The National tribune., 1909-09-02
A VETERAN SPEAKS AFTER
LONG EXPERIENCE IN FLORIDA.
Capt F. Chase of St. Petersburg Fa After Living There for Is
Years Is thsasc for His Adopted State He Was Member
of the 5h Me- Battery and Terribly Wounded Gettysburg and
Saws Florida Climate Has Prolonged His Life.

week. Capt. Chase is remarkapi
man. remarkable for his recovery from
rhastly wounds received at Gettysburg
where a shell tore away his right arm
and destroyed his left eye, besides In
iicting 46 other distinct injuries, tn
record for a wounded man of the :civi
war as far as is known. For two day
he lay among the dead men on tina
terrible field, and was saved for bette
things by a burying squad discovering
he had life when they were about L
place him in q trench with other lifeleS
comrades For many weeks he lay Ii
the hospital, and finally oNercame tn
Conaueror, who seemed long to have
sure hold on him.
Capt, Chase is a native of Augusta
Me-, and enlisted in the 9Th Me. Batter.
at the age of II. At ChancellorsViile
Va. May 3. 1868. for meritorious con
duct he was awarded Medal OF Honor
by Congress, he and a eonrade having
kept a gun at work long after the res
of the battery had been siienced. A
Gettysburg the 5th Me. was one of the
first to reach the fateful field. On Eas'
Cemetery Hill. on the second day,
shell exploded close to him, with re-
suits as narrated
After the war Capt Chase returned
home, and later became lecturer for the
Gettysburg Cyclorama- His weIi-round-
ed and thrilling sentences. descriptive
of the scenes of the greatest conflict OF
the war, have been listened to with
marked attention by thousands of spec
tators.
Falling health led the Captain to seek
a milder climate, which he found In
Florida. Not only is Capt. Chase re-
markable for his recovery but for his
physical activity in untoward circum
stances. In spite of his disabilities, he
not only lectured for years many hours
each day. but his mind was ever busy
with useful thoughts and projects, hav-
ing received since coming to Washing
ton OF. this trip letters patent for his
47th invention since the war, his latest
being an airship. 1t is constructed on
principles different from any other nov
used in aerial navigation.
The home OF Capt. Chase is about 1OG
miles southwest of ST. Cloud. He 1
Past Commander of the Department OF
Florida, G.. A. R., and he has been &C
tive in all good movements for the bet
terment of his community and his State
Capt Chase called at the Office of Tht
National Tribune to tender his thank!
for the work this paper has been doint
TO induce comrades to locate in Florida
He was asked to say something abou
the advantages and opportunities o
ing words. regretting in few prefator,
remarks that he was SO full Of the sub
ject that he hardly knew where to be
gin or when to stop. He said:
'I have noted with intense interes
what The National Tribune has print
ed in its editorial columns about Flori
da, and what visiting comrades hav
said in letters to The National Tribune
wish right here and now to cOntribut
my testimony to the many which hav'
already appeared in your paper in favo
of the Peninsular State. / have livet
in 1t for Is years. ] went there from
the North after the doctor had told m
months however. passed Hieo yeas, an
lam still able to keep busy and occa
sionally GO around and meet my friends
Tny going to Florida was a fOrtunat
event. for II added years to my life, an,
i believe it viii do the Same for any o
the old boys who feel the years Of tim,
pressing heavily upon them
FLORIDA has genial climate. no he
winds TO scorch and wilt the human
kind. nor chilling blasts TO bring dis
tress to the most delicate child or feebl,
man. One only needs to visit Fforid,
to find that. many ideas held in thu
North abosa the State are not born,
out by the facts. The State has beel
greatly misunderstood and misrepre
sented, and sighting remarks or insinu
ations often do much mischief. Storie
about alligators. niosketos and the hea
have been repeated and magnified unit
the uniformed believe there is littl
else in the State except sand. The Wis
itor in F'lorida will now travel far an,
wide to see an alligator In its nativ
wiids. As to fnosketos, they are not a
plentiful as in some parts of the North
especially in the American and Cana
dian Northwest and Alaska. Mosketo
N ftr1 in
short and hot Summers. The Summer.
In Florida are much longer natural,
than In the North, but the temperatur,
never goes as high as II does In tn,
Upper Mississippi Valley and Lak'
States. The interior of continents i
always subject to greater caprices @
heat and cold than are the localitie.
adjacent to the sea.
The climate of Florida is controlled
by winds which modify the extremes o
Summer heat and Winter cold. Th
Sea coast of Florida Is the longest o
any Of the States. The water is not a
cold as 1T Is farther north. The Gul
Btrsam, that wonderful river in the At
lantic, sweeps up the east coast of Flor
Ida, and Off New England encounter
iceberg water and filings fogs over tina
region, as II does over Great Britain
which country would not be habitabI
were IL not for this river. which mys
teriousIy maintains it's course for thou
sands of miles across the wide ocean
This river of the sea is thousan
times the volume of the Mississippi
being about 30 miles wide and 200
feet deep, with velocity of fully fiv
miles an hour the year around. Tn
average temperature of this enormou
ocean river is about 81 degrees, an,
from il constant strata of warm al
floats over Florida. And purity accom-
Danies equability on the wings of thes
eastern winds They strike the land O
FLORIDA fresh from the Atlantic abso
lutely pure and sweep gently across tn
peninsula to the Gulf and bear ava,
existing impurity. Florida is outsid
of what is known as the cyclone bel,
There are occasional straight blows O
hurricanes. but seldom destructive
There are none of the terrifying an
dangerous 'twisters' common TO the In
terror States. Nor do our thunde
storms have the electrical displays com
anon to Northern storms.
Many visitors to Florida have car
Sied away erroneous ideas as to tn
soil of the State, having judged II b.
the sands along the ocean and gul
coasts, where the resort towns and he
tells are found The visitor who enter
the State by way of Jacksonville ma
get an idea that the ciYiliza ton an
refinement OF the State Is centere
there, and that every step into the inte
Tior is step towards the back wood,
TO desolation, malaria and general moth
1ngness. Keep going and few disillu
sionings will suffice for all except tn
very simple. Florida IS a great State
q State where living is easily made