Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-02-17

| be preferable. either for business or resi-
! dence. At present it is headquarters for
| the orange traffic, and does a thriving
| business in early Vegetables and consld-
cradle trade in lumber. 1t mas no special
! features aside from this worthy of men,
| ton. Oranges are sold here IN large
quantities by auction, in a manner
| similar to the sale of tobacco in Clncin-
natl. From $3.50 to $500 per box Is
realized, box containing from 50 to a0o
| oranges according to the size of the fruit
as assorted. The best orange tony taste
| Is the large naval variety. They stand
| in about the same relation to other
oranges that :.Bellehowers" do to other
apples and are about as difficult to pro-
duce.
We exhausted the sights of Jacksonville
in a day and then went down to the
! ancient city of ST. Augustine, with whose
history every school boy is familiar. The
old city gates are standing as they have
stood for three centuries and more; long
before the rock on the eastern coast OF
Massachusetts, were trod by the foot Of
the pilgrams. The old Spanish fort, Fort
Marion. with its masonary of that pecul-
lar shell rock, now initiated in gray con-
many of the finest buildings here, Is an
| object well worth an hours visit.
The sergeant on duty conduct
ed Us into the court, up and
! around the walls. and finally into the old
| dungeon, where he curdled our blood by
| directing attention to two holes in the
wall where he said, in tones calculated TO
freeze the marrow in our bones; THAT
two skeletons chained to this wall had
been discovered here in 1884. and only
recently he himself had lost pickax in
attempting to dig in a spot that sounded
hollow. When he broke through the
crust the pickax slipped from his hand
and went down through the quicksands,
where many a precious body. after stran-
gulation, had been flung and disappeared
forever, in the days of the Spanish inqui-
sltion, for beng swallowed up in the
quick sands-no mark nor trace was left
behind TO tell the taieh-and we forgot
for moment that the individual who
held the suffering candle in the gloom
of this horrible place, and said his little
piece, was not the ubiquitous guide whose
surname was Ananias, but only a SER
geant of artillery.
Perhaps one of the most attractive
features of st. Augustine just now is the
new mammoth hotel called the Ponce
de-LeOn. 1t covers six acres Of ground,
cost ten millions of dollars, and if 1t has
its equal in the world have never come
across it. 1t was built by Mr. Flagler. of
the Standard Oil company, and is crowd
ed with guests. The building looks
''squatty" on the outside, but the inte-
rior is very grand, The parlors and
dining room are simply palatial and fur
nished in a style that any king might
envy. The open court surrounded by
the hotel on four sides is European, but
on grander and more extensive scale
than any hotel or palace on the other
side of the water. The Casa Monica is
another hotel here scarcely less impos-
ing than the one above mentioned. The
fact is that st. Augustine as fashion
able winter resort commands the patron
age of the majority of visitors to Florida.
We remained here but one day and then
struck out for central Florida, joining an
excursion of about two hundred people
bound for the thriving young city of
De Land, where large number of plats
of land containing orange groves were to
be sold at auction.
After a ride of eight hours, much of
the way through swamps, where the
gray Spanish moss festooned the cypress
trees and the palmetto, which bears such
striking resemblance to the date palms
of Egypt and gave something of an
oriental look to the landscape, we came
in sight of the loveliest country | have
nestled on hillock and vale the
sole object of our journey-the only
town in Florida within my observation
that inducements enough could be piled
up to induce me to make it my habita-
ton.
Mr.. NJ. w. Sargent, formerly of Gales
burg, Ill.,. placed US under obligations for
spin around the city and drive INTO
one of the many orange groves that con-
tribute so much to the value of real estate
here and adds beauty to landscape
which otherwise might be tame and un-
interesting. Of course the predominant
ing industry here is orange culture. Al
most every door yard has its orange
trees. Many groves consist of five or ten
acres and one very thriving orchard we
saw contained 125 acre. Our arrange
ments Were such that we could not re-
main for the sale but I learned subse-
quently that lots to the value of SEQ, 900
had found purchasers.
An investment in full bearing orange
grove they claim here will pay annually
a dividend of % per cent Thus an
orchard costing 81, 800 per acre and con-
tanning sixty trees to the acre will pro-
duce six boxes of oranges to the tree or
an aggregate yield of 800 boxes, which
at an average price of $3.50 per box,
amounts to 5000 Deduct the price of
fertilizers. boxes and picking-s375, say
and a net profit remains of 1926 from a
single acre. II one enamored of orange
culture, has a larger stock of patience
than wealth. he can buy the raw sand
hill ''dirt cheap" and after clearing off
the pine timber set his own orchard and
in six years be made independent. They
rotate with much JUNCTION the success of
a poor man who started in with grove
of wild oranges, budded the trees and
now has an income of sixty thousand
per annum.
From De Land we travelled northward
to Palatka, and here put in solid day of
solid comfort. When we registered at
the Saratoga house as residing at Wich-
tia the proprietor remarked that party
of Wichitans had stopped with him
about two years ago. Turning to
the back files" we made out the
of E. +. Allen. r. f.
Lawrence, Robt. f. Guthrie, RodoIph
Hatfield and J. ID. Hewitt. Then Mr..
Bromwell, one of the leading men Of
Palatka. but an early resident of Wich-
tia, called TO see us, and made the time
Az swiftly in reIa ripr hia remipiscepcas