The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1898-02-04

has given way to o new life akin to
that Of the Newport season, where
entertainment is regal and lavish,
where the most delicate taste or the
more elaboia ate desire can be satisfied
with the best. A new city of art and
splendor has taken the place of she
quiet quaintness of the old hc:nelike
hotel life.
The oldest house seems to have
disappeared from the town; there is
an occasional old house pointed out
by the driver, who is also your guide.
hut it is gabled and remoulded in the
style Of today. The poetry of dark
eyed senoritas and of swarthy Span
iards bolero is memory only, for
there have been no Spaniards in St
Augustine for many years. Even the
overhanging balcony projecting owe,
the narrow street to meet its opposite
ncighbor is fast becoming thing of
the past. Very few buildings give
evidence of antiquity or of popularity
in const, uction, and there are no
patios with blooming oleanders and
perfumed fountains.
Almost the sole remaining evidence
of the earlier days when Spain made
the history of this section is the old
Fort San Marco which, since the
purchase of Florida by the United
States in 1921, has been called Fort
Marion, in honor of the revolutionary
general of that name. The fort stands
on the original site of the Indian
council house and its log successor
built by Menendez. 1t was finished
in 1856, during the reign of Fcrdi-
nand vi, as shown by the tablet in
Spanish over the sally port, which
also bears the Spanish arms of CASTLE
and Leon. This royal insignia has
been made common property by the
St. Augustine shopkeepers and it has
been fashioned into richly enamcled
buckles, sleeve buttons, pins aud
other articles which share, with the
baby alligator, the popularity of a
Florida souvenir.
Probably Fort San Marco is the
only example of we'll preserved med
ieval fortifica,ion in America and is
u striking example of military art,
with it's massive walls of coquina
stone, battlement. bastiOns and out
works, covering over twenty acres.
Fantastic and even Crews omc tales
have been told and in the main be-
lieved regarding the dungeons and
black cells, secret chambers walled
up, in which skeletons were found
in irons and chained to rings in the
walls, with corresponding story of
the inquisitorial methods practiced
prior to this century. These stories
are entirely unsupported and may
very properly be put down as vagaries
or inventions. as they lack even the
merit Of local tradition, much less the
warrant of documentary record.
There are occasional evidences of
the antiquity of the town to be found.
however, which contribute their part
to the memory of nearly three cen
turies of Spanish rule and denote the
love for a semblance of the customs
and life of the mother soil. On the
plaza is a monument commemoratng
the adoption of the liberal Spanish
constitution in 1912 and fronting the
plaza is the cathedral, which was
erected in 1871, but burned recently
and rebuilt, the facade along being a
part of the original structure. One
of the bells bears an inscription with
the date 1852. which would tend to
established the fact that it is the
oldest church in the United
States, although the old Dutch church
at Tarrytown was established in 1885,
and the adobe church of San Miguel
in Santa Fe it is claimed was built
in 1850.
70 neglect the opportunities for
bicycling on the level roads about
the town and country. is to declare
one self ignorant of wheeling pleas.
ures. Miles upon miles of hard shell
like asphalt, with no hills to climb,
must appeal to the lover of the wheel
and across the bridge. on lovely
Anostnsia Island, starting from LA
Casn Marina. one cnn ride for twenty
miles on the hard Atlantic beach and
watch the dolphins jump hardly a
hundred feet beyond the surf. while
taking dip in the sea yourself
Brooklyn Eagle.
And after the pernsaI of th>