The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-04-01
DOWN THE ST. JOHNS RIVER.
Changes Which Have Taken PInce
I'm Twenty Years.

I'm Twenty Years.
On Steamer City of Jacksonville, March
S1-A trip on the famous st. Johns river
at this season of the year is one of the
great attractions that the tourists enjoy.
There is nothing monotonous about it,
nearly every hour being filled with some
new object Of interest.
Leaving the wharf at Sanford about
o'clock a. m, the steamer crosses Lake
Monroe, some four miles wide. and makes
her first landing in front of the Brock
house, near Count De Bary's elegant win
ter home. AS Manager Atkins of the hotel
has offered the National Editorial Associ-
alton a large tract of land and some
buildings across the street from the Brack
house with its beautiful grounds, for a
national editors home this place is just
now point Of especial interest.
But land at De Funiak Springs. in West
Florida, as well at the Hotel Interlachen,
near PalatlIa, has also been rendered, and
the executive committee of the associa-
ton Is soon to meet and decide upon one
of the three places, and a strong effort is
| being made in behalf of Enterprise.
A short run brings us to the foot of the
lake, where the river Is crossed by the
| Jacksonville, Tampa and Key West rail-
way bridge, and here the tourist gets his
| first view of the obnoxious water hya-
cinth in large masses on either side of the
river around the piers of the bridge.
| thousand delicate lilac-colored blooms can
now be seen shooting up nearly a foot
| from the dark green foliage of this pest to
| boatmen. But to the tourist, especially
ladies, the sight is a beautiful one, and at
several landings negro boys sell many of
| the hyacinths 10 enthusiastic lovers of
water plants, who desire to put them in
| tubs of water at home.
Beresford, on Lake Beresford, into which
| the steamer makes a side trip, was the
first important landing made. At this
point a branch of the J. I. & K. w. rail-
way runs out to DeLand, a great educa-
tional center, and fine business city. At
ter leaving a good deal of freight we
took on a great many passengers from De-
Land homeward bound to the north.
Aside from FISH and vegetables, we took
on but little freight at any points on the
river. Just now the fishers are quite M
| merous and the several camps seem to be
doing a good business Near the light
| house at the entrance to Lake George
there are several fish camps and we took
aboard a number of barrels of shad for
northern markets. At this point we saw
an official from the United States fish
commission with a force of experienced
men engaged in repienishing the stock Of
fish IN the river. This process Of replen-
ishing is made necessary by the large army
such quantities of shad
At Manhattan and Astor 1 was reminded
OF what / have often written about--the
valuable uses to which the once despised
saw palmetto is being put. At The for
mer place we took on some large boxes
filed with the broad, fan-shaped green
leaves Of the palmetto to go TO the Church
Of the Redeemer in New York for use on
Palm Sunday. Large shipments of these
leaves are also made TO England. At
Aston / saw the big plant for extracting
fannie acid from palmetto roots. There
Is also connected with II a tannery for
tanning hides by this process. Just now
the plant is idle owing to the enlarge
ment of the establishment, to meet
growing demand for its various products.
There Is no end of saw palmetto in Flor
ida. and these new industries can be *
tensivey developed.
The orange groves along the river are
not looking as well as / expected to see
them, although a few OF the best located
are being well-carcd for. IL will be two
or three years before the old orange traf-
fic on the river i9 revived, and IN It's abb
sence all other branches OF business ere
somewhat dun. Some very fine cabbages
were taken on board AT various landings.
showing good soil and proper cultivation.
and doubtless many grove owners are
keeping up their money supply through
this means
At Palatka we dropped or n large num-
Der OF passengers, some to take the Florl-
da Southern railroad 20 Ocala and others
the East Coast railroad 10 81. Angus
tine, while SIN others will spend a few
days az that popular winter resort
In conclusion ! cannot forbcar to note
the wonderful changes on the noble ST.
Johns river during the past twenty years.
When ] first represented the Morning
News on the river, ln a trip up or down.
we were constantly passing litue and big
steamers, hnd whistles were ever and
anon sounding The signals OF courtesy.
To-day. however. only one steamer calls