The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1907-03-14

but their furnishings are OF equal
completeness and their habitues are
the quintessence of the wealth and
luxury of the world. Of night, az
ter dinner has been served and
when the orchestra begins its daily
concert, the -looker-on-in-yenice" may
gaze for his curiosity, If not for his
edifcation, upon the richest displays
of dress and toilet which the world
| of wealth and fashion can provide.
| The court of Louis XIV never shone
half so resplendant as does the Royal
Poinciana in the height of the tourist
season, and no old-world scene in the
/; palmiest days of the nobility could
compare with the costly gowns and
| jewels which adorn the persons of
the pampered few who flock to Palm
Beach to spend their money and ex-
hibit the many weaknesses common
to people of their class and kind.
1 cannot say that these exhibitions
of human incidence and weakness
were particularly attractive to me.
but l mention them simply as an IL
lustration of how the master genius
of A man has transformed a wilderness
| into garden where the most favored
of earth will flock to find what is to
them the acme of pleasure and the
height, for the time being at least,
of human existence.
And when / looked at the beauty
of landscape and architecture which
Henry NJ Flagler, assisted by the ele-
| ments of nature which this glorious
summerland provide, has produced
on the East Coast of Florida, and wit
| messed how he has transformed viii
derness into what Representative
Frank Clark few days ago in Wash
ington characterized as the Rievera
of America, / could not help but feel
that the man who had such ideas of
beauty in his soul must also have
great deal of good in him, and after
looking at these Ihings it is difficult
to conceive ham as the ruthless, soul
less csptain of industry which he is
so often pictured.
4
which particularly impressed me. from
Jacksonville TO Miami, is the good
roads idea which everywhere seems
to prevail. The Fiagler railroad has,
suppose, the best road bed in the
South; certainly the best in Florida;
and the streets of the cities, large
and small, and the highways through
| the country all testify to the appre-
citation which these people have OF
the value OF good highways to the
community which possesses them.
Jacksonville Is paved for the most
part with DricKy st. Augustine has
used brick, asphalt and coquina-the
latter a shell formation which is dug
4 out of the ground near the coast at
various places from St Augustine
south. When taken from the ground
it is soft, but when exposed to the air
it shortly becomes almost as hard as
cement and it fonns one of the best
street paving materials in the world
The streets of Dtytona, Sea Breeze,
Palm Beach, West Palm Beach,
Miami and, in fart, of nearly all of
it, and it forms Z pavement equal in
| appearance to aShaIt and, as / am
told, much more Rsting. From West
Palm Beach to Miami, some seventy
miles, the county has built road of
this material, am with an automo-
bile man may low make that drive
in a few hours. The plan, ! believe,
is for the counties to construct a hard
road of this KIM from Jacksonville
to Miami and a large part of the
work has already been done When
this is accomplished it will form one
of the most famous and picturesque
highways in the world and autoists
viii find in 1t liberalization of many
a dream for penetrating a section OF
the country Heretofore inaccessible to
them.
have never sen so many automo-
biles in Florida Is this East Coast
country affords. When you stop to
think that automobiles can be used
only where the best Of roadways
exist and that aifew years ago the
highways of the East Coast were as
sandy as are am of the sand roads
with which we Re all so painfully
familiar, it will lelp you to realize
what has been doe in road building
in that section ofthe state
j But, important $ those things are,
the people of theEast Coast are not
living on tourist hotels and automo.
blles alone. The East Coast Railroad
and the hard r0as which have been
built have enable them to develop
that portion of tb state from an ag-
. ricultural standpoat After you lesve
DaytoIa large range groves be-
come In evidencethen vast pineries,
pineapple fieldsl begin to appear,
further south grpe fruit is one of
; the most profitale crops, and back
toward the Evetlades and on the
drained portions of the Everglades
tomato fields putin their appearance.
, The chief prof I think are to be !
, made in pineapple and tomatoes. A |
: man who has bee raising pineapples