Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1890-04-10

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thought that the sandy, barren looking
soil around De Funiak would produce
anything to advantage, save, perhaps,
/ fruits OF different kinds, the cultivation
of which had been receiving some con
siderable attention, and with prospect
of fair degree of success. Apparently
/ little else could be profitably raised
] About that time a Cuban. Gonzalez by
name. cigar manufacturer of Havana,
came over to Florida prospecting. lie
examined the soil. had it analyZed, and
/ found, he claimed that it contained the
elements necessary to produce, with the
| general climate and with proper cultlya-
! tiOn,
TOBACCO
of fine texture, equal to the Havana to-
| bacco. which is SO largely imported into
this country. and from which the celebrat-
| ed Havana cigars are claimed to be made,
| He at once entered into an arrangement
/ for the cultivation of the weed on tract
of land a short distance from town
planted a number of acres with plants
brought from Cuba. and raised small
crop last summer. Bringing over lot
of CubanS. experts in cigar making. he
established cigar manufactOry III the
place and is now running It full blast
an unexpected thing. The writer visited
the establishment whilst there and. inter
viewed Mr.. Gonzalez, the manager, who
is quite an intelligent gentleman, and
speaks fair English. Found score OF
hands. all Cubans, sitting around tables,
busily engaged, with their nimble fingers
and with all the improved appliances, III
making the finer grades OF Havana
cigars out of Florida and Havana to-
bacco mixed. They seemed to take great
pains in making them neat, and OF ami
form size and length, ana i'll selecting
and closely fitting the wrapper. About
400 cigars thus made, they said, was
days work, The card prices per thous
and of the various grades range from
S20 to S65 according to grade or quality.
Mr. Gonzalez talks, and seems to be
very Sanguine of success in his enterprise
of making cigars. equal in quality to the
HavanaS, from tobacco raised in Florida,
with proper cultivation. He expresses
himself as having very low opinion OF
the style of farming (Or rather no farm
ing) and living practiced 10y the farmers
generally i'll the State. He thinks they
could produce more and live better if
they had the knowledge and taste how,
~
! notice that all over the country the
manufacturers of cigars from Havana
tobacco are making considerable fuss
over that provision of the Mckinley bill
which would impose such an additional
duty on this foreign product as to imme
diately. they claim, prohibit its importa
ton, and destroy a great and growing
industry.
Now it occurs to me, in this connection,
that if, as Mr. GonZaleZ thinks, Florida |
soil with the climate advantages claimed |
it possesses. can produce tobacco equal III |
quality TO the Havana tobacco, then |
Florida should produce, OH her own mul- |
tiplied thousands of acres of unoccupied |
lands, the tobacco with which to supply |
her own manufacturers, so that 1t need |
not be imported to any very large extent |
at most, and they would not be greatly |
concerned about the high duty tobacco |
clause in the Mckinley bill, nor would |
they have to fear that, as they now pre- |
dict, every factory i'll the State, large and |
small, will be obliged to close its doors.
The Deputy Collector of Internal Rev |
enue for the District of Florida, furnish |
es the following interesting information |
on the cigar industry of this State for the |
year year 1889:
~
Number of pounds of tobocco used 2,750365 |
Number of cigarettes manufactured. 791 $50 |
Number of pounds of tobacco used ..... 2,395 |
Amount of internal revenue tax paid 14,S36.3S |
Of the cigars manufactured those from |
clear Havana tobacco comprise at pres |
ent by far the greater portion; in fact
those made from native tobacco are in |
considerable in number compared with |
the clear Havanas.
ON LEAVING DE FUNIAK
April 1st, All Fools Day, the same day |
of the month"; believe, we left last year, |
after sojOurn of ten weeks, we bid good |
bye to our friends and the place made |
dear to us by our oft-repeated and pleas |
ant intercourse, and familiar by our fire. |
quent visits hoping to sometime return, |
but not knowing but that the whirly-gig |
of time might work such changes SO that |
we would never see the place or the peo- |
pie again.
Coming down the long, high, sandy !
ridge. covered with pine and black jack. |
dotted here and there with houses or saw !
mills, soaring cattle and the raZOrb backs |
off the track, or viewing them at dis !
tance roaming about the forests, with /
here and there bunch of native sheep |
browsing about the bushes and wire |
grass On we sped sixty miles down |
the ridge, at the foot of which is Squatted |
Milton, on the Black water river, place |
of considerable lumber interests Ten |
miles farther Escambia Bay is crossed |
on bridge three miles in length-along |
between the borders of the bay and the |
Magnolia bluffs, ten miles, being 50 miles |
in all, brought us to this
QUAINT OLD SPANISH TOWN.
The tourist will find many things of in
terest here. Pensacola bay about so |
miles long is one of the most beautiful |
bodies of water to be found anywhere |
1t aboundS with nearly all kinds Of fish, |
among which may be found the red snap |
per, blue fish, trout and the famous pOmp- /
ans-while on its shore can be found all |
kinds of game to interest the sportsman. |
Fort Pickens (where Geronimo, NatcheZ, |
Manangus and their tribe were cOnfinedl, !
Fort BarrancaS, the ruins of Fort McRae, |
and the Navy Y arc, ARE all points of great |
interest to the tourist. The site of the |
old Spanish Fort on the hill overlooking |
the city is now covered with fine resi- |
denceS.
But few come here that do not during
their stay have sail on the bay in one |
of the little sail boats or on one of the |
little tug steamers that are living at the |
wharf, ready, willing and waiting to be |
chartered by parties wishing to go, on
any day the weather permits, Sundays |
not excepted.
Now 1 am not writing this as an
advertisement for Pensacola or anywhere |
elSe-am not in the real estate business
simply stating facts. The card will
tell you, ''The genial climate, and dry
bracing air necer tail to delight every
one" | would say, quoting from the
play "PinafoIe," Hardly ever" And
when it. says "GOOd boats always in
readiness for sailing and fishing" that is
fact so far as the sailing aud fishing
goes, as to the catching, that is another
matter -'that depends" When the afore-
said card tells you that the Continental |
Hotel (our present hOme) is good hostel
ry, with first-class accommodation, that |
is another fact without qualification
There are some splendid drives in and |
around the town, and great deal of |
driving is done. as is evidenced by the |