The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1894-01-16
ARP IN FLORIDA.
WHERE THERE ARE PLENTY OF VS.
ITORS AND GOOD FISHING.
The Hotels Rapidly Filling and Arp is
Bewildercd at the AIagnificence of tho
One at Which lie il stopping.

sailed fish from their boat at Tampa. The
barrels were all marked for Charleston
/ interviewed these fishermen and they tolo
me they caught as many as 10000 in week
down at Sarasota bay. Now l am done
with fish stories. L left my folks fishing
at Clearwater. but they are not SO wild
about it now and will soon get tired. ]
girl hang an enormous trout and
she held him and played him around until
he got tired and IL 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 a sin to weigh fish, for they
always fall short.
Tampa is lively The hotels filing
up, trade is good and money circulating
just like it used to before the panic. Most
of this money comes from abroad and is
quickly scattered around. Every other
house is either hotel or a boarding house.
! The strangers come from everywhere up
north and many from Georgia and Tennes-
see. L came down with man and mis-
| wife, who were from north Michigan, and
had never been south. 1T entertained me to
see their amazement, for he said he had
| just put up $50 IONS of ice before he left
| home. They are delighted with the com
| try and with the people. He said every
| body 50 kind and naborly and that ne
had no idea Of finding such good people
down south L 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 death at home, and
she came. She has improved much within
| week. The Tampa Bay hotel, where the
| mlllfonaires congregate, has not yet filed
| up, but will be by the middle of the month.
| 1t is magnificent house and so bewilders
| me that l feel solemn in it's beautiful apart
| ments 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
S. yard, or sitting chairs that cost $50
apiece and see paintings the walls that
cost flom 800 to $1,000 and the whole build
ing In a blaze of heavenly lights and delic-
iOuS music charming the ear and delightful
odors pertaining 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 n she
said John. John, it's more like the king
dom of heaven than anything 1 ever ex-
pected to see in this world" Now, with
all that, [ was invited to lecture in the
music hall of this grand structure, and [
did it. 1t was just large enough for my
audience and | am pleased to say that L
was able to conceal my embarrassment. Not
that was afraid of the people who sat be-
lore ne but somehow J. never feel at ease
in house that is so much finer than mine
own. 1t IS art, not nature, that makes ne
tilnid. Mr.. Plant must be a wonderful
man to plan such q grand system Of rail-
ways and hotels and parks and steamship
lines and yet he makes no great noise IN
the world. For years and years he has
been perfecting this system. and every
branch of it moves along like cIockwork
thousands of men are employed by him and
his enterprises have already added many
millions to the value of property in Florida
This beautiful city of Tampa is a mOnu-
ment to his genius More than half a
century ago Richard Henry Wilde wrote a
little poem, beginning MY life is like the
summer rose" and the last verse was
tYe Yet as lsS If gfieviit;g to efface
All vestige of the human race,
On that lone shore loud means the sea- |
But none, alas, shall mourn for me-
Mr. Wilde was an Irishman, who came
over here after Emn1etS untmely death,
and settled in Augusta, and / suppose he
had some reason for penninS such sad,
sweet verses l wish that he could see
Tampa l wish that Rev. Frank
Goulding was alive to see it, for it was here
that he located that terrible devil fish ttat
carried the boat and his children he
Young Marooners'D far out to sea. There
is no desert strand now; no lone shore; no
devil fish.
Lakeland is a little gem of a town and l
have not found better hotel in Flori-
da than the fremont. 1t is just
fine enough and good enough for anybody.
1t overlooks one of the prettiest lakes |
have yet seen, and the town is surrounded
by many others. This Is quite a railroad
center and might have been a city if Tampa
was farther off. 1t will be a city yet for
such beautiful locations and surroundings
| are not common, even in Florida. AS old
| Father Dobbns used to say, The Creator
| has quit making land but He keeps on
making people" and Lakeland will be found
| out before long.
[ have been to Barlow, the center of the
| phosphate region. Thirty companies have
ORGANIZED within the county and millions
of dollars invested in land and machinery.
There is capital here from Boston. New
York, Baltimore, Richmond. Pittsburg,
! Charleston, Savannah, Augusta and At
lanta But all is not gold that glitters. or
these thirty companies only sixteen are in
actual operation. OF these sixteen only
seven have made any money. There is
phosphate enough, but everything depends
| upon management and location. | visited
one plant six miles in the country that is
| being operated by receiver. What bus
mess this has got to be! The receiver!
! There ought to be book upon 1t just like
| the books for lawyers and doctors and other
professions. 1t should be made textbook
in the schools. | think l would name it
'"The Lawyers Harvest, the Creditors Grave
and the Stockholders Funeral But this
phosphate business is yet in it's infancy ana
! improved methods of mining and WaShlng
will soon be invented. The Peruvian islands
are exhausted. and now nature unlocks an
| other storehouse in Florida that seems suf-
| ficient for centuries to come. w nat IS IL:
| 7 asked 'Is it animal vegetable or min
eral?' Tt is a mixture of all. they say,
but chiefly mineral. I found some sharks
teeth They abound in all Of i-sharks
teeth from one-fourth Of an inch to four
inches IN length. Some OF those antidliu-
vion monsters must have been as large as
Young whales, but how in the world did
they all congregate on this pennsular when
the great CONFUSION came that upheaVed
ito Verify the world is full of mysteries.
and we know nothing hardly. Fortunes
have been made here by the few who are