The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1894-01-24
BILL ARP'S LETTER.
Arp Still in Florida Whore There are
Plenty Of Visitors and Good Fishing.
atlanta Constitution.

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 I 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 a girl hang an enormous
trout and she held him and played him
around until he got tired and a boat
was sent out to secure him. I 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 fish, man remarked
that it was a sin to weigh fish, for
they always fall short.
Tampa is lively. The hotels are
filling up, trade is good and money
circulating jut like it used to before
the panic. =. ost Of this money comes
from abroad aud is quickly scattered
around. Every other house is either
a hotel or 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
l8O 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 a week.
The Tampa Bay hotel, where the
millionaires oongregate, has not yet
filed up, but will be by the middle OF
the month. It is magnificent house
and so bewilders me that Ifeel solemn
in it's 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 a hotel. While you
are walking on velvet carpets that cost
S. yard, or sitting ON chairs that
cost $50 apiece, and see paintings on
the walls that costfnm 500 to St, 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, 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. It was just large enough for
my audience, and am pleased to say
that I was able to conceal my embar-
rassment. Not that l was afraid Of
the people who sat before me, but
somehow I never feel at ease in
house that is so much finer than mine
own. It is art, not nature, that makes
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 "My 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 as the rising tide shall beat,
All traces vanish from the sand,
Yet as if grieving to efface
All vestige of the human race,
On that lone shore loud moans the sea,
But none, alas! shall mourn for me-"
Mr.. Wilde was an Irishman, who
came over here after Emmets untime-
ly death, and settled in Augusta, and
I suppose he had some reason for pen
ming such sad, sweet verses. wish
that he could see Tampa now. lwish
that Rev. Frank Goulding was alive
to see it, for it was here that he To-
Gated that terrible devil fish that car
ried the boat and his children ('The
Young Marooners') far out to sea,
There is no desert strand now no
lone shore; no devil fish.
Lakeland is little gem of town
and 7 have not found better hotel in
Florida than the fremont. 1t is just
fine enough and good enough for any
body. It overlooks one of the pref
tiest lakes have yet seen, and the
town is surrounded by many others.
This is quite railroad center and
might have been city if Tampa was
farther off. It will be city yet, for