Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1885-01-09
FROM SNOW TO ROSES.
First IMPRESSIONS C2imate-Busi-
ness industries Chmches-M
Prospective.
III

FTOSi1ccttCc.
The first view one gets of the city
of Jacksonville is not very taking
one, and the feeling comes forward,
"Why did I leave the pleasant, neat
looking New England home for such
a dirty, disorderly hot hole as this ?"
But just go to a hotel, take a good
bath, and nights rest, and you will
see the representative city of Florida
with very different eyes.
The difference in the climate be-
ing what has made this State and
city the objective point for so many
Northern people it will, perhaps, be
interesting to relate what the wealth
er really is. I arrived here Wednes-
day, and the last three days of that
week it was very hot. 1t made one
perspire to move at all, and the So
da fountains and ice cream saloons
did a big trade. Sunday there
came change, and since then the
mercury has not risen, I think, above
IS degrees, while on the 18th and
18th inst, the days in which the
North experienced very cold snap,
the lowest point was "A above zero.
The sun has not shone very much
and there has been considerable
rain, but excepting two or three
days it has been warm enough to go
without extra wraps.
Jacksonville, with It's environs, is
city of 10000 inhabitants, and the
principal cause of its growth is its
favorable situation as a centre for
the pleasure travel. 1t has two
railroads running into it, besides
innumerable steamboats, which ply
up and down the St. Johns River.
This river was a great surprise to
me in point of size. Opposite Jack
sonville it is mile wide, and is
navigable for ocean steamers to Pa
latka, Is miles south of here. The
stream is more an arm of the sea
than a river, for it has NO current,
is salt water, and has mouth at
both ends; that is, it has a regular
mouth, the same as any river, while
the other end runs from the Ever
glades, which are a series of half
and-half swamps and lakes with an
outlet to the Atlantic running South,
while the St. Johns River runs
North. The water In the stream
is so muddy that you cannot see
into it more than six inches. The
drawback to Florida is the poor
water, which is the cause of almost
every disorder prevalent here. The
only way that it seems possible to
get good water is to catch the rain
water and filter it. But to return
to our subject Jacksonville is a
city of hotels and boarding houses.
The leading houses are the Wind
sor, St. James, Everett, Carleton,
Duval, Grand View and Sunnyside;
and there are scores of smaller ho-
tells and hundred boarding houses.
The hotels charge from Sc day
down to 50 a day, and the boarding
houses from So to $40 q week, and
these prices are asked for board
which would not command two
thirds the price in New England.
The presence of the hotels has
made the grocery business good,
and that branch of trade is especial
ly good, while dry and fancy goods
stores abound as also fruit candy and
cigar stores. Jacksonville is a rush
ing place, and has street of bust
ness blocks that would do credit to
city Of 100000 inhabitants.
One thing that catches the eye Of
the stranger in this city is the num-
Der Of churches. One would mag
inc this a very religious place, but
that does not necessarily follow. In
the time Of the late war, North and
South were represented among the
various denominations, and they di-
yided The breach is yet unhealcd,
and to-day we find the Northern
and Southern Presbyterians, North
ern and Southern Methodists, and
so on. Whether they expect to find
a North and South corner of
Heaven where each party can sing
Hallelujahs without Ginning with
the other, deponent sayeth not, but
on this corner of the mundane sphere
it appears impossible for brethren
to dwell in unity" The church