The Portland daily press., 1885-12-19
LIFE FLORIDA.
Jacksonville, the Garden City OF the
State-The Shade of the Orange
Trees-The Big Notes.-The Opening
of the Season in the South.

JACKSONVILLE, Florida, Dec. 10.
To the Editor Of the Press:
While fur-clad beauty in the Forest City
is hurrying from shop to shop on holiday
missions. while every cheek is aglow with
the clear December air and the Frost King
is busy with his window frescoes, walk
through the broad, sandy avenues of this
bustling city is beneath the crisp, green foli-
age of messy live oaks, past rows OF orange
trees, with their ripening fruit almost within
reach, and under the rays of tropical sun,
which rarely allows the mercury to fall be-
low fifty. Little barefoot negro boys are
rolling their eyes heavenward and utterlng
cry evidently intended for morning pa
pers." but sounding more like breakfast ba-
con" than anything else; hundreds of mules
and drays are rafting along, the sharp crack
of the whip blending unsteady with the pc
culiar ''git way fern yere' in deep base
tones from the dusky drivers; the gay hotel
buses, swarming with winter tourists, are
vainly struggling to make show OF speed
through foot of sand, along the river front
dense. black clouds are rising from scores OF
tall smoke-stacks, while frequent whistles,
some hoarse, some shrill, tell that more
steamboats, are coming. Rambling, tinkling
street cars crawl slowly along behind dimin-
utiye mules; to lash the beasts continually
being the principal business OF the black
drivers, they are allowed to occupy stools
while they pursue this tiresome task. A
tall, gaunt negress with huge basket of Gel
ery balanced nicely Oh her head jostles you
ON one side, while on the other a gaily uni
formed steamboat runner thrusts into your
hand a tin colored circular OF his line. Here
comes pair of CRACKERS" We shall have
ample time to study them, for the bony mule
is MANY minutes in passing given point;
and this is proper" too, since any increase
of speed would wreck the shaky wagon. The
harness is made up of leather, wire, and old
pieces of chain the reins, formed OF three
different sizes of rope, reach only to where
the dasher should be, but. the long arm OF
the cracker spans the gap. His head is
crowned with an ancient straw hat; long,
struggling beard conceals everything about
his face except an extremely sharp nose and
a certain nervousness of his jaws suggestive
of quid of tobacco; checked shirt and
lean trousers crmplete his costume. The
cracker woman is all calico dress and I'M
mense bingham sun bonnet; in the depths OF
these somewhere are head and lungs, for
the black bowl of a pipe is visible, past
which little puffs of blue smoke escape. TAX
en- off her guard in going over crossing, the
points of her nose and chin may be jostled
into view; but instances are rare-there is a
tradition that Crackers" never alight-they
are always seen either just coming into town
or going home. A cavalcade of young la
dies and gentlemen in gay riding habits
dashes past, wan consumptive in an inva-
lid chair propelled by two coal black urchlns
is buying some roses at a florists stand,
while round the corner comes plump white
horse and low phaeton in which is seated
wrinkled bnt kindly featured nun, with
large basket on the seat beside her; 1t Is SIS
ter Marx Ann, on her morning rounds, dis
tributing comforts among the poor and sick.
When from the infirmities of age she was no
longer able to pursue these missions on loot,
the Young men of Jacksonville presented her
with this team which the stable keepers gen
erously take turns in caring for. Here comes
a party of young Englishmen in their ill-ilt-
ting London clothes, but with a certain indie
scribable style about them they are followed
by two colored porters bearing light CEDAR
canoe in which are packed their guns and
luggage for they are bound up the st. Johns
river on hunting trip. For mile and
half UP and down Bay street one meets