Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1895-01-30
FLORIDA LETTER.
From our Regular Correspondent.l
JACKSONVILLE, FLA. Jan. 25. o,

After 80 long a time l will try to pen
a few lines from this hitherto land of
flowers and perpetual summer, but now
can boast of billiards as we'll as the
balance of our country. The late cold
snap certainly did great damage thro'
out the State, not only to orange and
vegetable growers, but to the railro ads
and every avenue of trade. 1t is felt
and that severely, although the news.
papers are slow to publish the extent of
it. They fear it will hurt the State in
the future. The railroads and steam
ship lines reduced the freight on oranges
fifty per cent. after the freeze for ten
days, but required all rates paid in ad-
vance. The time is now up and the
oranges are all gone. The packing
houses and fruit exchanges have closed
up shop for the time being, but the
most of them will open out again when
the vegetable crop begins to come upon
the market. What the people have
lost in oranges they expect to make up
to a considerable extent in this line.
The early gardens were all destroyed,
but they have gone to work in earnest
and are replanting on a much larger
scale. The most of the young orange
trees throughout the State are killed as
well as a good many of the older ones
but the way correspondents from the
principal sections write to the papers
here the outlook is more favorable.
This is a wonderful place for sudden
changes in the weather, One day freez-
ing cold and the next hot enough to
scorch a person, the result of which is
bad colds and pneumonia. A good
many deaths, principally among the
colored class, are reported from this
cause. The bitter feud between the
two political factions is being kept
up greatly to the detriment of the city's
growth and prosperity. The railroad
faction that is building the Union de-
pot and car sheds and spending q mil
lion or more dollars in the way of i'm
provements were enjoined from raising
any more of their immense sheds over
an imaginary street that has never been
any thing but a marsh and a source of
malaria until hundreds of thousands
of dollars were spent by the railroad
companies in filling it up with sand.
But the company soon showed the
Board of Public Works q trick worth a
dozen of theirs. They not only had
the injunction dissolved but had the
city dads enjoined from interfering
with their work in any manne what.
ever and 30 the work is rapidly going
forward. The Knoxville Building Com
pany who has this work, as we'll as the
city hall and market house in charge,
have secured another good job here in
the building of a large tenement house.
They now have about one hundred and
sixty five men employed as carpenters
masons, plumbers, timers, painters and
iaborers, and are rushing their work in
every department. They are knocking
the everlasting stuffng out of the city
contractors here. The sheriff of this
county was recently deposed by the Gov
emo and one Of the railroad faction
appointed in his place. The charge " as
unlawfully interfering in the October
election in which the city ring was de-.
feated. And now in order to retaliate
the city officers that were defeated re.
fuse to vacate to the parties that were
elected, and quo warranto proceedings
are being used against them, and the
knowing ones say it will only be a
short time until they will have to sue.
cumb, for which an overwhelming ma
jority will be grateful; for outside of
the late Tammany ring of New York,
this city takes the cake for corruption
and downright rascality. The electric
car lines and electric light plant will
o be completed, and mule power
and gas lights will then be a thing of
the past. The work has much retarded
by injunctions by disgruntled parties,
but nov the way is clear for their early
completion. This place has been over.
run by tramps, but the severe manner
in which the city or police is dealing
with them is causing them to steer
clear of the place. There is now over
one hundred of them in Jail and work
ing on the streets with terms of thirty
to ninety days. The police have strict
orders to run them in or run them
out" To show how impartially the
law is enforced here l will state that
twenty five saloons, at least, are doing
business every Sunday, and the fine for
30 doing ranges from $3.50 to $500 not a
single n of them has been pulled,
while q poor devil of a barber was
hauled up recently and fined twenty
five dollars for shaving a customer on
Sunday. Holdups are becoming very
common here. Every few nights some
late traveller is sand bagged and reliev-
ed of his cash and other valuables. 1t
is great fun to our Republican friends
here to guy the two Democratic fac.
tions about adopting the Australian
ballot system to knock the negro out of
his vote and having accomplished that
are now urging it to knock each other
out. One thing Florida can boast of is
poor, tough beef and shabby mich
cows. A mai that can masticate the
average boarding house beef for a few
months and retain any teeth certainly
has something 10 be proud OF. Their
average country pork here will weigh
forty to fifty pounds, and one half of
that is skin. l heard a good joke on
the Florida cows the other day. A
dairyman who was milking a herd of
sixty, had a little boy who was crying
Justify, was asked what was the mat
ter, when he said he wished papa had
more cows to milk. The little fellow
had actually drank the milk from the
sixty and was crying for more. But
of course the best of meats and vegeta.
bles can be obtained here as at other
places, but the houses that furnish such
to boarders have to charge a good round