The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1897-04-28
WONDERS OF KEY WEST.
LiF0 on tho Little Island or the Florida
Coast

NOaSI,
The inhabitants Of Key West writes
q Chicago Record correspondent, dis
tingulsh but two seasons-the dry and
the rainy. There is SO little variation
in the temperature, they say, that sum-
mer and winter are divisions Of the
calendar rather than OF climate.
Key West Is not only the most south
erly point Of the United States, except
some islets few miles out into the
gulf stream from here, but It is also
the most isolated place Of It's size or
anything approaching its population.
There are Western mining camps and
Alaskan towns that get mail leas fire.
quently, but here is a city Of nearly
10000 inhabitants, with fine govern
ment buildings, great shipping inter-
ests, daily newspapers and manifold
business affairs, the capital Of Flor
ida county, and with mail from the
United States but twice a week. The
people do not rest content under it.
All very well It might be, they say, for
an antipodean town, but not for one
within the limits Of the United States,
One result Of the spasmodic mail GER
vice is that all business and much So
cial life is arranged in harmony with
it. The mail steamer is scheduled to
arrive at p. m. every Tuesday and
Friday, having sailed from Port Tampa
at 10 the evening before. All Key West
devotes its attention on steamer day
to waiting for the mail, beginning that
task soon after noon by scanning the
horizon for the first glimpse Of the OK
pected craft.
After the steamer is in, public inter
est. centers at the postoflice, where
crowds wait for the distribution Of the
heavy semi-weekly mails. That occu-
pies the remainder of the afternoon. At
night the vessel sails for Havana, re-
turning from the Cuban capital the fol-
lowing evening. Wednesday and Sat
urday are therefore steadily devoted
to the answering Of their mail by the
citizens Of the island, in order to be
ready for the north-bound pouches, and
on those days it is said to be virtually
impossible to transact business on that
account.
The voyage of a night and day from
Tampa TO Key West is a delightful
one, if the weather be as pleasant as
it usually is. Unless a norther is driv-
ing, sea and sky are propitious when
the traveller Wakens, and the daylight
ride is almost tropical. An hour before
the boat reaches the dock half dozen
of the little islands, the Florida Keys,
are in sight, TO play the part of first
land" always interesting after how
ever short a voyage.
1t is not difficult to imagine a whole
month made up of first impressions OF
the place, all to be corrected or revised
after further acquaintance. The town
is by no means obvious. Its stores are
scattered all through the residence
streets, so that there is virtually no
business district At the docks there
gathers such crowd OF colored people
to welcome the ship for the profit in
handling cargo or guiding passengers
that one might think the white popu-
lation nOn-eXistent. And with local
peculiarities Of society and climate and
race, altogether different from anything
to be found elsewhere in the United
States, it is not strange that the casual
visitors fail to even scratch the surface
of the interesting things to be found
here
A question of nomenclature offers
peculiar illustration. In a little pamph-
let descriptive of the island the author
relates that it is named Key West be-
cause it is the westernmost Of the Flor
ida keys" or small islands. The map
would have told him that this could not
have been the reason, for the Marquee
sas keys are twenty miles west Of here,
and the farthest of the Dry TOrtugas
three times that distance. But ii he had
looked at the date line of the Spanish
daily paper published here, or any
Spanish document or map, or listened
to any Cuban on the street, he would
have found that the name for hun
dreds Of years has been Cayo Hueso,
Bone Key" and Key West is but
corruption.
There are many vernaculars here
American English, Cuban English,
Bahaman English, southern negro Gu
ban negro, Cuban Spanish and Key
West Spanish. And one must know
them all if he is to be really certain OF
what ic said in any OaSSinu crowd