St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1880-03-26
A Trip to the South. NO. 3.

Dear CdledOnian Our last letter
left the party sale on Florida soil, at
jacksonville, the business and CONNER
clal center of the state. The city par
takes of the vim of Andrew Jackson,
from whence it takes it's name. In 1866
it was small place of seventeen hun
dred inhubituuts, manly negroes. To-
day it has about seventeen thousand
permanent inhabitants, and probably
fifty thousand northern people stop in
it or pass through it each winter. 1t
contains dozen or more hotels, and IA
multitude of boarding houses. Yet so
full is the city that on the 25th of Feb
ruary l found it impossible to obtain a
lodging, even upon a cot, at any hotel
in the city, and had to pass the night
upon steamer.
Northern enterprise and capital have
made the city, and now control it.
This city is the gateway through which
the great army of tourists annually en-
ter the state. Here one takes the cars
for Tallahassee and West Florida, or
for Cedar Keys and the Gulf coast, or
the steamers for st. Augustine, and all
the country upon the st. John and its
lakes.
The river st. John is the great artery
of the state, upon which nearly every
enterprise now being here developed
depends. 1t is a grand river, whose
waters are constantly traversed by
steamers for more than two hundred
miles south through the interior of the
state, aud small steamers run nearly
one hundred miles further ssuth. From
the southwest also the Ocklawaha
flows into the st. John, giving more
than one hundred miles more of steam
navigation.
The bearing of this immense system
of water communication upon the we'll
fare of the country is obvious. 1t
means cheap transportation to all the
great markets of the country, for every
thing that can be produced in the state.
The farmer who lives two hundred
miles south of Jacksonville can deliver
his produce in Boston at less cost for
freight than can any farmer in Caledo-
MA county. But the Florida farmer
has open to him for competition by this
grand highway of nature, the markets
of jacksonville, Savannah. Charleston
Wilmington, Washington, Baltimore.
Philadelphia, New York and Boston.
at cost much less than the Vermont
farmer pays to reach his single and
nearest market. This highway is al
ways Ill repair, never goes into the
hands of a receiver, and requires no
sinking of millions in stock and bonds
for the construction Of its road bed,
Up this mighty tIioroughfare, which
Is SIX miles wide some of the way, and
never less than il mile in the first hun
dred miles of the passage, our party
took It's way. On the shores are pleas
ant places. AT Mandarin, fifteen miles
up the river, dreadful Indian massa-
ere once occurred. Now Mrs. Harriet
Beecher Stowe here passes her winters
in a low, brown cottage near the shore,
nearly obscured by foliage, notably 6y
oaks with their long moss
Around stand the thrifty orange trees,
loaded with the golden globes. From
this little cottage have come many de-
lightful letters for readers of lhe Chris
tan Union.
All along the shores now are seen
orange groves in full beaIing. At the
landings, negro boys come up in row
boats filled with large, sweet, juicy or
anges to sell TO the passengers at six