Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1902-01-01
FROM SUNNY SOUTHLAND
A, PLEASANT TRIP is DESCRIBED
An Interesting Letter from Mr.. ]. M.
Akers, Who, with His Good
Wife, is visiting Rela-
tives in Florida.

SPRING PARK, Fla, Dec. q, 1901.
ED. PUBLIC OPINION:
AS 1 agreed to write you when 1 got
to my journeys end, l will try to do as
I promised. I left Decorah Dec. 5th,
ticketed over the c. M. & st. p. r. r..
to Ocala, Florida, via Kansas City;
from Kansas City over the Kansas
City, Fort Scott and Memphis to Men,
phis, Tennessee; from Memphis to
Birmingham over the Frisco line; from
Birmingham to Montgomery over the
l.. & N. railroad; from Montgomery
over the Plant System the rest of the
way. Ispent several days in sunny
Kansas as it is called, but 1 must con-
fess that from what I saw, I would
say that things were not hurt by the
sun shining, al the thermometer
registered as low as eight below zero.
1 left Kansas in the night and travelled
through portion of Kansas and Mis-
souri, before morning, when we reached
Arkansas. Here 1 found very low
and swampy country with pretty good
timber and plenty of saw mills to make
it into lumber. And another thing
that seems strange to a Northern man,
is that they build their houses up on
stills from two to four feet from the
ground without any underpinning
except small peers built up of brick or
timber, sawed, set in the ground and
the house set on them and q chimney
built outdoors. 1t seemed to me that
it was great mistake for folks to leave
their chimnays out doors in the rain. /
travelled quite distance by railway
enroute to Florida, and must say that
I received the best and most courteous
treatment from the employees Of the
G. M. & st. Paul railroad of any road I
passed over. The seemed to look to
the comfort of the passengers better
than asy other ssnployees Of any other
system. Asto climate, Florida can't
be beat. On the 2lst day of December
it was quite cold; saw ice one half
inches thick and the folks here said,
"Oh 1t is so cold," and seemed to COM
plain of the cold as bad as the folks do
in Iowa. Aud on the 22nd it was nice
warm day and on the 23rd went
with others tn gather some hickory
nuts and we took our dinner with us
and ate our dinner in the woods; it was
SO warm we sat under larch tree to
eat. On the evening of the gath, /
went to Christmas tree entertain
meut that was gotten up by the Sun
day school aud day school combined,
and can assure you that it seemed so
odd to me to 60 to such an entertain
ment on Christmas Eve and have no
fire In the house and the door standing
wide open all the evening, and it was
perfectly comfortable I" sit there from
730 to ll:OO o'clock. And every young
lady that had anything to do with the
exercises was dressed in white, the
same as if it was the 4th Of July. The
morning of the 25th the thermometer
registered fifty degrees and it was q
beautiful day. We are able to get vege-
tables from the garden here now.
Strawberries are in blossom and the
farmers say they will commence their
farming the irst Of January. l am
not prepared to give any opinion in
regard to the country further than the
climate, but can assure you il had
farm of Iowa soil here in Florida 1
would not spend another cold day in
Iowa. When have more time to look
around, will try to give you some
idea of the country. l can say now
that it is beautiful country to look at,
and we must not expect to get all the
good things in one place.
]. M. AKERs.