Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1907-04-18
On the Florldian Coast.

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RUSH VILLA, CLEARWATER HAIR
BoR, FLA, April 9, 1907.
Ed. Register The place from
which this letter is written is not as
we'll known as are many of the
other resorts of which Florida
boasts, because there are no great
hotels here. Yet the bluffs here
are not equalled by those on any
other part of Florida's great coast
line. Every foot of them is in the
possession of rich people from
various parts of the United States.
All of these land-holders have
erected fine houses on their prop
erty, and nearly all of them have
private piers adorned with artistic
pavillions or bath houses, so that
the view from the bay is indeed
imposing.
Many of the great winter resorts
here seem to have been established
with but little regard to their en-
vironment, on the theory, ! sup
pose, that the DEFICIENCIES of nature
can be obscured by the arts of
man. The world-famed Tampa
Bay Hotel, for example, is sur
rounded by ground marvelously
rich with semi-tropical vegetation,
but when one goes to the borders
of the property all the glory dis
appears and he wonders how such
a site could have been selected.
In fact, Flagler and Plant with
all the millions they have spent,
and all the genins they have dis
played, can not reward their pa
irons with such scenery as is en-
joyed by men of more moderate
means who have had the good
judgment to invest in the limited
elevated tract of land that borders
this harbor. To sit on this porch
and look through a tangle of
vegetation-palms, magnolias, bay
trees, liveoaks festooned with
Spanish moss, and hanging vines
down on the many colored waters
of the bay and thence across the
harbor to the narrow palm decked
island which, like a long green
wall, serves as a barrier to the
pillows of the great gulf, visible
beyond it, is to behold one of the
lovliest panoramas that nature
spreads before the human eye.
Not much OF Florida is so won
derfully endowed with beauty,
however, and but few hundred
yards back from this bay the
scenery is not such as to arouse
enthusiasm. The absence of grass,
the white soil, the pal metto shrub,
and the pine trees mutilated by
the turpentine gatherers, result in
a wearisome spectacle. But the
monotony of this flat woods dis
trict is broken at irregular inter-
walls by hourishing groves of
orange, lemon and grapefruit
tree. So in the midst of this ap-
parent sterility a great prosperity
abounds, and fortunes are being
made where it seems that nothing
save poverty could flourish.
We have found the temperature
ideal and, as the skies have been
cloudless, every day so far has
been devoted to outdoor pleasures.
The trip down here was rich with
interest, although, much against
our wishes, all Of the travelling,
with the exception Of crossing
Hillsboro and Old Tampa Bays,
was done in the dark. The first
day was spent in Memphis. There
we visited friends for a time and
then took in the various points of
interest that the town possesses.
The second day was given to
Chattanooga. For this Of course
we had planned, and what we saw
there cannot be adequately de-
scribed to any one who has not
visited the place himself. The