Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1875-05-26

| Atlantic. steamers leave Jacksonville every
day for the upper st. Johns, and the visitor
who leaves Florida without taking the trip,
may well go sorrowing for lost opportunities
the balance Of his days.
Leaving the wharf at jacksonville some
sunny morning we find ourselves gliding by
cottages half hidden in their green shrub
berry statelier homes whore wealth has aided
nature in her labor of beautifying; lawns
which stretch down 20 the waters edge, whore
stands the boat house gardens Of beautiful
flowers, which send their perfume across the
water to greet us and deepen the ecstasy
which already possesses us until we long for
the mantle Of some poet to fall upon us to
enable MS 10 set TO music the emotions Of our
souls. Broad and beautiful the river stretches
ont before US in the bright sunshine its col
ors change as do the colors Of the cloud7 we
watch at sunset, and we wonder, for an in-
slant, if IL is not the sky we are watching.
A school of fish follows in the wake Of the
steamers stern, greedy for the crumbs which
fall from the cook-room where dinner g. pre-
pairing now and then, as if 10 tempt some
sportsman, one jumps out Of water, its shin
ing sides cleaning in the rays Of sunlight :
oycrpowered by the temptation, some angler
drops a line and presently we see big
bouncing shad struggling to free itself from
the treacherous hook which was covered by
a dainty morsel bnt all in vain ho is fairly
caught another aud another follow, until q
dozen splendid fellows fall prey TO our fsher-
man when weary Of the sport he sends them
TO the cook and two hours later we are tost-
ing their quality at our dinner table.
Soudding about are the white gull., king
fishers pclicans, wild ducks, aud now aud
then a curlew with the lovele-t piui plam-
agc-the envy Of every lady on boaid. Many
of Tia. birds Of Florida are very beautiful lut
hunters have frightened them from the lower
81. Johns and we do not see them until we
reach the lakes the upperpoints on therv-
cr. But as the woodmant axe yet leaves un-
touched the forests which skirt the rivers
edge, every one who loves tropical scenery cam
feast on the sight ever before ones ewes while
ascending the river pamettoes, with their
odd, scsly trunks, reminding us Of pine al-
pies; Expresses from which even now may be
hanging the deadly moccasin or rattler; lau-
rels, with their dark green leaves, as shining
as satin; stately magnolias, which are bud
ding and will soon be laden with flowers
Grape myrtles which look as IL some tanner
had peeled them for their skins red cedar,,
which have fought their way % life through
such a tangla of underground they were
cheated out Of half their height, and are
black in the face because OF il; live and
water oaks, which tower above the others,
aud seem to spread their arms over al the
rest, as if in protection-while the gray Span
ish moss, which falls in heavy fesioons from
the limbs, seems ike priests robe draped
about them while they say banediction
and over all runs the wild honeysuckle, the
Virginia creeper, wild roses, and towering
vines to me uameless. which she'd their per.
fume on the air making us forget entirely
that such monarch as King Frost holds
court in any portion OF cur country.
On our way up the river, the first notable
place reached is Mandarin, fifteen miles
from Jacksonville, which takes its name
from the Mandarin orange, which IS culti-
vated there quite extensively. Though q
very old settlement, it yet remains only
village Of two hundred and twenty-five peo-
pie with post-oiice, two small stores and
grocery or two. II, notoriety comes from
the fact that Harriet Beecher Stowe has
her winter residence there, and hundreds OF
curious ones 60 there to get a sight of her.
No doubt she bears it all very gracefully
but she must possess stool, of patience
more than human.
Her home is a cottage house, very uupre-
tentious in outward appearance, built little
back from the wharf, beneath some fine oll
oaks which look as il they were full-grown
a centuary ago. She owns about forty acres
of land, four Of which are in oranges report
says she is not only successful fruit-grower
but a skillful Gnancier and fancy from the
quantity and quality Of the supplies saw
her ordering in a grocery store at Jackson
vile, she must also be generous proyider.
In appearance, she is rather below medium
stature, with heavy features, hair that is
turning gray, and a cool, critical eye and
air. | studied her physognomy as would
study a picture, and | could see plainly
marked the characteristics which made her
brave enough to dare to give to the world
such book as Uncle TOMS Cabin, at time
when to utter a protest against slavery was
to offer ones self a mark for the bitterest
sarcasm partizan press could utter.
Her husband accepts the good things /
" IIarriet's books have bought" gracefully |
and gratefully, aud, no doubt, often wonders
as he sits in his easy chair and surveys his |
possessions, or counts up their balance at |
the bankers, il the old days when he earned /
a starvation salary as professor, dreading |
hoarly the fall Of the auctioneer's hammer
on his home, were not a dreamsome trick Of |
the brain.
Eight miles farther on, and we stop at
IIibemia, which really looks as if it may
indeed be a stray slip of the "Green Isle of |
Erin" so embowered in dark, rich foliage
does it seem 10 be. White cottages with |
green blinds peep out, and an air of tidyness
pervades it all children romp on the lawns
stopping their play now to inspect the new
corners who have here sought quiet and re- |
pose. Surely no excitement will disturb |
their nerves here, for the grand event Of the !