Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1908-07-02


dreaming dreams of a great future as
the Tyrol OF an American Mediterran-
can when the steel rails have linked
1t with the mainland and IT has be-
come the nearest port OF the United
States to Cuba, the Panama canal and
the countries lying around the Carib-
bean.
Meanwhile the Keys, those isolated
outcroppings of coral rock which lie
In a long, sickle-blade curve of $50
miles between the waters of the At
lantic and those of the Gulf OF Mex
leo, are getting used to the phenomena
of the new era. 1t is believed that
even the ghosts of buccaneers may in
time come to accept the developments
Of modern progress and resume bust
ness at their old Enthusiastically for
the benefit of romantic touring
public.
Their successors, the unromantic
present-day Conchs, have already
learned to take the revolution with
matter-of-fact eye to the main chance,
and the commotion In the least up-to-
date circle of piratical ghostdom
when the first engine whistle footed
through the palm groves could hardly
have been greater than among the
jewellers on some of the remote keys.
The engineers tell how terrified in
habitants fed from the first trains
with the same panic fear that led
a ha.n
to see the devil, or worse, in the first
appearance among them of smoke-spit-
ting steamboats,.
1t would be hard to find within the
frontiers Of the states a stranger or
more out-of-the-world region than this
of the Keys before the coming of the
railroad. Stranded at the threshold
OF the continent these islets lay out
side the path of even maritime trade,
although they form the northern and
western barrier OF the straits OF Flor
ida, the gateway from the Atlantic to
the gulf. About the only persons, ex-
cept their inhabitants, who had any
real knowledge of the Keys, were
few enthusiastic sportsmen who had
cruised and fished in the waters Of this
anglers paradise
The seas out of which the keys rise
are everywhere shallow, averaging less
than ten feet deep in their sounds and
channels, and a long line of light
houses follow the curve of the archi-
pelago on its Atlantic side, warning
vessels off its perilous reefs. Even
with these sentinels on watch this is
known as one of the dangerous coasts
of the world, and wrecking is a regu-
lar occupation of the island inhabit-
ants. In the old days 1t was a great
er and more profitable occupation.
The pirates and buccaneers are now
only objects of vague tradition, but
there is plenty of that to show that
they haunted this as well as other
regions Of the Spanish Main. Caesars
key and creek in Biscayne bay are the
more OF less well-authenticated re-
treat Of one of these worthless.
Key West was originally Cayo Hue
SO. or Bone island, from the quaint
ties of human bones found there by
the first settlers, but whether the
bones were those OF murdered captives
Of the desperadoes of the deep or
those Of Indian inhabitants is a mat
ter of opinion. Piratical tradition has
also been attached to Knights key,
the present terminus of the railroad
with which Henry NJ Flagler is OPEN
Ing the region. The name of the
island is alleged In this legend to be de-
rived from buccaneering worthy who
pre-empted 1t as his particular haunt
and who either bore the name of
Knight or was an outlawed knight
turned sea rover. The tradition be-
Ing little hazy on this point, the
more romantic version is perfectly
tenable.