Morning journal and courier., 1885-07-22
MORNING. JULY 22, 1885.
IN THE SOUTH.

Ik THE SOUTH.
 How Figures will Lie in Florida
 How a City is Created by a Real Es-
 tate Asent-The Orange Grove a De-
 lusion-Florida Insects-LaRd gents
 - Florida Beef Railroads South
 Florida.
 SANFORD, Fla, July 5. To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 Don't tell me that figures won't lie. For wholesale prevarication of the most audaoious description I know of nothing that can touch statistics For instance, don't be- ieve there's summer or winter resort on the whole continent which can't prove con cIusively by tables of mean temperatures that it has the ''most salubrious climate in the world" To my mind there's nothing more tricky and treacherous than figures. Even the figures on 8 thermometer will lie, as concluded the other day when small boy made me think it was hot and therefore dis card my underclothing by just pressing on the mercury bulb until 96' in the shade was scored. In Florida, the land of the willy real estate agent, it is appalling to what an extent our innocent numerals are pressed into this discreditable service
 I have been profoundly interested in the process by which city is created in Florida. The first condition necessary is land agent. This benevolent individual selects spot on the bank or near some lake. In South Flor ida lakes are so numerous that it would be hard to locate 8 town more than a mile or two from some lovely body of water. Then he plants four or five sickly orange trees near by, and calls it grove. He sees to it, also, that there is sprinkling of palmettoes and Spanish bayonets in the vicinity, and if possible a walk under an avenue of moss hung live-oaks which may be christened sfLovers' Promenade" |" or something of that sort. Where the center of his young metrop- oils is to be, he scrapes and digs the ground, sets out, a few discontented bushes, and labels the enclosure City Park" Then he induces from one to three 1uckless mortals to accept free homesteads in order to constitute a boom. Finally he has few thousand charts Autographed with diagrams of city about the size of Chicago, but fairly deluged with fountains, statues, parks, boulevards etc., and prints underneath an advertise ment somewhat as follows:
 'Magnoliaville, the queen city of the Sun ny South, is now generally conceded to be the worlds sanitarium. Invalids flock ing thither from all quarters of the globe for treatment. The cures are miraculous, embracing cures for all kinds of physical disorders, from broken bones to smallpox. The mammoth hotels of the place are equipped with every appliance which genius can suggest or money procure to promote the comfort of guests. The citizens of Magnolia vile are noted for their hospitality and es- pecially their culture. The climate of the vicinity is now universally acknowledged to be the finest in or out of Florida. Table of mean temperature.] Fishing, boating, bath ing and hunting were lost arts until Magno- liaville was discovered.
 ''N. B. Guests are politely requested not to stray too near the river on account of the size and voracity of the alligators."
 ''P s. A few eligible building sites re- main within mile of the City Hall, which may be had of Hon. Peter Smithereens, land commissioner, at @ bargain. Come early to avoid the rush.'
 "P F. S. Only the very best element will be permitted to settle in the vicinity; but in order to attract immigration of this sort, the municipal authorities have voted to present each new conner who shall purchase a quart CT of an acre of land with valuable orange grove"
 I suppose there is in the ease of ordinary untravelled people fascination about the expression ''orange grove" that is we'll nigh irresistible. If so I consider it my duty to dissipate the popular notion so far as can. The glamour that surrounds the name is all false, and the effect of bolstering it up-as some charitable tourists do even after they get here, rather than be out of the fashion-is most pernicious. The orange grove is really a delusion and snare. What is an orange grove good for if you can't sit on beautiful greensward under the trees and let the ripe fruit fall at your feet? That's the way all the pictures represent it. They portray happy couple sitting on the grass and eating the golden spheres, of which the lady has whole apron full Now nothing could be less possi- ble-if may shade asuperlaivte-than to sit on the ground under Florida orange grove. The ground here is sand almost from Dan to Beersheba; and the sand of Florida is the smallest kind of sand. Some day when the Okeechobee Drainage company get done fix ing South Florida according to their liking, they may perhaps undertake the task of re- placing the sand in the northern part of the State with good decent loam in which grass will take pleasure in growing. But un- | til that day, sitting on the ground under an orange tree is attended with physical dis comfort. I tried it and I know: I sat down | in the hot sand just the pictures represent I it, struck attitude that would have thrown l Phidias into ecstasy, and tried to look happy l But it was doleful work, my back ached | my shoes got full of sand and my features l fairly sizzled in the heat evolved from the I bleached earth. Then I remembered tha | the pictures sometimes represent it 1T
 another way. I had seen cuts portraying l maiden stretched comfortably in a hammock | under the trees, and I had hammock brought and fastened in place. Throwing l myself into this, I half fancied at first thai
 I was comfortable; but pretty soon what they call fred bug" began to excavate in the
 back of my neck. I can endure sting or l bite, but when an insect begins to bore witt
 l. | the very bone think it's time to call halt l So took down the hammock and went back | to the hotel, voting orange groves a public | nuisance.
 l Speaking of fred bugs' suggests 8 prolific 1 subject of Florida insects in general. Fl l furnish in this connection 8 list of the prin- ! cipal ones which have encountered, request l ing the compositor to set up the names il column form with the largest type office affords. Here is the list, which by nc l means complete:
 Pleas.
 Mosquitoes.
 Chats.
 Sandfies
 Red bugs.
 Chiggers.
 do not maintain tha: you will find all oi 1 these hospitable creatures in every part oi 1 the peninsula, but I do assert that have 1 been in portions of the State where life was made burden by reason of the operations of one or more classes of these pests; and 1 that in the course of my stay here have wrestled with all of these pleasant compan- ions In thus saying am not conscious of | writing Florida down, for think it is a right jolly sort of place in which to rusticate, am simply honest. Too many tourists take trips to St. Augustine, Green Cove Springs, Palatka and Silver Springs and then gener- alize for the whole State from this limited | T,,@ @Ia 1c l the largest east of the Mississippi l tions shonld be based only on comprehen- sive survey.
 It will be noticed that in the foregoing catalogue I have purposely omitted the gopher and the land agent. This was not because the latter fail of being pestiferous l (for they don't), buS because entomologists don't usually classify them as insects 1t is