Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1890-03-20
THE SUNNY q SOUTH.
Interesting Florida Letter.
DEFUNIAK SPRINGS, FLA.
March u. 1890.
correspondence to The Chronicle.

Mdrcn Il, lS9O. \
Leaving home on Christmas day, which
in old st. Clairsville was ushered in by
the roar of Jackson crackers and the hur-
rying and scurrying and the hilarity of
the small boy, which may not have
been in honor of our leaving, but simply,
l suspect, for the fun of the thing. All
the same whatever it was for. they en-
joyed it, and so did we.
Thinking it not safe to linger in the
North longer this year, before starting
South, lest there might come sudden cold
ap,which would render travel more un-
pleasant, and besides close the river, which
would prevent us making the journey. by
our favOrite route. As it turned out,
however there need have been no
hurry on that account. No severe freeze
came The river had no notion of solid
flying water persisting in main
tanning the liquid form, and plenty of it.
all winter.
Following the windings and twistings
of the two rivers-the beautiful and the
great-On the bosOms of which our steam
er plowed its way for two thousand miles:
putting and blowing it went, and in four
teen days from Wheeling, landed us in
New Orleans, where we tarried eleven
days. There had been no winter there
| inst continuation of summer, VAIN
and dry-with plenty of mosquitoes. 1t
/ i 70 70 lia in,
bed at night under mosquito bar and
| listen to the little rascals holding con-
cert outside, to buzz in your ear and
sponge their supper off you, and can't
succeed, but have to give it up and leave
you to your slumbers.
Arrived here on the 22d of February,
stopping over one day at Pensacola on
our way from New Orleans, just four
weeks after leaving home. Found most
of our old friends here, occupying cot
tages around the little round lake (Or big
spring., or having Quarters at the hotels.
Also found the season at least one month
in advance of other yearS-peach and
other fruit trees in blOom-garden veg
etables well ON the way. and some kinds
ready for the table: ripe Strawberries, for
instance.
But at this writing great change has
taken place in the weather. The unpre
cedented mild winter that has prevailed
about all over the United States up to the !
first of this month, has been broken in
upon by very cold snaps, SHOWS or bliz
yards all over the country. The cold
wave from the North reached here on
the 1st, and by the morning of the I'd, |
ice had formed to the thickness of one |
inch. l never saw it equalled here at |
growth of vegetation was completely |
killed. The young leaves of trees and |
garden vegetables generally were crisped |
and leveled to the ground, which also |
was frozen to the depth of an inch or
two. A banana tree in my yard, the
leaves of which were the size of large
fan, shared the same fate, together with |
the China tree and fig. The fruit it is
thought, is generally killed. Even the
oats, which was about foot high, has
gone with the rest. The citizens here
don't seem to mind it much. They say
there is still ample time to raise vegeta-
bleS by replanting and besides the freeze
will kill the fever germ and malarial in
fiuences, and thereby insures them from
the outbreak of fevers and other epidem-
les the coming summer; for say they,
what is the loss of few early veg
etables and fruits compared to the loss
of health? 1t is remarkable how fond
the Southern people generally are of cool
weather, even to freezing. believe they
like it better than Northern people do
when they come here with the object of
escaping cold. Doubtless their fOndnesS
for cool weather arises mainly from the
terror they have of epidemics breaking
out in the summer following an unuSu-
ally warm winter.
In private note from the editor re-
ceived a few days ago, the question was
asked, Cant you find somthing to write
letter about to THE CHRONICLE?"
Well, had not thought of inflicting nay
effusionS on the readers of The CHRONI-
Gle this winter and therefore had not
coined anything about which to write
and having written so much other win
tiers about our Journeys to this South
land descriptive of the country and our
surroundings, that now l scarce know
what best to write that will not be re-
hash of something formerly written, and
that might prove of interest to the read
er. But as the uppermost topic, perhaps,
and especially down here, has been for
some days. about the cold snap that was
long delayed, but came at last, thought
it might be well to commence this letter by
giving chapter about the weather. A
lady here last winter made some remark
about the weather in company of three
or four others, to which a gentleman re-
piled, I'm glad you introduced that sub
ject, for it is enc in which we can all en-
gage" at which the lady felt very much
insulted, taking him to mean that he {
thought that the subject was the one best
suited to her capacity. 1t is not in this |
sense l speak of the weather. | will !
state farther, while [ am at it, the cold {
snap of Saturday night of the 1st inst,
beat the record in this section. The old ;
est inhabitant says it was an unprece- |
dented cold wave for the lSt of March. >
1t was unquestionably the coolest bit of I
weather that has fallen to this part of the ,
country's portion at any time in several ,
years. 1t brought the first freeze since
the opening of the winter season just s
past. The thermometer took terrible |
plunge on that Saturday. The sky was (
and high north wind /
blew strong and steady. The cold wave
came in with a vengeance, and it con l
tinued to grow colder every hour Satur- !
day night. Sunday morning, the I'd, ev-
erything exposed to the weather was frOZ-
OH ollIl. IOuOWllS GllO VAIN NlH1Cl
season the freeze hit as hard and hurt as
badly on the 1st of March this year as it
would the 1st of April following an ordi-
nary winter season. In the middle and
southern portion of Alabama, just north
of us, many orchards were in full bloom,
the fruits were green and the flowers
were blooming. The spring time had
come and the people were led to think that
winter had given the country the go-by )
until another season. But you can't ]
sometimes alway tell about these things. !
There is one thing certain, however, if
you were feeling Il little smothery up
North on account of the too mild winter !
up there, fancy had you been down
here the first week of March you would
have gotten cooled off. We enjoyed the 7
snap first-rate. 1t gave us chance for
hri nht hlazinn mitch r,ina ,unnd fro in On