Gulf Coast breeze. [volume] (Crawfordville, Fla.) 1897-19??, 1898-01-21

|
the tourists begin to flock to this
sunny land for health, comfort and
pleasure. The visitors are more nu.
merous now than they have ever been
before this early in January, and up.
pear to be enjoying themselves i'm.
mensely.
The report Of collections by the
office Of tire collector of Internal reve-
me for the month of December, 1897.
has just been given out for publication.
| 1t shows total collections of S37, 722. 40.
The collections for tie year is 1850
1857, as against SAP ,6Ol, ~ Tor the
year 1896, decrease of Sl3, l05.3O.
President Mckinley recently mp.
pointed central committee to solicit
hid for the Cuban sufferers. The com.
mittee wrote to Governor Bloxham to
know what might be expected of the
people of Florida in this matter. He
informed them that he would appoint
every mayor il the state to receive
contributions, and asked the commit
tee to name q point in Florida where
the donations would be received by
them.
The phosphate mines Of Levy coun.
ty for the last four years have been
the abiding place of the state convicts,
with Albion as stockade headquarters.
The last Legislature appointed a com.
mittee TO visit the different convict
camps and report on the condition of
the prisoners, and the outcome was a
change of lessees to take effect January
/. On January 3 the cOnvicts were
sold TO the following lessees: J. A.
Crawford, s.. l.. Varnado, W. y. Camp
and West Bros, for the next four
years, with n privilege to sublet them,
81 900 being the yearly revenue the
state derives. On the morning of the
One of the most disastrous calami.
ties that ever occurred in Leon county
happened ut the plantation of L. G..
Rawls, six miles north of Tallahassee,
the past week. He had steam gin,
which was run by a twenty-five horse
power boiler. Soon after firing il M
il did not seem to work satisfactori-
ly, and some one tied the safety valve
down. As result OF this unusual
proceeding, the boiler exploded,
wrecking the engine, gin house and
engine house, killing the engineer and
scalding and manning six other men
all colored. A piece of the boiler was
found three miles from the scene of
the explosion. The loss TO Mr.. Rawls
is about 1000, with no insurance.
Adiutant General Houstoun of the
Florida state troops is devising
plans for making the malitia more
efficient and raising all the companies
to n higher standard Of excellence Of
practical soldiery. He has recently
instruced Colonel w. $. Proskey, who
is at the head of the ordnance depart
ment, TO prepare regulations with this
end in view. These regulations are
being put i'll form, and will soon be
promulgated to the troops. The ideas
that are to be embodied in his report
involve the bringing all the companies
OF the various battalions up TO uni
form high standard of excellence in
general, and particularly with re-
gard to craftsmanship.
Preparations are rapidly going for
ward for the national fishery congress
which is to meet in the auditorium OF
the Tampa Bay hotel on the 18th inst
and continue in session one week. The
Tampa board OF trade and the city
officials have arranged Il programme
which is likely to make the visit OF
the delegateG one of great pleasure
and long remembrance. The Plant
system has rendered the use of one OF
its steamers which will enable the Wis
itors to take u trip down Tampa Bay
TO Egmont Key. The exposition build
ing is in readiness for the displays TO
be male y the government, individu-
ais or companies, Governor Bloxham
has received responses from twenty
live other chief executives, all OF whom
have expressed their intention of hav-
ing commissions present to represent
their respective states.
+. W. Carraway, n we'll known tur-
pentine man Of Wakulla, has returned