Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1892-01-13
a COST WINTER.


~Deetp hearted as an untried Joy
The warm light flashes on the bay,
Aad placid as long happiness
The perfect sky OF Florida"
When the winds OF winter blow bleak
and chill and all the world seems grow
ing cold, we huddle over our warm
Tires and look out at the wild, wet
weather and the frosty skies with a
Bhulder. We may heap our furnaces
and 1replaces with wood and coal, but
We cannot shut out lurking draughts
md the white, cold face of Nature.
For those with enfeebled systems in
whose veins the warm blood of youth
no longer courses swift and strong, the
prospect is n dreary one ami We long
tor the wings of a bird that We may fly
to a land of perpetual sunshine.
1t Is this longing realized which
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps has embodied
| in the exquisite poem, "a Lost Win
ter, which has been brought ont by
tue Lothrops in handsome gIft-book
form illustrated by Mary Cecilia
Spaulding. No expense has been
spared by the publishers in the way of
superb and appropriate binding, and
the artists work has been brought out
in beautiful and attractive manner
by our methods of fine modern repro
dnctive art. One cannot turn the
leaves of the book without desire to
visit the scenes so naturally portrayed,
and to those who have already spent a
season in sunny Florida, it is perfect
souvenir of happy days.
The title page is embellished with q
fac -simile of the Spanish coat-of-arms
above the spacious portals of the main
entrance to the old fort of San Marco
at st. Augustine and another page
| gives a sketch of the watch-tower on
the seaward side of the fort. The
ragged walls loom up, gray and grim,
| while beyond stretches the broad At
lantic There is also view of the
| famous "City Gates" at the northern
end of the city with vista of the mar
row shaded street beyond.
The book brings vividly to our mind
"lost winter" spent partly in ''dear
st. Augustine and rapid panoraml
of the tranquil, old city passes before
uS The wide-balconIed houses built
of beautiful, yellow-gray coquinl, with
their walled garden courts where many
tropical plants and flowers grow: the
golden, sandy streets with troops OF
laughing pickaninnies tumbling about:
the quaint moorish looking cathedral
with its queer, cracked bell and old
paintings where the geutlest of priests
ministered to the souls and bodies OF
many negroes and white people. The
back gives a fine picture of this curious
old church with back ground of olean-
der and Christmas holly and mistle-
toe.
| The sea wall forms a grand promen-
ade fronting the quiet bay and extend
ing from the water battery of the fort
some three-quarters OF a mile south
ward to the arsenal building. The
wide plaza, which is said to have been
the slave mart of ante-bellum days is
well worth seeing and the light house
on Anastasia Island where We stayed
one ioia day. picking up odd shells,
1 watciIiIg the sand-fiddlers running to
and fro, and wondering over the strange
fiotsam and jetsam which strewed the
beach. One is carried back to the old
historic days and can easily imagine thai
inst beyond the sandy bar the Il rec
Menendez is sailing in with his crue
Spanish crew to plant this lasting
memento OF his indomitable and i'm
placsble nature-but these dreams
vanish as we hear music and light
laughing voices waited over the bay,
and see the sailboats with their gay
awnings and loads of merry passengers
glancing over the silver water; while
In the city itself, mingled with the
massive structures of by-gone centur
les rise the elegant homes of wealth
and the spacious hotels of moderr
times.
We visit the shops and museums
where many interesting curlos are
found; relics of Indian days when the
untamed Seminole roamed the tangled
forests; alligators eggs, an ndturet ol
painted with marine and tropIca
scenes; palmetto work done by skilled
Minorcan fingers; bright-hued wing
and feathers and stuffed birds of tropl
cal plumage, and even young alligators
themselves, pert and saucy and limo
cent-looking.
The orange groves are loaded will
their golden fruit and by and by vii
be in bloom, making the air heavy will
their perfume. Mulberry and fig trees
dates and bananas may be freely grown
We wander off into dim, woodlan'
paths, where under our feet,
"Sar-iike among the tender grass,
The little, white wild flowers show;
clumps of palmettos wave their gree
fans; tall oaks and fringed pines ris
above our heads and soft naples begi
to show their crimson tassels, Will
like fes, oons of gray mist lending a
"svanescent grace of fancy" the Span
ish moss drapes every limb. Gloss
vines cling to the trees and swee
scented yellow iessamine Chambers /
wild profusion over the bushes.
Here is "A wild orange tree and "
gather of its bitter-swcet fruit to max
a cooling, delicious drink better tina
} sherbet or champagne. Near the cit
nre wonderful hedges OF Cheroke
roses and pink and white oleandei
bloom freely in the gardens with bris
, ling yuccas and scarlet trumpet vinei
, Brilliant birds fit to and fro in til
trees, saucy red-birds call to each othe
and the mocking- birfs make impe,
tinent answer. jays clatter and scol
and the mournIng-dove COOS and Ii
ments in the shady thick cts.
, In the midst of all this sunshine an
| warmth and beauty one can scarceI
renlize that anywhere the SHOWS al
. drifting in COLI, white wreaths al
, "pur, le-cold shadows" lie on mountai
and meadow, and we too, exclaim:
. "There il no winter in the world
, There is no winter anywhercl
Earth turns her face upon her arm
And sleeps within the golden air."
The two pages IN the book contras
ing ''the vanished world of ache an
chill" and the glow Ind riches of pc
,>atual sumnar are eyuuisite cOnceI