The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1870-07-23
DESCRIPTION OF FLORIDA.
4 Sentence 500 Words Long.


Recently We informed our readers that an ar.
ticle in Lippincoa's .Magaaae contained one of
the longest sentences on record, consisting of
over 800 words. The sentence in question is
found in we'll written article on Florida, and
as it is somewhat of q curiosity, As we'll as
very good description of Florida, We append it:
/ propose, then, TO give my readers some de.
scription Of this old yet still strange and wild
country, that has been settled for 300 years. and
10 not yet inhsbited--a land Of shifting sand and
deep mud-s land Of noble rivers, that rise in
swamps, aud consist merely of chains of shall.
low lakes, some of them twelve miles long and
twelve miles across. and only twelve feet deep
Of wide, sandy plains, covered with solemn.
sounding pnes-of spots so barren that nothing
can be made to grow upon them, and yet with
q soil fertile, that "if YOU tickle it with hoe,
i. will laugh with an abundant harvest" of
sugar, cotton, rice aud fruit-a land of oranges,
lemons, pemegrsnates, figs and bananas; whose
rivers TEEN With fish, it's forests with game, and
its very air with fowl; where everything will
grow except wheat and apples: where every.
thing can be found except ice ; yet where the
people, with productive SOIL d mild climate,
and bouutiful nature, attording every table lux.
ury, live on corn-grists sweet potatoes and mo.
lasses; where many men possessing 10000 head
using only the imported article when used a,
all, and then calling it Sonsecra;ed milk; where
the very effort to milk a COW would probably
scare her to death, rs we'll as brighten whole
neighborhood by the unheard of phenomenon );
where cabbages grow on the tops Of trees, and
you may dig bread out of the ground where
below the frost-line. the castor.ol plant becomes
a ire. OF several years growth, and pumpkin or
bean vine will take root from its trailing branch
,b,a
where cattle do not know what hay is, and re.
fuse it when offered, 30 that the purchase Of
yoke of oxen is not considered valid if the AMI.
mails will not eat in q stable and where in the
mild winter, when the land grass Is dried up,
horses and cattle may be seen wading and swim
ming in the ponds and streams, plunging their
heads deep under the surface to bite the water
grasses and moss; where many lakes have holes
in the bottom and under ground communication,
so that they will sometimes shrink away to a
mere cupful, leaving many square miles of sur
face uncovered, and then again fill mp from be-
low and spread out over their former area,
where some OF them have outlets in the ocean
far from shore, bursting up perpetual spring
of fresh water in the very midst of the briny
saltness of the sea, where in times of low water,
during long, exhaustive dry season, men have
gone under ground IN one of these subterranean
rivers. from lake to lake, a distance of eight
miles; where the ground will sometimes sink
and the cavity fill with water. until tall trees,
that had stood and sunk upright, will have their
topmost branches deeply covered: where rivers
will disappear in the earth ind rise again, thus
forming natural bridges, some of them mile in
breadth: where, instead of spring, summer, au.
tumn and winter, there are two seasons only
eight months summer aud tour months warm
weather; where the winter is the dry season,
and the summer almost daily rain; where, in
order to take a walk, you first wade through 4
light sand ankle.deep, and then get into mud.
puddle, and some of these mud.puddles cover Il
whole country; where no clay ia found for brick.
making, and people bnild houses without Chin
neys; where TO make living is 50 hard task,
that every one possesses the aziness Of ten ordi.
nary men, and every one you wish to employ in
labor says that he IL tired and would seem to
have been born so where agues would prevail
if the people would take the trouble to shake ;
where large orange tree will bear 1000 or.
snges-leaves, buds, blossoms, halt.grown and
full.grown fruit, all at Once--and every twenty.
four feet square of sand will sustain such tree
where, in many parts, cold weather ia an impos'
sibility, and perpetual verdure reigns; where
everglades are found covering many large coun.
ties with water from one t. six feet deep, with
bottom Undiscovered, yet underneath solid and
firm. from which grasses grow up to the sur.
face--a sea OF green, and with islands large and
small scattered over the surface, covered with
live oaks and dense vegetation, whore all'gators,
or CATERS, as they are called in Florida parlance
possess undoubted aboriginal rightS OF citizen.
ship, and mosquitoes pny constant visits, and are
intrusive and even penetrating in their atten'
lions TO strangers"
There must b. accorded to the writer Of this
passage considerable skill in phraseology, as in
no instance is the sense rendered ambiguous by
the prolongation Of the sentence. The phrases
ara abort ant. and Olsen tangled,