The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-08-22
SOLDIERS BEAT TOURISTS.
UNCLE SANS BOYS SPEND MORE
MONEY THAN WINTER VISITORS.

JaclxsOnvilIe's Big Plum in Gen.
Lees COrps-AII Kinds of Business
benefited by the TroOps-Men in
Some branches of Trade to Retire
After the Army Geaves Camp-A
Million Dollars of Trade During
the Dull Season a Big Thing.
Jacksonville's camp of soldiers has
been far better for that city. from flnan-
eiai standpoint, than several seasons of
winter tourists would be. For the next two
months there win be fully twenty-five
thousand soldiers in camp there, and they
and the visitors drawn to the city by their
presence win spend hundreds of thousands
of dollars. 1t is a veritable bonanza for
Florida's chief city
This has been the liveliest summer in
the history Of Jacksonville" said a gentle
man who has been down at the camp re-
Gently. 1T has been case of making hay
while the sun shines, and the Jacksonville
people have improved on the adage by
making money while the electric lights
burn or the moon beams, as well. There
has been no attempt at extortionate
prices, though. Values have kept pretty
wen down to the average level, and the
result has been that there has been a ten
dency among the men to spend their money
freely feeling that no advantage is being
taken of them. One merchant there told
me that he estimated that the camp meant
an expenditure in that city of considera-
bly, over a million dollars, just at the very
dullest time of the year, too. You see there
have been from ten to fifteen thousand
soldiers there for some weeks past and 1t
is safe to say that on the average every
one of them has spent at least $40. 1 sup
pose $250,0OO would be low figure to put
on the money that has been paid out by
the soldiers alone, without regard to the
amounts spent by order Of the government
for such supplies as were purchasable
there or by the visitors to the city.
During the next two months, with 25,-
600 men in camp, 1t does not take much
figuring to see that half million dollars
would be a very conservative estimate of
the amount that will be put into general
circulation. Take a city of the size of
Jacksonville and that means a tremen-
dous infusion of life into business geper-
ally. Savannah missed a big thing When
she failed to get a camp. This city tWs
every advantage that Jacksonville can
offer and many that that city does not
possess. Jacksonville has proved very
satisfactory, though and there Is no pros
pect of a change until the time comes to
move the men out of the country"
1t is easy to see that every line Of bus
mess in jacksonville must have been ma
terially benefited by the presence of the
camp. The soldiers have naturally bought
many additions to their bill of fare the
rations Of the army getting monotonous
by daily repetition. Then there has been
unquestionably a heavy demand for I'M
derwear and other articles of clothing of
which the government does not issue a
supply sufficiently large to suit many men,
This has put much money moving in two
principal lines of trade. OF course the
restaurants and bars have also been BEN
eficiaries to a large extent.
one proprietor of a restaurant, whose
place of business has been freely patron
lied by soldiers, is said to have stated that
with just one year of such business he
could retire. The consumption of beer
has doubtless vastly increased, although
for orderliness the camp as a whole has
been far superior to any other. Cigars
and tobacco are two other Items that the
government does not supply, and for
which almost every soldier feels the need
The meeting of this demand meant the
turning loose of thousands of dollars eV-
cry week. Hackmen and street cars have
added to their bank accounts by the lib
eral contributions of the men in blue, and
the dealers in curios have hardly had time
to sleep, so incessant have been the calls
upon them for relics of the South to send
to the homes in the North and West
from which many of the soldiers hail
Young alligators, alligator teeth, alliga-
tor skins made up into slippers purses
and other forms. bolls of cotton, sheaves
of rice, stalks of oranges, green and ripe
photographs of Florida scenery, arrows
and stone pipes from Indian mounds all
these and many others have had a run
upon them that would have threatened the
capacity of the largest of down East"
manufactures of relics of all kinds.
The poor alligators are said to have
had an especially hard time of it since
the soldiers went into camp 1t may be
slight exaggeration of the facts, but
rurnors has it that a syndicate of Jackson
vile dentists was formed a few weeks
ago for the purpose of lassoing alligators
and extracting their molars to meet the
sudden requirements of trade. If all the
countless thousands of relics which have
been expressed from Jacksonville were
not really products of the state they an
swered the purpose sufficiently well to
make the recipients happy, and that Is
what they were bought for.
Jacksonville evidently would have no OBJ
lection TO the camp staying where it is
for an indefinite period. If it could be
kept there through the winter and the
tourist season be worked in conjunction
with it, the cup of the citys happiness and
prosperity would overflow.
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