The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-05-04
SIGHTS SEEN IN FLORIDA
JOTTINGS OF A TRIP FROM ST. AU-
CUISINE TO KEY WEST

are Made at Ybor City-A Reader"
in the Factories-A Glimpse of Key
West and Its People.
Warren Villains, assistant superintendent
or Bradstreet's Savannah agency, has just
| returned from trip through Florida, and
as the young man usually travels with his
eyes and ears open, a MORNING NEWS
reporter got him in a corner yesterday to
| learn what notes he had taken of his recent
trip to St Augustine, Ybor City and Key
West.
Mr Williams said that a Savannah man
Is always an object of especial attention at
st. Augustine. While there he met several
members of the Second Artillery Band.
| 1hey were so favorably impressed with
their treatment at Savannah, during the
| Jasper Festival, that nothing short of the
| TACT that their time was about to expire
| Kept them from taking French leave and
| Throwing themselves upon the protection of
Ihe FIRST Volunteer regiment Of Georgia
Mr.. Sullivan, member of the band, has
already served his five years, and is in
| Savannah. Gibson, the banker Of the band
and Currie and Elbel, the trombonist, will
soon be free, and they are coming to Savan-
nah.
himself and MIR. Benjamin P. Lockwood
one OF the committee of the Charleston
ana Savannah and Savannah, Florida and
western Railways Employees Mutual Relief
| Association, were invited guests of the
Second Artillery Band on moonlight ex-
curslon party given the Ponce de Leon
| HOteI Band down the Matan8as river to
North Beach. The voyage was beguiled by
vocal and Instrumental music, in which
snatches of Spanish songs hoated over the
water, which was silvered with full tropic
moon. Landing on the beach, the excur-
sionists visited wrecks 200 years old, and
| quartette climbed the promontory and rem
Qefed solo, down on the Suwannee
River" which was borne on the sea breezes
TO st. Augustine, four miles distant, where
| 1t was heard with dlstinctness.
IN FORT MARIoN's DUNGEONS.
Mr.. Williams visited Fort Marion, now
| in charge of an old ordnance sergeant. who
| shows visitors through the Spanish fortress,
| and his anecdotal and historical repertoire
| is never exhausted Outside of the fort
fifteen of the old-tlme Spanish cannon are
to be seen, and traces are still visible of the
| ancient porUcullis and draw-bridge of the
now abandoned place. The custodian
showed his visitors through the outer and
inner dungeon, which falling walls disclosed
few months ago, and related the ghostly
narrative of finding the twin skeletons of a
man and woman chained to the wall of the
! inner dungeon, supposed to be the remains
of heretical or political victims of Spanish
| cruelty.
At Ybor City Mr.. Williams spent day
very pleasantly. 1t is a Cuban town, par
| excellence, of some $500 inhabitants, and
solely cigar manufacturing place. Mr..
| Williams visited the Martin Y. Ybor cigar
factory at that place, which is said to be
the largest cigar factory in this country.
/ ha huil &c
building. The first floor is devoted exclu-
| sively to the manufacture of cigars, in one
| room Of which 200 persons are employed
| What attracted Mr.. Williams attention
here more than anything else, was Cuban
seated on raised platform, in the center of
the second floor, whore a large number of
persons OF both sexes were rolling cigars
This man Yves the ''reader" of the room,
and he read in the Spanish language loud
| enough for all i'll the room to hear him
| From the time the hands go to work until
| the close of the day tho reader" reads for
the entertainment of the employees, who
laugh at the humorous OF silently receive
| the pathetic. All smoke necessarily, men,
| women and children, the women smoking
the Cuban cigarettes, principally, the paper
| wrappers Of which are nearly as coarse as
wrapping paper.
| The houses in the town are all two-story
| frame structures, and all are of the same
| pattern so much so that stranger would
find some difficulty in telling one from
| another. The shade trees are orange trees,
| the streets are sand, ankle Deep and are
lighted with the electric light. There are
| great many Cuban Negroes, dark as mid
| night, and Mr.. Williams says that the
social affinity between them and the
| Cubans proper is of such character that
it would be revulsive 10 the more refined
caste sentiment further North
THE SIGHTS OF KEY WEST.
Key West Mr.. Williams reached by a
nineteen hours ride in the Plant steamer
| Ohvette from Tampa. 1t is a picturesque
| place, without fac-simile in this country.
Built on coral island there Is but little
| vegetation to vary the monotonous sur
rouudings, and one will soon tire of it. The
streets are narrow and crooked, and the
houses are mostly one-story. 1t is in good
| sanitary condition, the citizens having vol
unteered fund of $4,000 to perfect the
| regulation Of the removal Of the night soil,
| first deodorinug 1t after the system,adopted
| at New Orleans. 1t is then to be taken Off
shore and deposited in the Gulf
| Key West is the great cigar manufac-
turing city Of this country, containing 100
cigar factories, the city paying nine-tenths
| of the internal revenue of the entire State
of Florida At present, owing to partial
failure of the Cuhan light leaf tobacco, ex-
| tensively used for wrappers, and for which
there is large demand in excess of the
supply, there is almost a total suspension
| of the factories.
Whom Mr.. Williams reached Key West,
| the street car employees were on a strike,
and one-horSe oarrynlls were called into
requisition by Cuban drivers, the solitary
Mexican Greaser in the city being one of
the cab drivers. Not a two-horse team was
seen on the island. The habits and customs
of the people are decidedly Havanese, and
black and white speak and act Spanish.
The only English signs in the city are the
red, white and blue stripes on the
barber poles, and the tourist after
passing all but the last shop to
lind a clean one. over which is the
significant sign "barberia," has to rake his
hand over his face TO indicate chat he wants
a shave, although the hotel porters and cab
men are always prepared to shave the stran-
ger in their peculiar manner at every OPP
portunity
SURE OF FRESH MILK.
There is one thing the Key West citizen
is sure of and that is fresh milk, for the
litt!e pinched up Cuban dairywomon instead
of poddling milk from cans, drive the cows
around the town and milk the tactical fluid
according to the quantity wanted by the