The people's journal. (Pickens, S.C.) 1891-1903, 1901-03-28
BILL ARP DOWN IN FLORIDA.
He Is Back from tue Land of
Flowers and Tells His Ex-
pef1enCe

No"NA@ "hu ASAiS hlS Tx
per1ence
l had pleasant call to Florida, and
have just returned. The railroads
make it so easy for you now that even
a veteran can travel ii he has the
money. | left home one morning
after early breakfast, and was in Jack
sonville that night to supper with my
boy and his family, Is miles in thlr-
tccn hours, and Travelled over parts Of
four roads. Ii was a daylight trip and
had opportunity to notice the changes
that latitude make in vegetation. This
new route TO Florida is star lue
FROM Atlanta and the West. 1t i'll
cludes the Nashville, Chattanooga and
st. Louis, the Western and Atlantic,
the Central to Macou, the Georgia and
Florida Southern to Na!dosta and the
Atlantic, Valdosta and Western to
jacksonville, The pretticst clcancsL and
best regulated city in the South. All
of them lirst-class roads, with parlor
cars and dining cars and slcepcrs that
run all the way through. They don't
even tarry at jacksonville, but keep
Oh and on TO the jumping off place, if
you wish TO go there. That new 70. Il
between Jacksonville and NaIdosta has
made this speed and comfort possible,
for 1t has done away with the elbows
at Tifton and Waycross. The great
Plant system has no elbows after YOU
get on it, but it IS long ways from
Atlanta and the West. The new road
was Just what our people wanted. 1t
is lirst-class in all respects, and makes
It's ITO miles III less than three hours.
| like these straight FLORIDA rail
roads; they don't reel you about like
our roads among the mountains, and
they just glide along like a snake in
the grass. These mountain roads
swing an Old man around the curves
and stain his groin and loins and
and cpgram and make him
sore and stiff for two or three days
after he gets home. [ can hardly navl-
gate now: and yet my wife wants me
to plant some lettuce and beans and
Okla and work among the roses right
away. Besides ali this, the cook has
quit, and L have got TO get up by sun
rise au,l fire up the stove aud put on
the coffee and hominy and then call
her to get up and cook the rest of lhc
breakfast. | used 20 make the biscuits,
but | have struck on that; | don't be- |
licvc that mans rough old horny
hands were intended TO mix up -four
and milk aud lard in biscuit dough.
My old fncnls, Judge llillyer and
Judge Underwood, were once walking
along a side street in New York and
as they passed a bakery they saw the
bakers through the blinds, and they
were trcading douA h in the long lrouyhs
with their feet. Judge IIillycr said
" DO you reckon their feet are clean 2"
" We'll, ycs,' said Underwood, :"
reckon they are by this time; they have
been trcading good Whites But |
don't care a cent about the cook quit
ting. | believe IN elf-maintrnancc--
believe that every hou ,ehold should be
am proud to say that
my wife and my children have never
begged co TO stay against her will.
llonors are easy; let her so and rest if
sho wants to. The fact is, it suits me
pretty well, for the cooking is better
and tho things are cleaner and 1t saves
money--we get along on less victuals
and can dine out with our children
every day or two. We can use bakers
bread and make Toast and bake Irish
potatoes and fry eggs and get along
fine without cook.
But | WAS thinking about Florida
fair Florida that Ponce dc Leon found
fifty years before the Pilgrims found
Plymouth or John Smith found James
town. Fair Flolida--thc Eldurado Of
this continent. 1t has been hidden
for all these years, but has been found
| never saw the lik; Of mlhcrn
tourists, the hotels at Jacksonville arc
overrun, and IT takes several columns
IN their papers to give their names.
These tourists are all rich, and spend
their money freely. The men are
fairly good-looking, but the women look
tired and prcmaturcly old. Northern
women will not compare with Southern
women for beauty and refinement of
manners. have known this for fifty
years. They have to work too hard !;
poor things, am sorry for them. They
have got nothing but money. | walked
round the IT. James and Windsor and
never saw beautiful woman; they are
masculine and coarse, and not an angel
among them.
New England or New York or any
Of those cold, icy States wont produce
fairies or sylphs or angelic creatures.
You have TO come as far South as
Philadelphia and Baltimore to find a
beautiful woman, and they arc scarce
even there. You don't find them in
plonty until you get down to Charles
ton and Savannah. Down here where
[ live they are nearly all good-looking
and graceful, and ats David Uarum
said, are coupled well and stand up
square OH their pasture JOINTS and step
like deer. This is their good fortune.
not only from hcrcdity and climate,
but because our men arc more chivalrC
to their wives and daughters and do
not work them SO hard.
A recent number Of New York
paper says our lon9-haircd phllanthro
pisls arc fcarlully in earnest about the
Southern negroes, but you never hear
of them regulating the toll of a woman