The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1885-11-05

TALLAHASSEE, Oct. I'd, 1885.
Oddly enough, lam writing, In the same room,
where, Just forty years ago. Iunanppcd my trunk,
long sea voyage in the good ship Wild Pigeon
from New York, around Cape Florida 10 the port
of st. Marks, and thence here BY horse cars.
My father, extensively interested in business
relations with many of the merchants and large
cotton planters Of the South, saw ft to entrust
me with the management and adjustment of
some dsarranged affairs in this, then tar away
part of the world.
The recollection of the soft delightful climate,
and the even more attractive kndliness OF the
many pleasant people met with, has kept alive;
so that when my failing health-induced by
twenty years of overwork and exposure in
busy railroad life in the North and West-made
necessary q season OF rest and sojourn in some
more salubrious cline, had little difficulty in
determining where in the sunny regions of the
South l should find surroundings most congo.
nal.
To man who for two score years of his life
has been actively associated with the busy push
of railway interests that have developed across
the country between New York and st. Louis,
who has seen Cincinnati aud Chicago come into
being, and to whose senses change, progress, i'm
provement, are daily matters of course, it seems
almost incomprehensible thai he should be sit
ting by the same window where he sat forty
years ago, looking through the boughs of the
same old oak, across an open square in the Cap
ital Of one Of our American STATES, at identically
the same house fronts and chimney pots that
stood out there in the sun shine 80 long ago.
Can II be that this Is realm Of" perpetual youth"
as dreamed Of by adventurous Dous? With no
frost 10 bite and crack them, no coal smoke to
mar and backen them, and no speculative greed
to topple over and displace them, verify be-
leve those quantity shaped dues would stand
out against the blue sky forever, and look never
q day older.
My past experiences have so unified me for
just appreciation Of the stand-still unchangable
condition OF things existing here, that was dis
posed on my arrival, greatly to dsparage the
people for their apparent want of enterprise
But closer insight into causes and influences at
work, induces me 10 congratulate myself and a
multitude of northern brethren that there should
be one such favored nook in the land where a
perfect peace and quiet may be had; q restful
asylum where the 0verworked and sickened of
our people can secure entire relief from the boom
and hurrah that perpetnally resounds along those
paths where the money seekers tread.
To-day have wandered through and around
this beautiful old town, and become enraptured
with its attractions The broad irregular streets
or roadways mount the gentle activities, or as
gradually descend into the intervening valleys
all bordered by the most stately old trees, many
OF them the original demizens, of the primitive
forest the dark and shining leaves of giant
magnolias mingling with the lighter shades of
the oaks and gums At easy intervals, with spa
cious flower yards surrounding them. occur the
hOmelike houses of the people.
These are OF almost every conceivable design
A quaint little old fashioned Eoglish looking
cottage with gable and dormer windows half
buried in q wilderness of shrubbery, peeps out
at Its great brick neighbor OF Doric outline with
imposing port'co and capitoline pillars. Here
and there, built flush upon the street, with its old
porto eoehers, inner court and garden in rear,
occurs quaint relic OF early French settlement;
ana elsew here an overhanging balcony suggests
its Spanish builder. The wide porches and We
randas that surround almost every home, speak
OF the open air life of the people. The general
eject is in marked contrast 10 the indoor struc.
ture OF more northern architecture There occur
in the plan OF the town at regular intervals, large
unenciosed public squares, not parks" in the
city sense OF the term, but simply unoccupied
bits OF timber land clear of undergrow th swarth-
ed with green turf, shaded BY magnificent trees,
dehghtmily inviting 10 the passef-by. Resting
among these groves a loiterer catches in all d.
rections most attractive glimpses of the outlying
country rising in commanding hil-tOpe crowned
by farm houses and surrounding groves or falling
away into vistas along the misty valleys with
patches OF meadow, farm land, and timber. Away
to the southward stretches the deep pine forest
through whose resinous tops the soft south wind
has sighed for centuries, bathing these inland
plateaux in ever succeeding pillows of ozone
from the adjacent Mexican Sea- These high
lands Of the Tallahassee country are indeed the
first TO catch the life giving principle borne on
the breath Of the great Climate Breeder that
lends the green to shores in another hemisphere
Such quickening influences blending with the
generous light Of November SUM- as Il hangs in
the Southern sky. makes Of this region one of
surprising beauty and altogether indescribable
loveliness
Had l the power to direct the affairs of sorded
puIblind humanity, would interdict the i'm
pairment of these pellucid airs by noxious smokes
and SCOT, and those industrial nsal-airs that eat
away the red membrane Of the lungs to make
yellow lining for The pockets.
No single blade Of grass in this picturesque re-
gion of hill and dale should be trodden upon by
desparate Labor or merclessC Capital in their end
less struggle with one another
This sleepy little city should nod on into
eternity, preserving the witchery Of its Skies an
everlasting heritage to the lung-sick children of
our northern land.
Unfortunately for the preservation of tine beau
tiful In nature the destinies Of Middle Florida
are not 10 my hands. Commonplace progress
and enterprise have already crossed the frontier
and invaded this region Of sunlight
Clambering through the hills to the eastward
the s0utheFnmost Ut the great iron highways
that stretch from sea 70 sea scross the
continent, debouches into IN intervening
valley and measures its siuuous wav ouiie
half around the town. Few bits Of rail-
way scenery In the South equal this approach
70 Talish::see from the eastward. For several
miles the line tfaverses the fertile and exteusye
grant Of land made BY the Federal Government
shortly aiter il scqusition Of Florida TERRITORY
70 the heirs Of the MARQUIS De LaFayette. m
grateful remembrance of Revo. o.uttouary oervicea
oftheir gallant kinsman. This estAie has long
been dismembercd, and passed into hands cf
many ownefs who have made Of 4 plantations
and stock iafms. The trsvelss. Who a. hnn.
dreds Of miles back hss stared blsukly 1t The
unsttractive sameneoe Of piney woods surround.
| ings. In Southern Georgia and East E1ur3ds.
begins TO b attracted hy ~ chaneetI sspect of
thinsA Cultivated arsns Of standlng coen o.
| feecy cotton take the plscs - sndIsos jbsssta
Old hedgefows stretch thcmselves acroo the
undulasing coanny. Hay stacks and sessw
| ricks are $50 IN groups around he fASmsleada
snclosed mepdows one $50 ~ castle. sone q
| apparently wassing h plney woods boyiSe
sppnssnea Gradually 90 beeomes oouselous
| q { Issossisx spsed o1ihs s1sspssIs whsGla o.
ahead up The gIAde can - hsasd ~ dep pens
coaehss, ~ GFA6e bsssnniag hlHA1e nnd hIGAoe.
/ -.