Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1885-02-20
FROM SNOW TO ROSES.
st. Augustine of the Present.

Of all the curious places it was
ever my lot TO visit, St. Augustine
is decidedly the most odd and pie
turesque. The depots of the various
railways leading to the city are
about mile out, aud the street lead
ing into town is made entirely of
oyster shells, IA very common style
of highway in this section of the
country,) and a very good road it
makes, too, The oyster, though a
very unpretending, unobtrusive BIZ
valve, comes into use in many phases
raw, boiled, fried, roasted, fricar
seed, or made into a highway, it
matters not, for, like Uriah Heep, it
is "yory umble" and might be a
good model for some of us hasty,
grumbling bipeds. In entering the
city we pass through the gateway of
the old wall which was built clear
around the town 800 years ago, and
of which about twenty rods only re-
main. We go down the streets past
old houses, one, two, three hundred
years old, and reminding one of the
pictures We sometimes see Of Span
ish villages, for st. Augustine is Span.
lsh-that is, the old parts of the
city. The streets are very narrow,
many of them too narrow for teams
to pass, while balconies extend so
close to each other from opposite
sides of the street that they almost
form an arch. l can almost see the
Spanish Senoritas of two hundred
years ago holding tete-a-tetes with
their black-eyed lovers just over the
way. | say Spanish, the American
girl not being addicted to flirting (?).
In the center of the city is a park,
or, to speak correctly, "Plaza de la
Constitution" In this Plaza are two
monuments, one the tribute of the
ladies TO the dead who gave their
lives fighting for the "lost cause"
The other was erected in 1912 to
the acceptance of
the Spanish Liberal Constitution by
the inhabitants Of the town. On
this latter mentioned monument is
cut the symbolic emblem of the ma
sonic ORDER and thereby hangs a
tale. During the late war some of
the young men thought to alarm the
people and get up a sensation; so
they went out one night and made
various signs in prominent places
circles, arrows, and anchors,
up with &c" and square
and compass on the monument.
Meetings were held and patrols
placed on the streets to guard
against a supposed secret society
which was imagined to be formed
to destroy the town. Next to the
Plaza is the~>0ld church, the most
ancient of any in America. In my
last letter I referred to the date of
the first mass being said, and ref
arence to that will give the age of
the church. Ihaye mislaid my notes,
but | think it is about 325 years.
The church is built of a concrete
made of shells and lime and is in a,
state OF preservation. 1t
has four bells, one the oldest in
America. Inside are the usual ap-
purtenances necessary to the Roman
Catholic service, together with a
picture about l2xS feet in size, rep
resentiug the first landing at St.
Then comes old Fort
Marion, embracing about five acres
within its walls. Some $50 years
we're employed in the building of
his fort, and so complete was the
architecture that the United States
engineers were unable TO restore it
% its original shape when they I'M
tertook some repairs, The city
ronts on bay, with an island about
wenty miles long separating it from
he ocean, and an elegant lighthouse
$ directly in front of the city. l
ave done my best to describe St.
and now, as nearly as s
,ossible, ] give short sketch of it &
$ heard young "coon" give it at
me of the hotels:-
"Dis flor, gemmen, Is de pansy;
ley call it so cause Columbus when
Ie lit var de fust time, made a bed
N de tansy, SO his niger servant
allied dis for Pansy. Columbus he :
tuck up tent an says, GLORY to {
aoD, I've got ober to Ingy.' Den ,
Columbus he went back to England '
md took a Nine, IF tarbackor aud {