The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-04-15

migating apparatus of the quarantine station, and a wooden bridge leads across the fifty-foot-w moat to the heavy granite portal. A steam launch | and several smaller quarantine boats float peacefully in the moat, and in a
 dozen steps from the entrance the vis- itor is within the fort. On every side stretch away the long rows of case
 mates. one above the other, in as good | condition now as when first built.
 The fort proper is too solid a structure
 to become ruin in anything less than | centuries. The only signs of decay ever evident have been in the wooden galleries to give access to the barbette
 magazines, extending in front of what
 a civilian would call the roof of the
 fort. These have been weakened by
 age, and occasionally hurricane has
 blown one down. To the right is a
 cottage for the keeper of the Tortugas harbor light, which shines from the
 top of one of the bastions, and beyond
 this is an immense, three-story brick
 building, barracks for the men. Di-
 rectly opposite the entrance, across
 the inclosure, is the officers quarters, ! ebiioliCi ltil lLISC-ololJ bliSrN ] building. To the left of this is a row of one-story brick houses for the non- commissioned officers.
 The inclosure up to the time of the recent activities was a picture of des- olation. Bushes had overgrown it,
 and there were trailing vines that trip
 the exploring visitor, and buttonwood trees in clusters. Thirty cocoanut palms have grown till their feathery tops are far above the walls of the fort. When there were one thousand prisoners and about eight hundred sol diers within the fort outbreaks of vel low fever were frequent, and all the victims but two were buried on neigh
 boring sand-keys, which have since been washed away. A small monu-
 ment near the barracks marks the
 resting place of the two who were bur jed within the walls-Brevet-M jor Joseph Sim Smith, assistant surgeon,
 who died of yellow fever September 8,
 1867, aged thirty years, and Henry
 Price, only son of Joseph Sim Smith,
 who also died of yellow fever ten days later, aged three years and six
 months.
 Water was always a serious question at Fort Jefferson, and immense stone tanks were built for it's storage, ex-
 tending under almost the whole struc-
 ture, and under a large section of the inclosure. A giant steam condenser
 was kept almost constantly at work;
 but this expensive machine has stood
 so many years idle and uncared for hot ic ,.,,t,, Ixy, ;e,f f,J1 to pieces. The quarantine establish
 ment was supplied with rain water
 caught upon the acres of roofs.
 The most noted prisoner the fort held was Dr. Mudd, the physician who attended John Wilkes Booth after the | assassination of President Lincoln | Dr. Mudds cell was one of the large casemates in the lower tier to the left | of the entrance, and some one has | painted upon the exterior of its heavy wooden door: Leave hope behind who enters here'' It was a gloomy ! but spacious room, from which Dr. 1 Mudd made several unsuccessful ef- forts to escape. At the time of one of | the serious yellow fever epidemics in | the fort, when not a surgeon was left | dilNe oli tIie lSiduu, l'I. huuu olleieu | his professional services. They were accepted, and he worked so faithfully | that the officers afterward united in | signing the petition which secured the | prisoners pardon.
 | In one way and another, more than | thirty million dollars has been expend- l ed upon the fort, and until the recent | discovery that it was valuable base
 for naval operations in the gulf both
 military and naval men were disposed l to laugh at it as useless work. It is
 so well built, however, that with small | expenditure it can be converted into a
 formidable modern fortress-New | York Times.