Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1908-12-30
EHESUNNY SOUTHLAND
LETTER FROM DIR. III. III. GREEN
IN FLORIDA.
Describes Trip From Chicago
Through Historic Battlefields
and Quaint Plantations of
the South.

Palatka, Florida, Dec. 26, 190S:-If
the readers of the Public Opinion
could be transported in a night from
the frozen regions of the north to the
bloom and beauty of this south
land, it would be to them veritable
resurrection from the dead. A sud-
den change from the dearth and
death of winter to the soft and bal
my sunshine characteristic of this
southernmost state in the American
| Union. The abruptness of the
change, however, is broken by the
journey through southern Illinois,
Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and
Georgia. Leaving Chicago at 700 p.
m. on the Illinois Central you wake
up in the morning, if you are good
sleeper, we'll over into Tennessee,
reaching Corinth, historic, because it
was one of the noted battlefields Of
the civil war, at $3.50 a. m. Corinth
| is five hundred and thirty-one miles
from Chicago and is now one of the
most thriving towns of Mississippi.
But as l may have something to say
of this place in some future commun-
ication l will pass it up for the pres
ent. At Birmingham, Alabama, the
Illinois Central railroad reaches it's
most southern point on the Florida
route and our sleeper is attached
to train on the Central of Georgia
which hauls us as far as Albany in
the same state, where we are switch
ed 10 the Atlantic Coast Line, to Pal
atka and the south. The country
southeast of Corinth traversed by the
Illinois Central railroad so far as it's
development is concerned is COM
paratively new. The little villages be-
tween that place and Birmingham are
few and far between, the houses
along the route are for the most part
poor ramshakle affairs which, as
Father Barry remarked to me yester-
day, look as though they had been
thrown together with pitchfork: the
the soil is all sand, red, yellow or
gray, covered with pine trees from
which the natives secure turpentine
as they do in North Carolina and
other southern states.
Occasionally along the route, white
women. as well as colored, may be
seen at the bank of a stream doing
their washing in the most primitive
style. sight which is sure to occas-
ion remark by the ladies on the train
who are quite accustomed to such
scenes in this pampered age of lux
ury in the north. A gradual change
however is coming over the country.
The day is not far distant when a
new order of things will prevail in
that section of the south. The Ill
inois Central railroad, through its
immigration Bureau, at the head of
which is Captain John F. Merry of
Manchester, Iowa, is importing large
numbers of Italians and other people
from the south of Europe who are
rapidly settling up the country espec-
tally in Mississippi, Louisiana and
Alabama; establishing thriving col
onies which are bound to be heard
from in competition with the poor
whites and negroes and will in time
build up new agricultural and COM
mercial empire where what at present
is little more than barren waste,
Yesterday we were favored with a
call from a former resident of De-
orah, a Mr.. Tubbs, who with his
family is living at Florahome, set
tlement about sixteen miles. from
Palatka, composed of northern peo-
pie. Mr.. Tubbs is not an orange
grower exclusively; he, like his i'm
mediate neighbors. is engaged in
general farming and is we'll pleased
with the country and the outlook. OF
course the great attraction down here
is the climate. If you could buy 1t
by the acre and transport II north in |
quarter sections for the first three or
four months of the year, it would be |
a great thing. especially as it would |
be beyond the reach Of the wicked |
Trusts which have been giving Mr.. |
Roosevelt so much trouble, and could |
therefore be shared by rich and poor
alike.
Fl. III. Green.
Tennessee and other southern
states will have to ston this night |