The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-06-25
PORT TAMPA's LUCK.
A Great Steamship Line to be Estab-
lished Between that Point and Hon


lished Between that Point and Hon
duras.
A correspondent of the Waycross, Ga,
Evening Herald writing from Tampa,
Fla, under date of June II, says:
We found The Inn full, the air still
fuller of rumors of Adeals' and impending
changes. Mr.. Plant himself was there.
hale and hearty, free and frank, in spite
of his seventy odd years and his presence
is one that invariably turns loose the flood
of gossip. In this case, however. the last
new thing in enterprise had something
better than conjecture to go upon, and
there can be no doubt that a movement
has been inaugurated that will give Port
Tampa an impetus not heard of in its his
tory.
With the bitter warfare urged by the
sovereign state of Louisiana upon its
great lottery company, most of US are ia
miliar; it is, however, much less widely
known that that company is also ''sover-
eign," that it is not yet subdued, and that
its fertility of resources has recently
been indicated by the contamination of a
deal destined to exercise a marked effect
upon the fortunes of our state in general,
and upon those of Port Tampa in par
ticular.
Driven from Louisiana in disgra ce, de-
prived of its privileges in the mail, this
lottery company has turned from the
former state to our own, and has, more
over devised plan by which may be
continued its vast business without viola
ton of the United States postal regula-
tions. An island lying off the coast of
British Honduras has been purchased
of the British government, from which
point will be carried on the business
with the result that, under existing pos
tai treaties. letters bearing a foreign post
mark cannot be denied across to our
mail. Beyond this, the entire business of
the Company will be conducted at Port
Tampa. Land has already been pur-
chased of Capt j. w. Fitzgerald, the larg-
est land owner here, plans are in prepara-
tion and, by the first of July, will have
been struck the first blow in a mammoth
building designed to accommodate the
three hundred clerks and printers
necessary to handle the ocean of tickets
every month turned loose by the lottery
company.
Not the least notable features of the
scheme are those involving the establish
ment of a line of steamers to Honduras,
and the determination of the managers to
transform the island of which | have
spoken into another such earthly Eden
as Monte Carlo. Three steamers will be
put on at once, and by next fall the
lottery line and the Caribbean Monte Carlo
may all be expected to be in full swing.
The establishment of the new steam
ship line renders necessary the excava-
tion of a channel from the pier to the
shore at a cost of 81 900, 900 For this pur-
pose a 100000 dredge has been con-
structed, and when completed the new
channel will be such as to permit the
largest steamers to reach Port Tampa.
Furthermore, the effect upon winter
travel of the establishment of a
pleasure resort upon a par with
Monte Carlo, subject only to its own
rules and regulations, and adorned with
all that wealth can command or taste
bring through the state in the season a
class of tourists who now spend upon the
sunny shores of the Riviera time and
money that should long ago have been
added to our visible resources. The
island is only 720 miles from Port Tampa,
and as it can most easily be reached by
way of Florida, the advantages to be de-
rived should be sufficiently obvious.
So far as Port Tampa itself is con-
cerned. those advantages are already
making themselves felt. The boom has
comet has come to stay, and already is
Capt Fitzgerald receiving from New
York orders for lots, hot from the wire.
That gentleman is happy; he wears a
smile of truly semi-tropical warmth, and
from his conversation with me, which
was long and interesting, | am well as
sured that by this coup de main the lottery
company will not only save itself, but
will do much to save south Florida and
give Port Tampa a commercial value,
prestige, an importance nobody could
have predicted for her two short years
ago.