The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1870-07-28
10 DESCRIPTIONS OF FLoKIoA.. .
A Sentence Eight Hundred words Long.


! An. article in Lippineott's Magqgine
Fcontainsi one of the longest, senten-
Ices, on record, consisting Of oyer
eight hundred. words. The sentence
kin question is found in q well-written
article on Florida, and, as it is some
1 what of a curiosity, as well as very
good description of Florida, we Iap-
| pend it:Igs 2 biET . ja9bsz5Gf sdI
} -..F propose, then, to give my read read
ers some description of this old Yet
stiflstraige and Wild country that has
4 been settled for three hundred years,
land isnoti yet inhabited-a land of
bshiaings sand and of deep mud
bland of noble rivers that rise in.
fswamps and consists merely of chains
fof shallow lakes, some OF. them, twen-
fty milesilong and twelve miles across
and only Twelve feet deep--of wide;
bsandy plains, covered with solemn
soundingi pines-Of spots soZ barren
thatsnothingi can be made to grow up
on them,I land yet witha soil so fertile
that iehlfl you tickleo it with a hoe, it
will laugh with an abundant harvest
of sugar, cotton, rice and lfruit--a
land of oranges, lemons, pomegran-
iates, pine1apples figs and bananas,
Whose rivers teemwith fish, its for-i
estwiths game, and its very air with
fowl; where everything will grow
Except wheat and apples where eve
tthihg can be- found except ice; yet
where the people With productive
soil, mild climate, and bountiful ma
ture, affording every table luxury,
Hive on corn-grits, sweet potatoes, and
molasses; where many men, possess
ing forty thousand head Of cattle
lnevef saw d glass of milk in their
lives, using only the imported article
when used at all, and then calling it
iconsecfdted milk where the very ef-
fort to milk COW would scare her to
death, as welt as frighten the whole
1neighborhood by the unheard of phe-
nomenon; cabbages grow on the tops
iiof trees, and You may dig bread out
the ground; where below the frost
line, the castor. oil plant becomes
large tree of several years growth,
and a pumpkin or bean vine win take
root from its trailing branches, and
thus spread and live year after year; !;
where cattle do not know what hay
is, and refuse it when offered, so that
the purchase of a yoke, of oxen is not
considered valid if the animal will
not eatin a stable !; land where, in mild
winter, when the, land grass is dried
up horses and cattle may be seen wad-
ing and swimming in the ponds and
streams, plunging their heads deep
nnder7 the surface to bite the water
grasses and moss; where many lakes
have holes in the bottom and under
ground communities, SO, that they
will sometimes shrink away, to mere
cupful, leaving many square miles of.
surface uncovered, and then again fill
Eup from below and out over their for
tmer area; where. some of them have
outlets in the ocean, far from shore,
bursting up ta,operpetual spring of
fresh water in the very midst of the
t3iny. saltnesso of the sea; where in
Stlmesi of lew WateEs during long,
exhaustive dry season, men have gone
Under ground in one of these subter-
ranean rivers, from lake tolake, a dis
tanee of eight miles ;,iwhere ground
will sometimes slnkaan the cavity
fill5with WATER until tall trees that,
had stood and sunk upright, will have
their topmost branches deeply cov-
ereds, where rivers will disappear in
the earth and rise again thus forming
natural bridges, some Of ,hem q nile
in breadth where instead, of spring,
summer autumn, and winter, there
are two seasons ohly--eight months
summer, and -four months warm
weather where the winter ia the dry
seasans and The summer almost a,dai-i
iy rain; where in order to take a
| walk, You frst=wade through a light
sand ankle deep, and then get into a
mud7puddle, and some of these mud-a
tpuddles cover, aswhele county !; where
no elagis found fit for brick making,
and people bAild houses without
Fehimneysi where to makeEa living is,
so easya task that everyone possesses
the laziness of ten ordinary men, and
every one You wish to employ in Ia
,ber, says that he is tired, and would
seem to have been born SO; where
tagues would prevail if the peonle
would take the trouble to shake;
Where a large orange-tree would bear
seven thousand oranges--leaves, buds,
blossoms, half grown and, full-groWp
fruit, all atleRce~haAd every twenty.
Ave3feet square of sand will sustain
such tree; where, in many parts,
cold weather Is an impossibility, and
perpetual verdure reigns; where the
Everglades are found, covering many,
large counties with water from one to
six feet deep, with a bottom mgd-cev,
lerea yet, underneath solid and firm,
from which grasses grow up to the
surfaee-7aasea of green, and with ISL
ands large and small scattered over
the surface, covered with. live oaks
iand danse vegetation; where alliga-
tors, OF gators, as they are called in
Florida parlance, possess undoubted
aboriginal rights Of citigepshin and
mosquitoes pay constant visits, aud
ore intrusive and even penetrating in
their attentions to strangers" 80
There must be accorded to the wri-
Ter of this passage considerable skill
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