The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1894-02-07
BILL ARP'S LETTER.
Arp Still In Florida Where There are
Plenty Of Visitors aud Good Fishing.
atlanta Contribution.

-. atlanta Constitution.
I saw two fishermen unloading
cargo of salted fish from their boat at
Tampa. The barrels were all marked
for Charleston. I interviewed these
fishermen and they told me they
caught as many as 10000 in week
down at Sarasota bay. Now l am
done with fish stories. Ileft my folks
fishing at Clearwater, but they are not
80 wild about it now and will soon get
tired. saw girl hang an enormous
trout and she held him and played him
around until he got tired and boat
was sent out to secure him. l guessed
he weighed fifteen pounds and others
guessed twelve and ten, but when he
was put on the scales he came down to
nine. An old fisherman remarked
that it was q sin to weigh a fish, for
they always fall short.
Tampa is lively. The hotels are
filing up, trade is good and money
circulating jut like it used to before
the panic. Most of this money comes
from abroad and is quickly scattered
around. Every other house is either
a hotel or a boarding house. The
strangers come from everywhere up
North and many from Georgia and
Tennessee. I came down with man
and his wife, who were from north
Michigan, and had never been South.
It entertained me to see their amaze
ment, for he said he had just put up
18O tons of ice before he left home.
They are delighted with the country
and with the people. He said every
body was so kind and naborly and that
he had no idea of finding such good
people down South. I think that his
wife was almost afraid to come, but
she is in bad health and she had just
as well risk the rebels in Florida as
death at home, and so she came. She
has improved much within week.
The Tampa Bay hotel, where the
millionaires congregate, has not yet
filed up, but will be by the middle OF
the month. It is magnificent house
and 80 bewilders me that I feel solemn
in its beautiful apartments and don't
dare to talk in my usual tone of voice.
Everybody else seems to feel so too,
for it is not like hotel. While you
are walking on velvet carpets that cost
IS q yard, or sitting on chairs that
cost $50 apiece, and see paintings on
the walls that cost from 500 to s., 600,
and the whole building in blaze OF
heavenly lights and delicious music
charming the ear and delightful odors
perfuming the air and the servants all
in livery, a common man feels like the
old woman at the circus for the first
time in her life. When the grand
procession Of beautiful horses, with
their riders in spangled garments,
came marching in, she said: "John,
John, it's more like the kingdom Of
Heaven than anything I ever expected
to see in this world" +" Now, with all
that, I was invited to lecture in the
music hall Of this grand structure, and
I did it. 1t was just large enough for
my audience, and I am pleased to say
that I was able to conceal nay embar-
rassment. Not that I was afraid Of
the. people who sat before me, but
somehow I never feel at ease in
house that is 80 much finer than mine
own. It is art, not nature, that NJ axes
me timid. Mr.. Plant must be won
derful man to plan such grand sys-
tenn Of railways and hotels and parks
and steamship lines and yet he makes
no great noise in the word. For years
and years he has been perfecting this
system, and every branch Of it moves
along like clockwork. Thousands OF
men are employed by him and his en-
terprises have already added many
millions to the value Of property in
Florida. This beautiful city Of Tampa
is monument to his genius. More
than half a century ago Richard
Henry Wilde wrote little poem, be-
ginning 'sMy life is like the summer
rose," and the last verse was
"My life Is like the prints that feet
Have left on Tempa's desert strand,
Soon IS the rising tide shall beat,
All traces vanish from the sand,
Yet rs II grieving to efface
An vestige OF the human race,
On that lone shore loud means the ses,
But none, alas! shall mourn for me-" =
Mr.. Wilde was an Irishman, who
. came over here after Emmet's untime-
ly death, and settled in Augusta, and
/ suppose he had some reasonfor pen
ming such sad, sweet verses. lwish
that he could see Tampa now. Iwish