The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-04-08
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ORLANDO TO PORT TAMPA.
Signs of Prosperity at the Towns
Along the Route.

AAbHS inc hOuNts
Port Tampa, Fla, April 7-Your cores
pondent took a run down here from Or
lando over the Plant system this morning
to note how the signs of prosperity show
| themselves at various points along the
| line.
All about Orlando there were evidences
that lots of people are going extensively
into pine apple culture under cover, some
Of the sheds extending over many acres.
This boom has been caused by the re-
markable success of several experienced
growers there during the last few years.
AT kissimmee, once an overgrown boom
city, there is an air of new life and prog
ress as the result Of the purchase of the
Hotel Kissimmee by the Plant system,
which has also been liberal in helping other
lines of Improvements that promise to
bring back some of the old life of the
place. The Sugar Belt and Florida Mid
land railroads are now consolidated and
through train makes round trip daily
from Narcoosee through Kissimmee TO
Apopka.
Haines City seems to have revived a lit
tie and great improvements have been
made on the depot, while a Auburndaie
the early vegetable and strawberry traffic
is much in evidence. When prices rule
well in northern markets all this section
from Lakeland to Tampa, is alive with
business enterprises. The soil Is fruitful
and the crops abundant, and many far
mers hardly think of orange culture when
the strawberry and vegetable season opens.
Tampa and her suburbs are holding UP
well under the Cuban war pressure and
not few new buildings are going up, as
well as a Port Tampa City, the residence
suburb of Port Tampa, which is all out
on the long piers. The Tampa Bay hotel
is still open, but the process of closing up
has started in the famous show parlor
The season has been a good one, and a
number of improvements have been made
on the grounds of the hotel
Here at the port all is activity, as usual.
in extending the ship canal into the shore
sufficient distance to allow plenty of
room for dozen or more steamships to
load or unload at the same time into the
railroad cars along the docks 1t has been
a long and costly job so far, and will
cost some thousands of dollars more 10
complete the original plans, but President
Plant has faith in the investment, put
ting over hundred thousand dollars into
a single dredge.
At the wharves are the Morgan line
steamship Whitney from New Orleans to
Havana, and the Olivette of the Plant
system, from the latter city. Near by the
big four-masted schooner f. w. Clark is
loading with phosphate, 10000 tons of
which were shipped from here last month.
Two other vessels are at hand to load
this week. Riding at anchor in halling
distance are the United States cruiser
Montgomery and the United States school
ship Chase. The presence of all these
vessels makes travel on the railroad line
to and from Tampa and business for the
hotels.
One of the latest attractions is the new
horseshoe route from The Inn here to
The Inn at Palm Beach, on the East
Coast. This is made by a union of the
Plant and F'lagler lines into Key West
where Flagler now has a good hotel
Plants railroad and steamship takes the
tourist from Tampa to Key West, and
from that point the Flagler steamship
and railroad takes him TO Palm Beach. In
making this horseshoe" trip he circles
the long line of famous Florida keys, on
which, in the near future 1t is proposed
to build a steel trestle railway from Miami
| to Key West.
This" writes Maj Sidney Herbert of
| the Hotel Gazette of New York has been
| a most excellent winter for the hotels in
| Savannah, and never before has that
| beautiful Forest City" seen so many
| tourists within her gates seeking mild
climate and congenial scenes. The ele>
| CANT De Soto hotel has served to make
| Savannah an important "stop-over' point
| for the best class of tourists who visit
/ Florida; and few indeed fail to be charm
/ ed with the scenes and society of that old
/ aristocratic seaport city that Oglethorpe
/ founded upon Yamacraw bluff long years
ago, and where the famous preachers
| John Wesley and George Whitfield. once
| lived and labored,"