Greenbrier independent. [volume] (Lewisburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1980, 1896-02-20

of st. Augustine.
President Bunnell, receiving it.,
said: "The gates are locked, and
we are prisoners in your hands, not
desiring to be released"
We do not consider the proceed
ings of the Association of sufficient
interest to the general public to war
rant detailed account Of them here.
Suffice it to say that they were Of
much interest to newspaper men, and
that during the four days session
many able and suggestive papers on
a variety of subjects appertaining
to newspaper publication we've read
and considered. All of these will
be published in the National Printer
Journalist, the official organ of the
Association, published at Chicago.
In the election of officers for the en-
suing year, Mr.. r.. II. Thomas, of
Mechanicsburg, Pa, was made Presi-
dent. Galveston, Texas, was selected
as the place for the next meeting,
which will probably be held in No
vember next.
ST. Augustine, q quaint, but an ex-
ceedingly neat, beautiful and inter.
esting old city, was permanently set.
tied by the Spaniards in 1868. Many
Of the houses built by them are yet
standing and in an excellent state of
preservation. They are built of the
coquina, composition of sea shells
and sand, found in inexhaustible
quantities on Anastasia island and in
many places on the east coast
When ground up and mixed with &C.
ment it makes building material of
great excellence and durability, and
was used by Mr.. Flagler in the con-
struction of that great group of
Spanish -Moresque palaces-the ho-
tells Ponce de Leon, Alcazar and
Cardova, unrivaled in magnitude,
beauty and architectural design.
The streets of the Spanish part of
the town are very narrow, many of
them hardly wider than alleys and
have no sidewalks. Chief among
the old landmarks of the city, left
by the Spaniards, is old San Marco,
now known as Fort Marion-a fine
specimen of medieval architecture,
built for defense. It., covers four
acres of ground, is built of coquina
rock and commands all approaches
to the city. The history of Florida
and of st. Augustine for many years
was really the history of this old
fort. Its construction was begun by
the Spaniards in 1865, and more than
a hundred years passed by before it
was completed-Indians, slaves and
prisoners of war laboring upon it.
tells that the cost of the
old fort was prodigious, and this so
worried the King then on the throne
that he impatiently inquired of one
of his officers, just returned from
Florida, If the towers were not about
high enough to he seen across the
Atlantic from his castle in Spain.
A delightful tea given in the fort
one afternoon by the ladies of st.
Augustine to the editors and their
ladies will long be remembered as
one of the most enjoyable of the
many attentions shown US during
our four days. stay in the city.
When the Spaniards founded st.
they surrounded it with a
wall built of the coquina rock. All
thst remains of this wall is the gate,
or rather the rock posts which are
still strong and we'll preserved and
seem determined to resist the ele-
ments and the ravages of time
Another interesting spot to tourists
is the plaza or public square, con.
tanning the old slave market, the
only monument extant commemora-
ting the new Spanish constitution of
1912, and a fine monument to the
Confederate soldiers, whose names
are inscribed thereon. Near by is
the Old Cathedral, built about the
middle of the 18th century, st.
Francis barracks, formerly a monas.
terry, now occupied by the Third Ar
tiliery U. s. A., and the sea wall be-
gun in 1890 and finished by the
United States government in 1848.
However much the visitor may be
interested in visiting the old part of
the city and its many relics of by
gone age, he will be none the less inter-
ested when he comes to note what
modern progress and the millions of
Henry M. Flagler have done for the
historic old town. New and wider
streets, with good sidewalks, have
been laid out and paved with asphalt,
and on every hand one sees the evil
deuces Of a new life. The crowning
glory Of modern enterprise, as seen
at st. Augustine, is the group of
splendid hotels containing every con-
venience and luxury modern inge.
nifty and cultivated taste can sug-
gest, and all built in style of archi-
lecture in complete harmony with
their ancient surroundings. The
Ponce de Leon is structure Of man.