The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-04-07
JAMES DOUGLASS, '2SAe"Ass3 2.sz7

feet below the surface. and the well itself
goes down through forty-four feet Of
rock, smooth and clear-cut all the way.
When the sun is nearly OVERHEAD the bot
tom of this deepest well can be seen al
most as plainly as the bottom of the
pool and the outpour OF water Is suili-
Gent to drive cut all the sand and debris
that might otherwise fill it up. None OF
the Others are as deep as this, but sew
eral come within a few feet of H.
You are not thinking of buying any
land hcreabouts, are you2' the captain
asked. IF you are. you'll have to travel
about some to get your titles. This place
has seen about as many ups and downs as
any in Florida, and it's owned by as many
different people as you can see pine trees.
almost. one hotel after another has been
built and burned down, and Of course peo-
pie say that some of them were burnt on
purpose, but don't know anything about
that
THE land. though. I can tell you some
thing about that. It's not very valuable
land, as you can see for yourself. The
only thing that makes it of any account
is the spring. few years ago some
company or other bought ~ UP and wanted
to sell most of the land II didn't 20 off
as fast as corner lots in Broadway: and
they invented a way Of dividing it up into
small lots, say 10Oz200 feet. and selling to
tie place in Florida You see about two
thirds of the land was swamp, and the
other third was covered with scrub or
heavy timber, and clearing it was ex-
pensiVe work. They advertised IL in
northern newspapers, so I'm told, and
sold great many lots at from So to $40
each. When the people who bought came
to look at their lots, and found most Of
them under water, somehow they weren't
altogether satisfied. Any way, after most
of the lots had been sold, some of your
New York newspapers wrote the thing up
and called II a swindle. Some of the peo-
pie paid little extra to get corner lots.
Lots! Why, good Lord, man, the land
maybe is worth IS or $40 an acre, so a
building lot can't be very valuable. The
only roads into the region are wagon
tracks through the sand. and finding a cor
ner lot was the hardest thing in the world.
They tell me several thousand people
bought lots here. but most of the land
must have been sold for unpaid taxes
long ago.
After that venture was over either that
company or some other company got up a
new scheme Well, sir, the scheme they
invented was one Of the funniest things
you ever saw. and I'm told they made
money out Of il. What do you 'spose they
did? They had a sort of a puzzle pub
lished in hundreds of newspapers and adj
vertised beneath that whoever sent them
a correct answer to the puzzle would get
for a premium a valuable building lot lin
Florida You understand It was a very
easy sort of a puzzle, so easy that any
body could make it out That was the
idea, you know, to have people solve It
and send in the answer.
Il don't know how many people sent
in answers, but a great many did, they
saw The puzzle was so easy, you see,
that most anybody who saw it could solve
It, Weir s'pose you made it out and
sent the solution to the address they
gave. Then in a few days you'd get a
letter from them saying that your answer
was correct and 1t would cost 81 to make
out the deed for the lot. II you were
green enough to send the 81, as a great
many people were. you'd get a sure
enough deed for a lot at Silver Springs.
Then that would be the end of It. People
didn't stop to consider that It would hard
" pay to spend 500 TO come down TO Flor
ida to look after 81 lot. In a little while
the land was all sold for taxes.
THAT was the way II stood the last
time / knew anything about It, l don't
know how It may be now. Maybe some
body'a cleared the titles all up It's not
a place that's ever grown very fast. any
how Grow? Why III tell you. one time
when ] was up here about ten years ago
l walked around the place a bit and no.