Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-12-08
In THE SUNNY SOUTH.
Northerners Driven by the First
White Frost of Winter to
THE LAND OF ENDLESS SUMNER.
Remarkable Evidences Of Prosperity and
Progress in Dixie.
A FLORIDA BELLIES CUNNING POODLE

belle, begin to consider where to spend
the winter" Maps of Southern France,
California and Florida are studied. Since
all roads once led to Rome, 50 to-day We
may believe all railroads lead TO Florida,
judging from the amount of travel that is
being done this season. Every train, vesti-
bule, express or accommodation brings its
crowds Of visitors from different points all
over the North. The transition in Southern
railroads isoneofthe progressions of the new
South. The buffet, boudoir coaches, or
gorgeous vestibule sleepers, convey such q
sense Of care and luxury that the tourist
finds all "his ways, the ways Of pleasantness,
and all his paths of peace" Here he may
listen to the crisp syllable of the Yankee
and the soft draEl Of the Southerner, as they
interchange pleasant greetings in this land
''way down in Dixie"
Passing over the land of secession, the
earth banks. the barren sand plains, the
lonely pine forests, all recall the fortunes
of war" Yet this once frightful specter
comes to the present generation with sense
Of unrealism-romantic and fabulous.
Stretching along for q hundred miles
through Georgia are the desolate pine bar
rens. No sign of habitation is visible, ex-
cept an occasional tumble-doWn negro
cabin, but when we reach Florida how diff
ferent! It is not without thrill of wonder
that the stranger notes the marvellous
changes that have come over Florida within
the past few years. Nothern capital is the
power that has converted the abandoned
cotton and indigo plantations, dense forests
and wild marshlands, into q country Of
luxurious life and prosperity.
A CosMoPoLITAN COMMUNITY.
Florida is 50 thoroughly cosmopolitan
that no one cares whether his ancestry be-
longed to the old mildewed freight of the
Mayhower or not. Every man is accepted
on faith. The warm hearts of the people
are made up from a thousand heterogeneous
elements of thousand cities OF the land
Every class is represented; celebrities from
poets to pugiiists. The climate or some
thing faseinates, and everybody IS happy.
In the hearts of the people, their country is
not Utopia, or Arcadia, or Heaven, but,
Florida. It has been charged that part of
the inhabitants are minus that immortal
spirit Of man, called the soul of conscience.
These are the real estate agents and hotel
proprietors. Whether they be soulless or
not, is neither here nor there, but that they
do possess the combined strength, courage,
philosophy, versatility and persuasiVeness
of mighty host of people is no question.
In almost every instance these well-known
individuals nail from Yankeedom, and when
Yankee meets Yankee, the nutmeg cause
must eonquer-or die.
Since the English pug dog has been
supplanted by the American cat among
fashionables in New York, the Florida
belle, too, has adopted a new pet, and calls
it the "Florida poodle" With the Ameri-
can craze for something new and odd, she
will soon find herself famous, and the YAM
kee who secures a "corner" in alhgators
had best remember that ''time and tide
wait for no man."
The Flower State is a land Of royalty,
too, if we may judge from the titled inhab-
| itants General, captain, colonel are com
mon appellations all through the South. To
the negro we must give the credit of this.
When one dusky Southern brother meets
wealth or celebrity he Immediately titles
him. Last season a plain but joVlal coal
merchant of Pittsburg, Pa.,-the name,
well, no matter-was taking dinner at a
Jacksonville hotel, where the negro waiter,
who was very attentive, greeted him with:
pheasant day, Governor" ''Yes, nice day,
old man; but I'm not a governor" After q
while the waiter remarked:
make long stay, General?"
"Oh, no, only several days; but then I am
not General"
Soon again VenCure0 SamDO.
"Splendid country this, Commodore
don't you think SOP"
''Oh, yes; but am not Commodore,
either
tsBressde Lord den, Marster, what is you?'
81 am only q plain American citizen.
Mr.. -, Of the great gas city of Penn
sylvania."
KNEW HE WAS SOMEBODY.
"Couldn't spot you zaetly, sir, but I knew
you was top Of the pile somewhere, sir"
Hospitality is the basis of Florida's sue
cess. The Southern door is always open,
and the winter one long holiday. Each
| winter greater number of people come to
Florida-to stay, and every true American
must feel pride in the howery peninsula.
Here is sanitarium of health-giVing breezes
| which lend an influence, and as the care
worn Northerner. expresses, "dispels cor
roding care" To the tourist just down from
the gaunt cold North the widest dream of
tropic loveliness is more than realized, and
he soon feels that delicious height of ecstacy
that rests 50 we'll and so characteristicalIy
on the Southerner. and forgetting his stiff
Plymouth Rock principles, ieels and enjoys
all the enchantment Of nature where endless
| summer smiles.
Now Florida has on her gala dress. The
season is like one long tournament. Towns
are gay with Northern visitors-and bright
with flowers and flags. Japanese lanterns
hang here and there among the orange trees
that surround the hotels, fantastic arrange
ments of Spanish moss decorate the stores,
and everything says-Welcome and as the
| tourist enjoys all this, he still must think of
the chilling blasts that circle around his
Northern home. 1t is in Florida that the
sportsman may delight his savage soul, for
game, whether it be fin, feather, scale or
hoof, is plenty. The idealist may find all
the glory Of romance, for around
no country hovers such 8 halo Of
fiction as the Land Of Flowers. Since
| the old Spanisrd planted his silken
flag in Florida soil, the country has been
the scene Of eventful changes. While that
good old Baptist theory Of Ponce de Leon
may have been all right or all wrong, GER
tain it is that in his failure to find the bath
ing pool of youth he has proved benefactor
to the natives, for each and all have ac-
cepted the privilege OF locating the Perpet-
ual Spring, and the traveller could scarcely
| travel through Florida and not see the
original fountain Of Youth" 10 every
count. But de Leon made himself i'm
mortal-not as Columbus, by what he
| dreamed and discovered, but by what he
dreamed and did not discover. The orange
picking is just now in happy progress, and
orange culture. orange trusts and high COM
mission fees are being studied by tourists,
capitalists and orange producers; but the
happiest Of creatures is the barefooted boy
over the wealth Of fallen fruit that is his for