The St. Lucie County tribune. (Fort Pierce, St. Lucie County, Fla.) 1905-1920, 1906-03-02
SAM JONES
IN FLORIDA
The Noted Evangelist Completely
Charmed With East Coast.
W0RLD'SGREATR RESORT
tie Tells OF Miami and florida's Wonderful
Prosperity - The Works of Henry
N. flagIer tul0gized.

Sam Jones the noted evangelist, writ
ing from Palm Beach to the Atlanta
journal, among other things, says;
II am spending this week in the Land
If Fruits and Flowers and Fashion,
Truly Mr.. Flaglcr has made the East
Coast of Florida vcrtablc Eden. and
deserves the gratitude of the people Of
lhis growing State. His railroad iron
extends 400 miles from Jacksonvillo,
and was told that ten thousand men
will soon be put ON the work of the Key
West extension which leaves the main
land of Florida about thirty-livr miles
south of Miami and follows the line Of
the island keys to Key West. Perhaps
forty miles will be bridgcd by steel and
concrete pillars at an enormous cost,
and they predict that ainswiII be rum
ming into Key West in four years then
the United States will be in five hours
boat ride to Havana.
81 spent two days in Miami and it :
the gem city of Florida. They cIam
5000 in population, and it IS 4 most
beautiful place. California haano place
more enchanting. The hotels, he pub
lie buildings, the residences, tn" bank
and business buildings and the driveway,
are rs fine as money and brains can
make them. Here they have the Royal
Palm Hotel, and there are others, not
Of the i'laglcr group, just aH fine amt
Just aS full Of guests, and they are all
full. My, what Il place to enjoy your
SELF and spend your money Million
aires and men of all grades find Il place
here. Single meals from 500 down to
IL cents. Board from 81 Il day to $50 II
day for single person, and each class
enjoy their stay at Miami. found
many Gcorgians there, and they are all
.doing well in their business and trades,
have not spent two days more
pleasantly anywhere.
Il was charmed with suburbs of
Miami, the hammock land around the
city, covered with the vines and native
trees of infinite variety the cocoanut
orchards, the pineapple fields, the grape
fruit and limefruit. The junglcS Of
Africa are not more impossible than
these hammock forests are when un-
touched by the axe. The roads an"
built with anativc rotten limestone. 1t
is easily blasted and worked, and when
nut down and run over by the road ma
chine it is smooth and very hard 1t is
a sort of mixture between cement and
osphalt. 1t worries me to see this new
country with its splendid up-to-datc roads
and North Georgia roads almost i'm
passable. and we either too stingy or
tooidotic to fall in line with the balance
Of the world on the good roads program.
"The South now has the money to do
anything and everything she wants to
do, If the fool farmer and merchant in
our Southland would quit shipping his
money to Wall street through the bucket
shops, and put that cash in home inn
provements, we would soon be on top.
II really believe that the South has
oambled off and lost enough money in
cotton futures since the Civil War to
have made our Southland the Eden of the
world, and Wall street knows as well
how to filch them as a cat knows how to
catch rats. We gamble with the old
greasy deck and speculate in cotton la
Georgia courts, but both games are on
level, | believe, all the same.
"But back to the subject before US:
81 find the resident population on the
east coast of Florida healthy and pros
porous. The pastor of the Methodist
Church told me to-day that out Of the
ranks of the home population in the year
1908 the death rate was not one IN a
thousand. There were, he says, four
deaths in resident population of 5,OOOin
and around Palm Beach. That being the
case this is the most healthy section in
all the world. :,
"The merchants seem cheerful ana
happv and laboring people seem pros
nero,Is. and all the east coast is all
right. do,z,sd nv the splendors of