Middletown transcript., 1894-03-03
a ponlpano!

good name of ever
pompano!
The plan of warming fish on each side
and leaving it raw in the middle may suit
an epicure with a perverted palate and
severe cast of countenance, but a plain
Eastern Shoreman who has been in the So
ciety of good fish most all his life, and
without looking in the dictionary wants
his fish cooked beyond the possibility of a
doubt. 49,.
The fish that one finds on the tables of
the Indian River Steamboat Company are
deliciously cooked and served, and give the
passengers good idea of the merits of the
pompano at his best, but some Of the cooks
at whose mercy 1 lfave been in Florida
ought to give up trying to cook pompano
and turn their attention to smoked herrings
Whenever I am in Florida 1 cannot but
wonder why SO many hundreds of its acres
remain unimproved and unoccupied while
thousands of presumably intelligent people
in the big Northwest spend seven months
ofevery year in trying to keep from freez-
ing to death, and the other five months in
waiting for it to rain.
Florida has some drawbacks, to be sure
but poor mans struggles there must be
nothing short of picnic by the side of
" those of his Oak ota brother of the same
condition. who has to put his pumpkins in
the oven to keep them from freezing, thaw
his whiskey before he can take a drink, and
who practically only lives about five
months Of the year. and the rest of the time
devotes himself to combating cold intense
enough to stop everything but the interest
on ten per cent mortgage.
Down along the Florida Southern rail-
road, and about Charlotte Harbor, there
are fine fruit and vegetable lands to be had
at low prices and on very reasonable terms,
ten acres of which l would rather own, to
get living on, than a whole Dakota Sec
ton.
One thing is certain, a person will never
freeze to death on the peninsula of Florida,
and, unless he is too lazy to live, he need
never go hungry. l have never yet
seen beggar in the state. or a person who
looked too poor to be happy, save profess
ional tramps from the North, n good many
of whom are in the habit of wintering
about Jacksonville and st. Augustine.
l believe that the poorer people in Florida
live better, and have more comforts and
know less of "hard times" than those of
similar condition in any other corner of the
world, and if the advantages of the state
were better known in some of the boom,
regions of the West, where the inhabitants
are alternately frozen up, blown up and
dried up; there would be more rapid in
crease down here in a useful class of the
population.
In regard to health, Florida will average
up pretty well with the rest of creation. l
believe there is no state in the union that re.
ports a smaller death rate, and while there
is what the doctors call malaria, in places,
as there is in every ether STATE, much of the
East Coast region, the hilly lake country
about Winter Haven, in Polk county, and
many other agreeable localities are renlar-
kabiy free Of maIarial troubles.
From the first of last May until a month
ago about six hundred mechanics and
laborers, many of them unacclima' ed to the
extreme South, were employed in build
ing the big hotel recently finished at Lake
Worth. The great majority of these men
lived in tents. s,.through the entire summer
season, generally disregarding all sanitary
I precautions, and eating. canned meats and
similar fodder, and yet there was not one
!, death resulting from sickness among them,
far as l have heard. There was some
! sickness. of course, and few took pity on
the undertaken and generously got them
selves shot.
Florida will always be the Mecca of
Northern winter tourists because it has no
competitor--it has the only agreeable and
beaIthful winter climate under Uncle Sans
flag. and the only one We are likely to own
until we grow more careful about the
oualitv of our Presidential jawbones---and
whom the other railroads give as good a
messenger service as the popular Tropical
Trunk Linen is giving this winter, and
wben there are more good hotels with
reasonable rates, there will be good many
more visitors from the land of old-fashion
ed winters, and damp, mean temperature.
Good hotels are increasing year by year.
and there are many that furnish excellent
occommod ations at fair rates, and more are
wanted of the same sort. The hotel man
should not try to get rich in one brief sea.
son. such course is sometimes fatal.
Nv idea of spending winter in Florida
,loosontIv and at the same time inexpen-
sively. is to camp. In many places one
nav rent a small cottage reasonably cheap;
n others rough board house may be
built at the cost of a weeks board at some
hotels or a couple of tents will suffice for
two or three persons. In South Florida the
winters are dry and warm and one will be
ont of doors almost all the time, save at
n;gbt and shelter to sleep under and keep
one,straps under, is about all that is abb
sol,aelv needed. Camp life in Florida in
winter is not only delightful but most