The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-03-24
THREE WoNDER WORKERS.,


Done for Florida.
TAMPA, FLA, March 23.-Nothing is
.sser than to talk of the power Of wealth
IN an age essentially sordid; nothing more
difficult than the realization Of that power
IN a time essentially unimaginative.
But the day of Aladdin and his magic
lamp is one upon which the sun has not vet
at It is one which still illumiues with
Golden ray our own. The wand OF the sor-
eerer still Yields its old-world charm, and
to-day, as in the day of Merlin, the spell of
the magician is still potent for good.
This by way of preamble. For myself,
am no poet. No man is more prosaic, none
nooe practical, and if am moved to con-
men Of might and millions who have proved
themselves true wonder workers, iu is only
because my sordid spirit is touched by the
material value Of their achievements.
In this country their names are on all
mems lips, their work beneath the scrutiny
unknown to you, If the fame OF their
achievements be to you but a
barren tale, il is time your
ignorance was removed, your
spathy enlightened. Flagler, Plant and
Dlsston-what man in Florida does not
know those names. i'll what hamlet has not
the impulse given by their enterprise. their
papers are full of them, upon them local
scribes exhaust their limited vocabulsries
snd too often, alas do editorial wiseacres
empty upon their devoted heads the vials of
their impotent wrath against corporation
and monopoly.
All men are mouopolists- nature,
some men are capitalists by sschance. The
wise use them; the foolish abuse them. Let
US not be foolish. -...-
Ten years ago these legs of mine took me
through this neck of woods-tt was then
little else. Ten years ago these eyes Of mine
drank in the Arcadian beauty, the placid
Tepose Of those park-like vistas, those i'm
measurable stretches of pine woods that
give South Florida beauty all its own.
Railroad there was none; the Florida Cen
trail aud Peninsular had not then touched
Tampa into life. The South Florida was
still an iridescent dream and the Indian
River country still a terra inco0nite to the
great outer world The wild aud woody
Cracker was supreme. He was also ragged,
but what are detailsi The crack of the cow
whip still rang, rang merrily through the
silent aisles of the forest and the cheerful
pop Of the revolver was heard in the land.
My visit was not one OF pleasure; poverty
pressed me into the service, the poverty Of
the country pressed ME out again. 1t was a
party Of adventurous yankee prospectors
that drew me there - forgive them.
Riches have wings and theirs have long since
flown via western cattle ranches and Idaho
Mines was their pilot-thelr star of hope.
knew little of the country, but how knew
my men.
They had money, they wanted more, they
believed in Florida its climate tickled them
with its insidious charm, its latent posi-
bilities captiyated their northern imagtna-
tions. y
1--WE like the countryn-that was what
they said-''bue we do not like the frame in
H. e. W., -
money, but you need transportation more.
The west has it. We are going west" and
they went
p This winter fortune once more led me
through that selfsame countryside same
and yet how changed This time no scrubby
pony bore me up. this time were trudged
no weary miles with chain and compass
The virgin forest had become matron,
her diShGbilLe was discarded. her flowing
locks done up in the prevailing mode.
made the trip. 1t was done in a parlor
car to the music of china 5ud cut glass
Ny companions were people of easy mau-
ners and easier means. The steel rails were
the Rlistenng thread OH which was borne
up long line OF bustling villages, green
groves and prosperous towns. Tampa, no
more struggling hamlet, sacred to lean
kline and leaner swine stretched along
the Hfllsboro, a smart town of brightest
brick. Her wharves were lined, the broad
stream bridge and upon it's margin rose
that stupendous pile, standing with minaret
and tower, an everlasting monument to
the munificence of H. b. Plant and s.ar
attraction for the entire state.
Near by, where a few short years ago the
scrub oaks fought for life in the thin sand
spread Y oor City, with its vast cigar facto-
RES and prosperous and coutented popula-
ton. On the other side of the state the
miracle wrought has been equally great ,
the wand of the enchanter equally potent.
The South Florida railroad has penetrated
section hitherto unknown, hitherto I'M
populated; towns have planted themselves
firmly in the wilderness, the country is
green with orange groves, and the voice OF
the plowman has replaced the rude cry of
the hunter.
have seen Kissimmee before. / have
pushed my canoe through the almost i'm
penetrable labyrinths of those vast morasses,
those melancholy swamps that stupefy the
eye and appall the imagination. They are
not there now. That is st. Cloud, that is
Dlsston. In their place spreads wide be-
meath the torrid sun a great alluvial
plain, bright with the living green Of grow
Ing cane. and eloquent with the voice that
arises from the multitudinous murmur Of
It's waving blades.
To my mind statistics convey little-to be
frank, do not like them; but let it be said,
once for all, that here lie the future sugar
grown rice to feed all~famished China. The
fertility of this virgin soil ia practically in
exhaustible, the climate genial, and there is
every reason to believe that the 1000 acres
which will this year be planted in rice will
but repeat the success already achieved in
Toe culture of sugar-cane by the great Phil
a1elphie millionaire.
The story is a long one, but the moral is
substantially the same. Go where you will
In Florida, east coast or west, the same
transformation scene is repeated. Men,
money aud energy, these are the factors
That have worked the miracle and brought
TO the cabin of the native the luxury of the
century. All that Plant and Disston have
Gone for South Florida, Flagler has done
Tor the east coast and the millions ex-
pended there will bear fruit when the man
himself is dead and gone.
But In this world nothing Is perfeot-noth-
lhg, that Is, but human stupidity; and to-
Gay, at a moment whea these great chan
nels OF enterprise,need widening, when these
great forces require support, there is, re-
greet to say. in Florida an element which
looks backward instead Of forward and
which would paralyze progress under demo-
cratic pretenses. In few days the legis-
Isture Of the state will be in session, and
Already men are asking themselves what
new variety of political dynamite Is to be
exploded upon the commonwealth. Mean
While the Uoaaiua hpau nanital IA NOT