grave- There's somebody buried in the sea.” and just about the time that I was an- ticipating the funny part of it some gen- tleman in the New York car struck terror to those little souls by barking like a blood hound and they disappeared as mysteriously as they had come. The train pulled out and a few moments later we were in bed, where we stayed until a short distance out of Savannah. I I i SAVANNAH. Savannah, the dreamy, the restful, the placid city of Georgia, was the first stopping place. Its cotton traffic, its naval stores and steamship lines will not impress the average sightseer nearly so forcibly as its wide, magnolia-shaded streets, its moss covered buildings and the three cent fares on all the city rail- roads. With its magnificent hotel De Sota, built st a cost of one million dollars, it is widely advertised as a health resort. But Bonaventure, too, is famed! With the exception of Mt. Auburn near Bos- ton no cemetery in America 1s con- sidered more beautiful. Only four miles from the city it is within the reach of every traveler even if he has but a few hours to linger. Great, spreading live oaks border the avenues and canopy the* walks and drives. The sad gray Spanish moss, which festoons and drapes them, sways and moves with every passing breeze like Dante’s restless spirits. Camelias and violets fill the air with sweetness and here, as in the city, are palmettoes, Spanish bayonets and air plants, all growths of a sunny clime. The average American is credited with a liking to go; to him Savannah would be interesting even if it did not possess a Forsythe park; a Thunderbolt, or an Historical Society, for itis the home of Col. B. W. Wrenn; whose chief concern in life ie the happiness and comfort of other people and whose ambition is the success of the Plant System of railroads, steamships and hotels. To him are the scribes and their sisters indebted for some mighty nice times while doing the west coust of Florida. : I ll ll SIDE TALKS ABOUT THE SOUTH. To a tourist from the North there is nothing particularly striking in a Caro- lina or Georgia landscape, as seen from a car window. The miles and miles of pine forests through which the Atlantic coast line runs are a revelation only to the later generations that have not been coincident with the clearing of similar wooded areas in-this section. Very few towns are to be seen and fewer farming communities during the entire journey across those three States. An occasional cleared. space, where the land is a little high, shows itself to the traveler in the form of a rice plan- tation. . Rice is grown very largely in Georgia and is one of the principal prod- ucts of commerce in that State. As you well know it was originally native to the East Indies, yet it can be easily cul- tivated in any tropical climate. Its cul- tivation . depends very largely on the | moisture in the ground. In fact, more 80 than on that in the air. As a result flooding is necessary at certain seasons and the great long trenches running across all the rice fields to be seen are for the purpose of flooding them when conditions require. The grain is sown in the bottom of these trenches, which are about 18 inches apart, then they are filled with water until the seed germi- nates. Draining is next in the order of procedure, but meanwhile many weeds have sprung up. They are killed by turning the water in again and flooding the flelds for about fourteen days. At first thought the great swampy areas of those States impressed me that it was ideal rice land, but they say the grain grows better where irrigation is made artificially and many of the great rice plantations have been drained, then afterwards made so that the water could be turned on at will. Rice, when ripe, looks very much like our oats. To give my farmer friends an idea of its yield I might say that land will make 15 to 20 bushels of corn will make 60 to 75 bushels of rough rice ; 75 bushels of rough rice will make 25 bushels of clean rice, which at 60 pounds to the bushel, at the low rate of 13 cents per pound, gives $50 per acre. Rice straw and hulls are a fair feed and good fertilizer. . These plantations are not enclosed by fences and the few crude huts that are to be seen scattered about the edges of the clearing are the homes of the negro cultivators —not owners. As the train sped on there was not to be seen that ever changing panoramic that is so delightful along the lines of many northern railroads. The land looked all the same—flat and sandy— most of it covered by water and the lit- tle of it that is dry supporting a scanty growth of crab grass. : Shortly after we left Savannah I no- ticed that the tall pines all had been cut around the bottom. A ring had been made about two inches wide balf way around the trunk of the tree and about two feet from the ground. Such in- cisions form the outlet of the resinous sap of the turpentine pine. It is collec- ted and carried to portable mills where it is worked into the resin and turpen- tine of commerce. This cutting of the pines does not kill them for after one balf has been worked the circle of the ree is completed. The next season an- other ring is made above the first oge and so on from season to season until there are many bands about the base. Sometimes the train would run for miles before a house-would be sighted. Did I say house, yes! but I didn’t mean exactly that. Perched up on stilts in the centre of a little clearing, miles away from God only knows where, there are little one-story slab huts, often without windows—only port holes here and there where boards failed to meet or the hatchet of the builder had hacked out more than he intended—about which can be seen a healthy, happy ne- gro family. Apparently they have no means of subsistence, but I was told that the men and boys and the women too, for that matter, all find employ- ment at certain seasons in the rice fields or turpentine working in the immediate locality. As a rule they do not go far from home, though it is nothing un- usual for them to travel to the distant fields to pick cotton in the season. You will wonder why I bave not told you anything about cotton, the southern people's beau ideal. The fact is I did pot traverse the cotton belt, consequently have no idea further than that acquired by reading as to its cul- ture. Returning to the apparently cheerless habitations of the negroes that seem so isolated in what appears to be an almost boundless pinery I want to call your attention to another field of labor that is open to them and which partially accounts for their living in such lonely places. Most of the locomo- tives on the railroads in that region are wood-burners. That is because coal is more expensive apd wood so plentiful and easy to get they make steam with the latter. Usually beside a‘water tank along the track or just wherever it is convenient to have one there is a temporary wharf on which is piled the pine billets to supply fuel for the engine. The wood is cut about two teet long and in thickness making quarters, halves or whole rounds of trees according to their circumference. In talking with a negro engineer who ran our train from Jacksonville to Sa- vannah I found out that nearly all of the engines in use were made at Schen- ectady, N. Y. To burn wood requires a larger fire box, decreases the labor- necessary fire with coal, is cleaner and steams quicker and stronger. Enough wood can be piled on a tender to run an engine an entire day, but to save the fire- man the trouble of walking so far for it the trains are stopped oftener to restock. The only objection to it is that when a wood burning engine is allowed to stand for a short time the pitch that has been intercepted by the spark aresters hardens and thus makes it quite difficult to produce a good draft until the engine has run long enough to burn it out again. The change from the pine forests of Georgia to the the palmetto and palm dotted scenes in Florida is so gradual that one almost forgets the one by the time he has fully realized the other. The general aspect of the land is about the same. Sand, sand everywhere, but in Florida there is even more water cov- ering it. The live oaks, with their hoary beards of Spanish moss, a parasit- ic growth that hangs in wierd festoons from every branch, that were seen in the Carolinas are the same in Florida. Palms that would make the northern florist dance for joy grow in the rankest profusion while the crooked cocoanut palms lend a sort of tropical appearance that distinguished it from any other re- gion. I must say that I coud have rid- den clear through the State and had I not known that it was Florida I would never have dreamed that I was in the land of flowers. It is with no idea of exploding any | will find many things 10 encourage of the highly pictured advertisements him ; but oh! how be will be dis sent out by land improvement com- | panies you might have read, nor of cast- { who is everywhere in illusioned by the lazy, shiftless negro, evidence.’ ing reflections on the integrity of any of | Shanties innumerable are passed which the good citizens of that sun-kissed | State that I say that in traveling over a | thousand miles within its borders I did not see a single flower that had not | been cultivated, nor a really pretty spot | that was not artificial. & I ll SUWANNEE SPRINGS. boast only children and dirt and dilap- idation and this in a country where sowing means reaping. From Tampa to St. A. the journey was made by Waycross and Jackson ville eo the State might afford grazing { and cattle, but if it doe it is in the in- About one hundred and seventy-two terior, for the poor little cattle, fo miles southwest of Savannah the railroad crosses the Suwanneeriver, famed in song and story. It rises in southern Georgia, flows in many a turn and twist through northern Florida and finally empties into the Gulf of Mexico. Just as the | larger than donkeys noticed here and there on the coasts were painfully like Pharoah’s lean kine. I I ll ST. AUGUSTINE. Av St. Augustine that indefinable bridge was reached, according to a long | charm of climate, beauty, antiquity, established custom, the engineer notified | taste, or, whatever it is, lays hold of the passengers by blowing the whistle | one immediately. Art and nature have and they with one accord joined in the i worked together and the result is like old sweet song. A stop of some hours was made at a beautiful picture harmoniousin every detail. The old narrow streets skirted Suwannee Springs which is fast being by broad white shell roads ; the rich recognized asone of the health resorts of the South. The water, strongly im- pregnated with sulphur, bubbles up and flows off into the river at .the rate of 45,000 gallons & minute. Ifit has af- fected half the miraculous cures attrib- ! the like of which are nob 95 this. cna. uted to it then indeed was Ponce de Leon on the right track. It is a com- fortable placa 8 rest a while, even if; not in search of health, for the hotel is substantial and modern, the surround- ings picturesque and pleasant and the drinks strong and free, I I li From the Suwannee Springs to Tampa the West Coast Line of the Plant sys. teh runs through acres and acres of sand and marsh with wiles and miles of straight pine timber, each tree an exact duplicate of its neighbor tree and under- neath, the scrub palmettoes, the twisted brakes and the gnarled water oaks. It touches or passes through village after village as thrifty and prosperous as those of the North and vastly more picturesque, with their airy, Lospitable cottages set amidst ever green and evel blooming shrubbery. It. reaches the great phosphate beds which are as rich as the guano islands of Peru. It taps cypress swamps containing millions of feet of marketable lumber. And it crosses and parallels vegetable and fruit countries, the like of which are no where else in the East. Tampa, a growing bustling town of twenty-one thousand people, is so like its busy prototype, North or South, that facts and figures are looked for at once. The pay rolls of the cigar factories alone amount to $75,000 a week. . Of this the Cuban employees send a percentage home to their plucky countrymen, who certainly deserve much kinder treat- ment than the present administration has given them. Another fact interest- ing and surprieing is the ‘reader’ in the factories, who is an educated Cuban em- ployed and paid by the employees them- selves. From a platform in the middle of the room he reads hour after hour, four in the morning and four in the afternoon, current news, history, biog- raphy or fiction as the others work and listen. Quiet and orderly, they have thus acquired an education, which puts to shame mdny a person of greater opportunities. Tampa commercially is all a live business man would want; but why, just across the river from this busy com- monplace stir H. B. Plant, or any other public benefactor, built a Moorish castle at a vast expenditure of time and thought and millions of money for the traveling public, was not fully appre- ciated, by one member of the associa- tion, at least, until a sail down Tampa Bay was enjoyed. Then the beauty of it all was realized. The cloudless sky, the shifting plain of hight green water glowing incessantly with opalescent tints ; the white shelly beach and the dark rich borderland of palmettoes and pines. The hotel is oriental in design and magnificence, but American in size and comforts. He who would at- tempt to describe its silvery domes and minarets. its arches and columns, its rotunda and - hall ways, its pictures and hangings must indeed be an artist. Many of its treasurers were brought from the store houses of Europe by Mrs. Plant, whose taste is every- where displayed. The great white ban- queting hall with its lofty dome and flutted pillars, excellent meals and dainty service for surpasses the muchly lauded “Ponce.” The gardens are beau- tiful in their tropical luxuriance ; great oaks spreading their protecting arms over flowering Japonicas, roses and pansies ; yellow jassamins growing rampant up pillar and post orange trees bearing fruit and, in the gardener’s domain, spinach and lettuce ready for use with tomatoes and peas in bloom. Down the bay is the quarantine sta- tion ; the great docks of the Plant Sys- tem, which sends out daily steamships to Havana, Jamaica, Mobile and the North, and the Inn which is a perfect paradise for fisherman as it is built right on the wharf. Fish are so plenty that tae shipping and packing of them is one of the industries of Tampa. Il I ll ON THE WAYSIDE. The philanthropist, who goes south green foliage glistening in the peculiar, shadeless sunlight ; quaiot old houses with their over hanging balconies al- most touching their neighbor’s across the way ; the tric of Alameda hotels, tinent or any other. The city gates standing like grim eentinels of a de- parted past; the Plaza green and beautiful with its monuments, foun- tains and old slave market all con- tribute towards waking it attractive and beautiful, Antiquarians may dispute its being the oldest town in the United States but it certainly is the most fascinating and “relicky’” one. Some ot the old coguina houses stili standing and habitable are said to have been built by the Huguenots, who took refuge there in 1562. The city was founded in 1565, fifty-three years after Ponce de Leon's discovery. With the State, it was ceded back and forth from Spain to England and England to Spain untij it came into possession of the United States in 1821 and in all those years its port was important and its people in- teresting. Some of our most skilled writers have acknowledged their inability to define its charm and no wonder for it is capable of pleasing all classes and conditions of men. For sea lovers the fishing is good, sailing better and bathing comfortable. For invalids— cheerful blue sky, warm soft air and invigorating sea breezes. For pleasure seekers—pleasant rides and drives on the hard shell roads, country walks, tennis courts, concerts, gaities and dances. For the lovers of the beauti ful the outlook from the sea wall, the picturesque old fort or the Alhambra- like hotels with their luxurious courts, It is said when H. M. Fiagler, one of the Standard oil millionaires, was a boy, poor and unknown, his greatest ambition was to own a hotel. The Ponce de Leon, the Cordova and the Alcazar are results of that ambition. They occupy three squares and face on the one beautiful court. Built of the cool gray shell stone, they are all patterned after Spanish castles but it is the Ponce alone that wears the laurels. It is like a beautiful water color in gray and red and green. Its pearl gray walls ‘are capped by masses of red tiling and covered with billows of green foliage. Its wide loggias are scented with jassamine and trellised with roses and its court is cooled with fountains and floored with mosaics. Inside, as out, the same exquisite har- mony prevails for money was used only as a means for art. : The quaint old city has no relic more interesting than Fort Marion, called so in honor of General Marion, the Huguenot patriot of revolutionary farm. It is built of coquina rock, from Anastasia island nearby, on the site of the old Spanish Fort destroyed by Sir Francis Drake in 1586. Finished in 1756 itis still a splendid specimen of medieval build- ing, with its watch towers, water bat- teries, vaults, casements and time stained walls. What treachery, what borrorsiwhat shameless human sacrifice it has witnessed, but now it stands like a majestic old sentinel with its green back ground and ever changing Ma- tanza. 5 * ll I I ORMOND AND DAYTONA, Just before reaching Ormond a great change is noticed in the scenery, the pine barren ceases, vegetation is more luxuriant and the tropical palmettoes begin. Ormond is much like Cresson, with its great pine trees, comfortable hotels and beautiful drives; but in front of it is the Halifax, a wide blue arm of the sea, and just back of it—a pleasant walk—is the ever surging sea. . Six miles tslow is. Daytona and in all Florida there is no place more beautiful or more home-like with its intell igent people, its hundreds of com- fortable homes, its wide oak shaded streets, and its beautiful palme, It is an Arcadia for wheelmen and from the number out every man, woman and child must indulge. Just across the river on the way to the beach, peach trees in full bloom were noticed and pears almost ready to-pull. The beach at Daytona is perfect! It is broad and white and hard as a macadamized road. Backed by low sand hills cover- ed with oak and palmettoes, it offers an endless entertainment to pleasure seekers. Il ll I THE INDIAN RIVER COUNTRY. Down the Indian river, the longest by tar of the inland salt water courses which bathes the eastern coast, are i the most profitable orange groves—in- Jured, of course, by the great freeze, from which the State will not recover for years and - which was the first one of any account in sixty yedrs. The pine apple plantations, which were a revelation as many of the travelers expected to see them grow on trees or bushes instead of the little low stalks like low century plants. They bear in eighteen months after planting and will reproduce for seven years. Beautiful and more beautiful grows the country down the Indian river! Magnolias, palmettoes, maples and sweet gums growing rampant in the tropical clime, the low white beach ; here and there a lone brown pelican in the river, and, away across the river over the low islands, now and then, a glimpse of the ocean. Near St. Lucie, Pennsylvania's Re- publican ring master takes his rest (?) His cottage is an elaborate affair pain- fully new and glaring in its yellow paint. Soon the tall white tower of “Jupiter Light” immortalized by Con- stance Fenimore Woolson, appears. Then more trees, lagoons and ham- mock—hammocks inFlorida mean a rich soil ora dense jungle— and the journey to Palm Beach is ended. Continued on page 4. —— It's Now a Law. The Anti-Prize Fighting Bill Signed by the President of the United States—Military Will Stop the Fight if Needed. The President signed the anti-prize fighting bill, and it became a law last Friday afternoon. By the signature of the bill the President has placed upon the Gover- nor of New Mexico the responsibility for the prevention of the Fitzsimmons- Maber mill in that Territory. The Governor has been informed of the signature of the act, so that he is fully aware that it is a law of the land from that momeat. The federal authori- ties, however, are disposed to do every- thing in their power to aesistin the execution of the law, if the Governor ehould find it beyond the ability of the Territorial officers to prevent the fight in the Territory. To this end the Governor may, after he has satisfied himself that his local forces are insuf- ficient to meet the case, call upon the United States Marshal for assistance, and the latter in turn may avail him- selt of the services of all of the United States troop in the Department of Colorado, if that many are necessary, in order to suppress any illegal gather- ing or breach of the new law: Proper instructions will be sent by the war department to General Wheat- on, to promptly supply all of the force requisite, upon the request of the prop- er authorities, and, altogether, the national government is prepared to make it very unpleasant and dangerous for any person who participates in a prize fight in any of the federal Terri- tories, or even gives aid and comfort to the would-be fighters by assembly- ing at any point to witness a fight. AR EE SSR Liquor Artificially Aged. Fusel Oil Destroyed Without Damage to) the Spirits, As the subject of alcohol is occupy- ing a great deal of attention in France, owing to new measures being passed in the Senate for placing the manufacture under State control, a few remarks may not be out of place on the methods adopted by some. firms for artificially ageing alcohol and notably brandy. The ordinary method of spraying the spirit into an atmosphere of oxygen, though improving it, without, however, giving it the qualities of age, has been greatly improved by Mr. Villon, whose process is as follows: The spirit is heated to a temperature of seventy degrees Centigrade. Oxygen is then pumped in at a pressure of from five to six atmospheres, and care is taken to maintain the pressure daring twelve hours, the liquid being agitated at time. The spirit is then drawn off and allowed to rest for a week. The advantages of this method are that all - traces of tusel oil are destroyed, with- out deteriorating the aroma of the spirit, at a trifling cost.—Science News. For Self-Protection. or Miss Carrie Onn—Oh, there’s Choll Fitzinhedd ! And look, Nettie; just look at that ridiculously funny little dog he has with him! What in the world does he drag that animal around for. ’ Nettie Guy —Self-protection. People used to laugh at him ; now they laugh at the dog.—New York Herald. ——“What is the value of this estate?” said a gentleman to another with whom he was riding. as they passed a fine mansion surrounded by fair and fertile fields. . “I don’t know what it ia valued at ; I know what it cost its late owner.” “How much ?” “His soul.”