Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1890-10-11
SAVED BY A BANK BOOK
HOW A GREENHORN CLEARED HIS
HOMESTEAD IN FLORIDA.

MS Dhsas'rous experience Told by me
survivor-A Committee of "Cracker-s"
Made an Important Call on the Set
tler-His Check Book to the Rescue
II had been clerk in a city store ever
since was old enough to work, and was
green. There is no doubt about that in my
mind now, though spurned the thought
then. 1 had sold the stony little farm on
the bleak Vermont hillside which had
come to me after my father had worried
himself into the grave trying to get rich on
it, and had landed in Florida full of guide
book opinions of the land of the cypress
Il took up homestead on the long, mar
row strip of land that divides the Atlantic
ocean from the Indian river. did not 20
to see it before entering for it at the land
office because | knew that was unneces-
sary
81 reached the spot by sailboat from Titus
vile, at the head of the river, and was de-
lighted to find that had neighbors not far
away, to the north and also to the sout A.
They We're crackers. That Is the name
which one native Floridian applies to other
native Floridians whom he does not like
They had orange groves, To he sure, but
they did not seem to he growing rich on
their crops. This | attributed to their
shiftless method of agriculture Instead
of clearing their land of the big pine trees
that numbered it they merely girdled the
trees and left them standing, dead and
bare, a constant menace to passers by and 10
the young orange trees which were planted
among their roots, as well rs an eyesore on
the landscape.
CLEARING UP.
Il determined to cut my trees down in
the good old New England fashion, clear
the land thoroughly and raise vegetables
between the rows of orange trees till theV
were old enough to bear a golden harvest
First ! set to work on the underbrush, and
then came my first experience with pal
mettO roots.
well, by the time / had two acres OF
palmetto roots pulled out and wilder
ness Of big trees down on top of them nv
back was almost broken, my ready money
all gone and no prospect of crop in sight
| ! had come down in the early fall and now
it was about Christmas. The season had
been pretty dry one, and the logs looked
so fun of sap that | thought they would
| burn, though too green to burn fast. So
| set them on fire.
THAT was the most disastrous fire ever
| lit. forgot that the sap of these trees was
| mostly resin. The way the flame crept
! along through that mass of underbrush
| and leaped up every resinous pine tree il
| met was terrific. | fought it as long as !
could move limb and then dropped, ex-
| hausted and despairing, and watched il
| roar off through the woods like an evil
| spirit that | had raised and was powerless
To control 1t was shutdown when | gave
| mp the fight aud could do nothing more
that night.
The exhaustion made me sleep far into
| the next day, and | was awakened little
after noon by loud knocks on my door.
| Opening il. was confronted by five or six
big, rough men. all armed with shotguns
and with an ominous look on their faces.
They strobe into my cabin and shut the
door behind them.
g Stranger, said the spokesman Cruffly,
Won have started "A fire here in your darned
Yankee ignorance of farmin', and all the
good we've done is To burn the rawsun and
the bark off lot of green trees, and now
you We got lot of black logs on yer hands
that are derned sight meaner to handle
than ever. But yer derned fire has spread
into the groves of yer neichborS, where the
dead trees were still a-standn', and they
have been burned to the ground, as any
body but natural born fool might IA
knowed they would, and our orange trees
is ruined with them. Such varmint as YOU
isn't fit to live in this country. Say yer
prayers, mister, for we're going to plant
you before we go back
CLEARING OUT.
81 was terribly frightened. for could
see they We're in dead earnest Nv teeth
began to chatter, but a bright thought
struck me. | had deposited some money
in bank at Jacksonville on my way down
and had a check book with some blank
III. l.. 1. 81 = L
been drawn out long Az.
" Gentlemen / said, L am clearing this
place for a northern syndicate, who are
going To make extensive plantations here.
and l can pay you on the spot for your
losses, caused by my ignorance of Florida
forests, and assure you that such thing
Will not happen again With this whip
ped out my check book took up a pencil
and prepared to write with as much show
of confidence as | could muster under the
circumstances.
Il had been pretty free with the five or
six hundred dollars ! had brought down
with me, and so the story of the northern
syndicate seemed to them TO be likely
enough. The word syndicate ANYWAY
seems to have an awe inspiring power
down there. The idea that a syndicate
might be penniless seems preposterous
But 1t was the bank checks that over
whelmed them. Checks on "A real national
bank were something they had heard of,
but never handled before.
''Nou may he sure they swindled me aw-
fully in making up the estimates of their
losses, but | WAS not disposed to be penuri-
Ous merely making enough objection to
allay possible suspicion. So drew a check
for each man, big enough to buy his farm
five times over, and they went away laugh
ing to themselves ut my gullibility
AS soon az they We're out of sight l
packed into my boat all my outfit set every
stitch of sail and reached the nearest town
by the next night, sold my outfit for enough
to buy ticket north, and did not breathe
freely till | felt myself well beyond the
reach of those simple Crackers, whose
groves | had ignorantly ruined, and in
whose hands ! knew my life would not be
worth an hours purchase when they dis
covered how had escaped their just in
l;puatiou New York Trihune