Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1895-05-29
FLORIDA LETTER.
From our Regular Correspondence
BARLOW, FLA, May 20, 1895.

orange crop. Vegetables OF all kinds
are fine and in abundance. One man
near here has one hundred acres in DO.
tatoeS for which he was recently offered
twelve thousand dollars and refused it.
The cost to him to date has been four
thousand dollars, and he is shipping at
the rate of one car load per day. 1t is
said he will clear ten thousand dollars
on Irish potatoes alone. The corn,
though later than usual, looks fine and
with a continuance of the usual rains
Of late, will yield abundantly. The
past few months has been an unusual
season here in every way. The I'M
~precedented cold weather in December
and February coming first and at a
time when the most of vegetables were
grown in this State naturally destroyed
the most of them. Hitherto vegetables
could not successfully be raised here
In the hot season of the year on account
Of the excessive heat and drouth in the
spring and early summer months; but
this season is an exception. Hereto
fore this season of the year was remark
ably dry up to about the first or mid
die of July when the rainy season set
in and continued for two or three
months; but all this is changed this
year, aud the farmers and truckers are
consequently much benefited thereby.
Merchants and business mel generally
report times as looking up. Most of the
phosphate mines in some sections of
the State have shut down temporarily
in order to force up prices, and it seems
they are going to be successful. The
prices have been very low, and wages
have been correspondingly reduced.
They mostly employed colored labor
which a be secured for much less
than white. All the phosphate mined
here is shipped to foreign parts, mostly
to Germany. 1t is certainly a big item
for the railroads to carry to the seaport
towns. Court has been in session for
the past two days and a large number
of blind tigers" were up and severely
dealt with in the way of State fines.
Some of them are u almost as openly
here as licensed saloons; in fact the
most of them take out United States
license and pay but little attention to
the local authorities. A great deal of
whisky is drank here, but an ~intoxica-
ted person is not often seen. The place
is orderly and quiet, and the people
generally are making every effort to
recoup their recent losses. A great
many of them had depended on the
orange crop for support and conse-
quently had become indolent and la
zy, but the prospect of Old "Pete" mot
Turney) in the near future, has aroused
them from their lethargy, and they are
now putting forth efforts that are bound
to succeed. If nothing unusual occurs
this country will soon be itself again.
We have been having some very hot
weather, but the refreshing breeze
from the Atlantic Gulf maks it endur.
able, and do not see that one suffers
with heat any more than in Tennessee.
The nights usually are cool and very
pleasant, and a man with clear con-
science a certainly enjoy sleep. Your
correspondent, with some seven hun .
dred other excursionists, made a run
down to Tampa and Port Tampa, some
sixty miles below here, one day last
week and had a real enjoyable time.
1t was an excursion gotten up by the
various Sunday Schools of this place
and Lakeland, and the crowd was very
orderly and quiet; but few roughs were
about. The docks at Port Tampa pre-
sented quite a lively scene, loading and
unloading the large steamers lying at
the wharf. We contemplated a sail
down the bay and around among the
keys, but the regular steamers had de-
parted and no arrangements having
been made for a special we had to con-
tent ourselves loafing around the dock
and Picnic Island, a resort for picnic
ers, where the most of US ate our din.
ners from we'll filled baskets brought
along for the occasion. We stopped
about one and one half hour at Tampa,
but u limited time debarred us from
taking in much of the city. This is in.
deed a hustling city, a vast number of
fine factory buildings have been erect
ed here within the past two years which
gives employment to a large number of
laborers, mostly cigar makers. The
Tampa Bay Hotel, erected by the great
railroad magnate, H. B. Plant, is loca-
Gated here; it is certainly an imposing
building, and is said to be the finest in
the South, having cost upwards of a
million and a half dollars. 1t, as well
as the balance of the big Florida hotels
are closed for the season. Most of the
country from here to Tampa is beauti-
full and with proper management could
almost be made a paradise. Some of
1T, however, is very uninviting and like
a great deal of Florida, l think the
good Lord is heartily ashamed that he
ever made it. Our work here on the
phosphate plant in the course of erec-
ton is nearing completion and then l
shall 60 back to Jacksonville or old
Tennessee. Would like one more drink
of good cold water without ice. The
water here is all surface water and
very warm. We have the benefit Of