The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-01-04

summer sky in . winter month. and seeks his haven In Fiorids or Cuba, he must go through Jasksonviile Every winter a hundred thousand tourists alight from railroad trains in Jacksonyiiie Most of them will take another train, within two hours or two days. and be on Tampa-way or down the East Coast. Many of them stay all winter. But practically every one Of the winter travellers wiiS lea ye the arsnnai contribution of $2o.eNosooa in Florida stops awhile in JasIsenp ville. 'iEt e5 = e1.
 ieNaturaily Jacksonville takes care to provide for these tourists and itv hotels and it's souvenir shops ana itS ostrichf farm and It's alligator nurseries E get their share of that twenty million dollars. But if anyone thinks Tor, moment that Jacksonville Is tourisN town and depends upon the winter trade fors Its .1ivehood, that person is sadly mistaken. ss.3s a
 For. Jacksonvillesls a business town, wiie,awake and hustling. Its busi- ness acumen Is that of the North. It's hustle Is that of the West and tts courtesy is that of the South.ss lts Board of Trade spends some thousands of dollars to advertise 1t as the sNsW York of the South and the occastonai visiter Is quick to indulge the 'ambi- ton If he is slow to admit the com com : parIson. . s
 lIs3 is the New Jasksonville because It Is all new. Nearly eight years ago. 1t was on May 3 1s0i--a great con- fiagration visited destruction upon the city and almost all of the business, as well a large portion of the residence. section of the city, was wipeo out The property loss amounted to sls.- 900, 900, of which only s4,0oo.0oo was protected by insurance. several hVes were sacfifced and the city was so completely wrecked that for severa. days the problem of feeding ana shslterIng the homeless was most difi- cult. Jacksonville felt then that it would be many decade before IL would recover from the blow.
 Eight years have passed. The city is rebuilt. On the burned area stand a sreater number of buildings than even before. and their actual value Is almost twice as great as that or the buildings which were destroye1. Not only rebuilt but rebuilding. Jaskson- vile Is now tearing away the buildings which were erected after the hre ana replacing them with even better ones. A ten-story building may not come under the category of "sky-scraper in these days of forty-story structures but Jacksonville may be .pardoned its pride in the foot that four ten-story buildings of the most modern type Of steel construction are now being built in one city block on Forsyth street wh ich is the Wall Street of Florida-
 Nine years ago, when the last United States census was taken, aacKsonvlpe had almost 30 1000 inhabitants. It has almost doubled in size, since then, and has multiplied itself by. six in wealth and commercial importance. It's peo- ble are confident that the census next year will show more than s0.OoO popu- lation.
 . Jacksonville is the outgrowth of the ancient settlement of Cowford, so called because of the shallowness or the St. Johns River just above the city. When the spanish flag came down and the Stars and stripes were shotsted over Florida. in 1921 the Americans In the Peninsula knew that they owed the change of sovereignty to certain acts of Andrew Jaskson, more or less unconstitutional, but certainly very affective General Jackson was. made the first governor of the territory. Cowford took on American aggressive. ness decided to make itself . city and called the -city-to-b "Jacksonville" h honor or OI0 t1lckOrys
 It's growth was slow and the de- Nastation of civil war held 1t back for many years. By 1880 cit was . considerable town. by 1890 1t had more than 15,000 people, and 1t doubled It. self~in the next ten years. The de- yeloprnent of transportation facilities and the increased industrial activity of the state have contributed to its rapid growth in recent years until 1t IS now the largest city of the largest state, in area, east of the Mississippi River. The beautiful St Johns River. broad and .piacfd. gives Jacksonville an outlet to the Atlantic Ocean twenty seven miles away, The channel, has twenty four feet at mean. low tide and the port is becoming more and moro i'm portant all the time. Several lines of steamships connect 1t with the other Atlantic ports and with the Gulf of Mexico. Tramp steamers without num- Der come here to be loaded with naval stores. with phosphate rock: with man. ufactured fertilizer and with cotton. This little city sends more than a ship load of freight to sea every day in the year. 1f
 Within the city limits there Is a waterfront of seven miles directly on the twenty four foot channel which is peculiarly adapted for manufacturing plants Great lumber mills and ferti- iizer plants oil depots and packing houses. are dotted along this shore line and there Is plenty of room for more. The Jacksonville Board of. Trade is after the others. ;5, z ,I./ . Yet agriculture and horticulture are the great resources of FIorida. and Jacksonville depends most upon them. It Is the railroad clearing house for the fruits and vetetabies Fof the state. It is itself in the. center of a territory admirably adapted for intensive farm ing for the truck mark cts of the North during the winter and early spring season. and it's vegetable business Is growing by leaps and bounds,
 The tourists or the occasional visitor is more concerned with the attractions ossthe city: Clean and. well paved Rs handsome public and business buildings give proper. background for the beautiful picture of its residence streets. Avenues of palms. groves of live oaks and green lawns lead to and surround scores of magnificent villas. Scarlet hibiscus and purple give the touch of rich color that completes the picture-the richness of June only twenty-four northern January.
 One thing the tourist will not fail to appreciates city government that fixes the tariff for cab hire at, twenty five cents for two miles within the city limits There are scores and scores of comfortable surreys driving up and down the streets. the drivers on the alert for farek. It costs quarter and'it is one, of the best ways to see the zcity.
 Duval County has added to the at