Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1872-04-22
From the Lyndon Union.
LETTER FROM FLORIDA.

Dear Union II left Vermont March
lSth,-the snow four feet deep and win
ter's vigor unbroken. AS | passed on
south the snow became less and less and
disappeared in Connecticut, but the
ground was frozen four feet deep down
to the city of New York, and the Goth.
there, was one of the worst days that I
was ever out in. There was plenty of
ice and frost in the ground through New
York and Pennsylvania, and did not dis
appear until | reached central North
Carolina and it showed and hailed even |
down to Charleston, S. G.. and suffered |
from the cold there on the 23d and got |
thoroughly chilled, with heavy over
coat on, in visiting the ruins of Fort |
Sumpter. Florida greeted me on the 25th
with orange and peach blossoms, roses,
green peas, and thunder shower. The |
thermometer has since ranged here at
night from So to TO-, and at noon from
TO- to 90 in the shade From Ports
mouth, Va, south, the cars soon enter
the pitch pine woods, with occasional
swamps, the land all low and the soil
sandy and poor. There are clearings all
along of five to fifty acres, and rude
rough houses 1Ox19 and l6x24. with
great brick or stick and clay chimneys
at the end, outside, with occasionally
large plantation and two-story house,
with ten to twenty small, rough, empty
negro huts around each. There are no
barns, fences are poor, but little stock,
and that small and poor. There is no
grassy sod, but little coarse, thin wild
grass, leaving the ground naked and des-
olate The villages are small, far apart,
rough and poor, with occasionally one
having few good buildings and shade
trees, and air Of life and thrift Some
Of the river bottoms are rich but mostly
uncultivated. Such is the country for
1000 miles. The city of Wilmington,
n. c., Savannah, Ca, and jacksonville,
Fla, are we'll built, and full of life and
hustle. Charleston, S. c., is larger than
either, but has all the marks Of poverty
and decay, having large negro popula-
ton living in idleness on the verge of
starvation, with the elements of plenty
and wealth for million around them,
in abandoned rice fields and cotton plan
tations. St. Augustine, Fla, is small,
but quaint old place; many of the
buildings were erected by the Spaniards,
and the style and architecture is so odd
and ancient, and all Is so quiet, sleepy
and dull, that at first one fancies he has
just awoke in some old town in Spain.
Florida was settled before any other
State, and is now less settled. 1t is low
and fiat with much swamp, all having d
sandy, hard bottom. covered with pine
and some hammock, the soil sandy and
poor. The st. Johns river is from
one to seven miles wide for distance of
100 miles, and navigable 800; along
its banks are many pretty villages; Mrs
Beecher Stowe and other northerners
have rented neat cottages with pretty
surroundings of orange trees and flowers,
along its banks, and occupy them in
winter. 1t is estimated that fifty thous-
and visit Florida each winter, and that
one-fourth are invalids. There are plen-
ty of good hotels along the st. Johns
river and the coast, and board from S II
to S24 per week The coolest month in
the year here is as warm as June in Vt,
and much dryer, the winter being the
dry season in Florida, there is no
more healthy residence on the globe than
Florida for six months from Dec. to June
Invalids can be out in the open air dali
ly, and find amusement in boating fish
ing, hunting, riding hoseback, and pick
ing fruits and flowers. The woods
abound with deer, wild turkies and
quails, and the waters with ducks, her
ons, alligators, and fish. Dr. c. and
myself hired darkey and boat to
take us out for days sport. 1 caught
with my troll two gar fish, one of which
weighed twenty pounds; three cat fish,
one of which weighed twenty-five pounds,
and what was never done here before,
one nice shad. The doctor, during the
same time and from the same boat, shot
eight alligators from three to twelve feet
long, and killed four of them also, one
buzzard and one moccasin snake, besides
many pops at herons and ducks. Messrs.
G. ?. Allen and Mr.. Beauclark and wife,
from Irasburgh, Vt. are here, and just
started out in a sail-boat for week S
fishing and hunting in the wilds south
of this place Mr. Allen and DR.. G.
and several other consumptives are i'm
proving satisfactorily, and are much
pleased with the climate. Some who
came after liberation of the lungs
had taken place are sinking more rapid
ly than they would have done at home.
Stock raising in some locations row
occupied, is good business here Lum-
bering pays well if properly managed.
Some of the hotels and stores make mon
ey. Farming, in general, yields only a
scanty living. Growing oranges in the
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