Middletown transcript., 1894-02-17

SSH&WAsMseFAD STORM, ana the
Eg#mTSIgP peach orchars are
STIzA showing the green
of New foliage, the orange groves continue
pleasing picture in green and gold,
though the golden apples are fast going
into boxes and off to the market of the
west and north.
The orange crop of this season is reported
to be the largest ever produced, is ex-
pected to reach by the end of the season
upwards of 100000 boxes, and the quality
is certainly excellent, as consumers in the
north are by this time well aware
Nothing in Florida has advanced more
rapidly than the means of getting about
with pleasure and comfort. Ten years ago
the tourist came down TO Jacksonville went
up the st. Johns river to Palatka, got over
to st. Augustine and then returned to the
north, to tell the less fortunate friends that
he had seen all Florida.
few more adventurous spirits would
find a way up to Enterprise, and then be-
lieve themselves at the very jumping-off
place.
Now there are railroads almost in every
direction with vestibuled trains making
fast time and you can reach any point of in
terest rapidly and and most comfortably.
The modern health seeker and pleasure
seeker have discovered, too, that South
Florida offers much more equabe and
comfortable climate than the old-time re-
sorts along the st. Johns, and now few re-
turn home without visiting the famed tropic
regions of Lake Worth OH the East coast
and Ponta Gorda on the west
The Improvement in facilities for COM
fortably reaching the Southern points of |
the State have been greatly increased since |
year ago, and where travelling was once |
trial it is now delight Leaving Jackson
vile couple of hours before noon, bound |
for the cocoanut groves and pineapple |
fields of the East coast, by the splendid |
yestibuled train On the J. T. & K w., the |
famous "Tropical Trunk Line" one is soon
at Titusville, where close connection is
made with steamers of the Indian River
Steamboat Steamboat Company, under the
same management. These steamers make
daily trips both ways during the season,
making the run from Titusville to Jupiter,
distance of 159 miles, in about twenty
hours. The boats are very comfortable and
furnish meals that are not surpassed bv
any hotel in Florida known to the
writer.
No Florida trip can give the Nothern
tourist more genuine pleasure than this run
on the placid and ever interesting Indian
river, past shores clothed in perpetual
green, through winding waterways between
Mangrove islands, stopping now and then
in sight of pineapple fields and the pretty
palm-shaded bowers of the prosperous and
progressive residents of this favored re-
gion.
The climate is mild here and the wind
soft and gentle, even in mid-winter, and one
may sit on the deck of the steamer far into
the night enjoying the picture of the pass
ing shores.
This season one may, by the train and
steamer service of the Tropical Trunk
Line" reach Lake Worth from Jackson
vile in less than thirty hours, and, though
the trip is not new to me, | have enjoyed
it this season even more than | did when |
first made it.
The Lake Worth country is on what our
Western friends would call "sort of
boom," and is attracting mnch attention
and increasing rapidly increasing in popu-
lation. Hotel accommodations have been
short this season, because one Of the princi-
hotels, the famous old "Cocoanut Grove
House" where SO many were accustomed
to feel at home with Cap" Dimmick, was
burned down last October, but Mr.. Flagler ,
has just finished there the biggest hotel on :
the East coast, to be known as "The ROYAL
Poinciana,' where nearly thousand guest
can be made comfortable al one time. This
hotel will open its doors on the 18th inst.
and with the smaller hotels and boarding
houses round the Lake, will be able to take s
care of all who come this season at
least.
This "Royal Poinciana'' hotel will be one ]
of the wonders of Florida, standing as it {
does in the midst of tropic growth covering t
its beautiful site of one hundred acres, l
washed by the waters of Lake Worth on
the one side and the Gulf Stream ON the i
other.
A town-a brand new town-has sprung {
up across the Lake, opposite the big hotel
When was down here last season there was
but one house on the site of this town; now /
there are good many, and more building.
An ice factory is nearly ready to start up,
to cool the the inner man, and two saloons
are already open to furnish something l
more heating than ice. On one corner an !
undertaken is preparing for the worst, near !,
him doctor is building an Office, little
further ON is drug store. and it is not far T
from that to the cemetery. So, you see, it
is no trouble at all, to CO. by easy stages,
from the doctor to the drug store, from the !
drug store to the undertaken and from the /
undertaken to the grave yard. believe !, J
that is about the usual course. =
Some people who have passed through
university are much sureprised, when they
come down here, to learn that pine-apples
40 not grow on trees and cocoanuts in the \
,round. like potatoes. Thus it is that, no s
alter how much has been spent on our J
.ancation, we can always learn something Ii
- If we travel and ask questions. n
- aLa Worth gardens are now pro- n