The Baraboo news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1884-1911, 1907-02-27
CHARLES H. LEE WRITES OF HIS
EXPERIENCES NFLORIDA
PRICES ARE HIGH IN THE SOUTH
. G. A. r. and Confederates Meet To-
gether but Women are Still
Bitter.
st. Petersburg, Fla.


paper is something never did before
and think [ am too old to learn new
tricks but since THE NEWS asked me
to, [ will try and give my impressions
of the country here. We are nicely
located in four room cottage about
two miles from st. Petersburg on a
bayou that opens into Tampa Bay.
Our cottage faces the bay and the view
is fine. [ cannot say that [ like the
country very well. The climate is the
best part. am writing this out doors
in the sunshine.
We are about one-half mile from the
Rev. J. w. Hargrave, who used to be
the pastor of the Congregational church
in Baraboo. Our near neighbors are
his sister and brother who own the
cottage we are in. We have the use of
their horse and also their boat. We
also have an oyster man for neighbor
and he brings us oysters when we want
them. We get more than pint for 10
cents. Also we can get large fish for
10 cents. We have bought fine oranges
for 10 cents per dozen. Grape fruit for
l cent each, but they are much higher
now. Northern products are very
high. Potatoes are 40 cents peck or
$3.50 per bushel; wood is high and
there is no coal used here. Living is
cheap enough if one is satisfied with
what is produced here, but if one
wants meat and northern products
they are high. We have not had a
frost since we have been here.
Hardware High
st. Petersburg is city of hotels and
boarding houses and board is very
high because they have to make enough
in about four months to last a year.
So to $15 per week is the average. /
would like to be in the hardware busi-
hess here. They get the largest profits
/ ever heard of. For instance mortise
lock that is sold in Baraboo for 40
cents they get 55 cents for here.I talked
with a hardware clerk who had been
in business up north and he said the
profits down here were double what
they were in the north. Our boy
Robert, is improving quite fast and the
outdoor life is doing him good. We
have made up our minds that this is a
pretty good old world of ours. Every
body is so full of sympathy for him
that he may get spoiled. All the way
down here and every place we go with
him, every one is so good and kind and
ready to do everything for him and us.
The women, especially, give him
flowers, fruit and candy. People who
see us going by with him in his wheel
chair, run out and ask about him and
are so full of sympathy that we are
quite overwhelmed.
We have got acquainted with sever
al old rebels, as they call themselves.
They are fine fellows and in this place
they and the g, A. r. are all together
in the same hall. The late unpleasant
ness is all done with as far as the
men are concerned but strange to say
the women are still spiteful about the
Yankees coming down here and whip
ping them. I think if Uncle Sam
wanted to heal the breach completely
and break up the solid south, it could
be done by giving the remaining con-
federate veterans pensions. 1t would
be initiating the father of the prodigal
son and would bury the hatchet or
sword forever. 1t was the awful mis-
take the government made after the
war was over in reconstruction times
that made most of the feeling that
now exists. If the policy of the inn
mortal Gen. Grant at Appomattox had
been continued do not believe there
would have been half the trouble. The
rebels admire Grant almost as much
as we do upnorth. They think, though,
that he was notquite as great general
as Gen. Lee. Yesterday the flags were
up in honor of Lincoln's birthday.
Not Ahead of Wisconsin.
AS for my impression of the country
it cannot come up to Wisconsin. 1t is
low and fiat. We have not seen hill
since we have been here. 1t is very
well to come and get rid of our coldest
weather, but we do not want to live
here. The soil is all sand and has to
be fertilized to raise anything. The
cost of fertilizing is why it is hard to
make money here. Also the the cost
of getting the fruit to market is awful
Continued on Last Pags.)