The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-08-06

the 500, O,0o0 bonds issued by Raleigh for
street improvements.
4

the S100.0o0 bonds issued by Raleigh for
street improvements.
In the centre of the city st. James
Park occupies a square graced by go
900 Confederate monument erected last
year by the generosity of rich Texan
and unveiled while the troops were in
camp here and. grouped about it
are the chief hotels, churches,
opera house, and handsome residences
that make Jacksonville the Mecca for
Northern visitors in the winter. They
come IN great crowds, most of them
rich as cream seeking health and
pleasure and recreation no matter at
what cost. The regular population of
goes down to $4,000 and in the winter
UP to 10000 and sometimes even more.
If | were the mayor. of the city, | would
take the census OF the city in the winter
when / could count in all the Yankee
visitors and the influx of servants and
others who come to wait ON them and get
the sheckels which they scatter. Talk
about gay times,' said an old resident,
you ought to be in Jacksonville at the
season. There's more fun to the square
States. But it comes high"
Il
Living is high in Jacksonville. talk
ed with young North Carolinian who
is making his way in the commercial
world. After graduating at the Univer-
sity he said he borrowed a little money
and came to Jacksonville to make his
fortune. 1T costs more to live here
than in North Carolina he said, but
you can make more. There are more
openings and more money pours in here
One gentleman told me that upon o
guess he would say that eighty per cent
of the money invested in Jacksonville
was invested by Northern men. They
came here for health or pleasure and
found opportunities to make eight to ten
per cent on investments, with chances of
doubling it. Many of them withdrew
their New England three per cent invest
ments and put their money III Florida
enterprises The big men like Plant and
Flagler built great systems of railroads
and steamboat lines, electric car lines
and modern hotels. The smaller capi-
talists invested in everything from alli-
gators up to orange groves.
People outside of Florida do not ap-
preciate the magnitude of the loss sus-
tanned by the folks here when the orange
groves We're destroyed by the big freeze
a few years ago. 1t will he twenty
years before the groves are again bearing
as when cut off by the most disastrous
freeze of which there is any history.
'sIhink about what we lost" said a we'll
informed gentleman. There never was
an earthquake, a famine, a shipwreck, a
pestilence that cost so much i'll money as
the cold that killed the Florida orange
groves. ] doubt whether the people of
the country have ever realized that the
disaster was so great" 1t was a blow
from which many will never recover.
One gentlenlan-not resident of Florida
had for many years invested all mis-
earnings in an orange grove and incurred
some debt For several years prior to
the freeze he had been in receipt Of a net
income of $1,000 year from his oranges
He had just gotten out of debt when the
freeze destroyed every dollar Of a life
times saving. He cannot retrieve his
fortune because he has not the money to
expend ON another grove, and if he had,
the necessities of his family demand that
he 90 20 wori. at something that will
bring i'll quick return. And his condition
is that of many others. The destruction
of the orange crop brought loss on all
sides. The railroads, which had done
much TO develop the orange business, lost
heavily in freightS on the oranges and
the bulk of business which good prices
brought in the sections where they are
grown. But you find nobody in Florida
sitting down wringing their hands, and
crying over the milk that is beyond re-
covery. Those who can have gone to
work to grow new groves and others
have gone into other lines of industry,
for Florida is a State that is confident OF
its future. If Florida has lost its orange
money for some years, it still has two
sources from which it can get aliving
Yankees in the winter and potatoes in
the sumnor As long as these crops
hold out, Florida will not be downcast at
anything else that may overtake it.
-
They have no politics in Florida to
divert them from digging potatoes in
summer or trading with Yankees in the
winter. AT least, Florida has no parti.
san politics. The Australian ballot law
is i'll force here and it disfranchises most
of the negroes and a few of the white
folks. The result is that Republicans
take no interest in politics, and compara-
lively few of the people take the trouble
to vote. The total vote of the State in
recent election was only 12,000 only
few less than We're cast in Wake county.
But the Democrats have politics till you
can't rest minute in the party prima-.
ries. There is no fun and no contest ut
the regular election, but enough to make
up for ii in the Democratic primaries
4 nomination being equivalent to an
election, there is blg fight over the
nominations, especially to the most i'm
portant places, and there are not want
ing well organized factions within the
party, but the primaries are regulated
by law and there is general acquiescence
in the decree of the primary. A man
rarely bolts the primary nomination. If
he does, he invites and receives political
annihiLation. The white people Of
Florida had bitter dose Of negro and
Garnet bag rule up to 1877, and they have