The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-01-12

years afterward. the Spanish came and found their bleaching bones
 Whereupon the islane was given the name of -cayo Hueso." or Bone Key. In time English and American sailors. some of them pirates. began to frequent the negotiable islanL They heard the spanish name and, being guided by the ear rather than by the eye, they corrupted the name into Key West" 5s3 tal 9
 For many years the island was rem dezvous for the piratical craft which in- fested the Spanish Main. When the piracy business was ended by s con- cert of the satton'. tt was left alone in its primeval tropical glory. Tn 1915 the Spanish government, in return for dis tinguished services, granted the island to Juan P. Salas. The transfer of Flor ida to the United States was arranged in 1919, in extinguishment of the American claim Of s5.ooo.ooo for dam ages inflicted upon American shipping by Spanish war vessels. saias sold his island in 1921 to John W. Simonton, of Mobile. who organized syndicate com posed of Mobile merchants and the American Consular ofiicers at Havana. It was the purpose of these men to de- vote the island to salt manufacture. and 1t was immediately settled for that par pose.
 The United states took formal pos session of the island in 1922: The flag was raised by Captain Perry. the same who afterward gained immortality i.y opening the Empire of Japan to intei- course with the outside world. Captain Perry declared that the island was an invaluable assets for the navy and as military outpost. He named 1t 'Thomp- son" in honor of the then Secretary of the Navy, and the baby town he called DA,r n 1 ~-stg AN, Rogers, then president of the Navy Board. But these names did not catch on, and the English corruption of "Cayo Hueso" was adopted by every body. It has given rise to the erroneous notion that Key West Is the western most of the Florida Keys, but otherwise 1t Is just as good name as any The first cigar factory in the United States to make cigars of Havana tobac. % was established in Key West in 1881. and practically all of It's output wasex- ported to England. The business pros. pered, and by 1840 had become more important than the salt industry. which soon died out. The business grew slow. ly until after the civil war. when bet ter shipping connections gave the cigar makers access to American markets. The business increased by leaps and bounds, so that by 1880 Key West was the cigar manufacturing center of the country. second only to Havana in the whole world.
 If the railroad had come to Key west in that day. the cigar supremacy prob ably would have stayed there, and the city would now have 100000 intabitants But Tampa got the railroad, built cigar factories and after long struggle out distanced its rival. For thirty or forty years. Key West was the largest and most prosperous city of the State. Realizing that railroad connection would enable 1t to retain its predomf- nant importance, Key West has been trying for years to obtain the boon which 1t will receive within the next two years. The first survey for a raff- road to Key West was made in 1s6s over practically the same route as that chosen by the Florida East Coast Rail- way extension. It was made a sta. ton on the ocean cable which connect ed the United States with Cuba and Jamaica.
 Other railroad surveys were made and many. schemes were laid. but all were abandoned because thers twenty niliion. dollars who cared to in- lsveat t pzwhat seemed to be a most doubtful railroad <, experiment. |, The sugar and other staple exports of Cuba then went to Europe, and the Cuban freight business did not hold out the al . turing prospects which it does today Key West is the farthest south of any American city. If exception Is made of the insular possessions. It is almost within the torrfd zone and It's climate is tropical, but 1t has the compensating benefits of the trade winds, so that in summer the thermometer never goes higher than 30 degrees and in winter rarely below 50 degrees. At first the settlement suffered because the. cli- | mate was SO moist that 1t was inpos- sible to keep fresh meats. The inven- ton of artificial refrigeration and the l Ice machine. the work of a Florida man. changed all that. The danger from yell l low fever has been reduced to mini | mum by modern science, so that Kew i West is quite habitable.
 Commercially and stragetically im- portant as an outpost in the Southern sea, Key West has other claims to att tention. Here may be found the sx- | ouisite beauty of the tropical ocean. the | tropical sky. and the tropical land, constantly shifting picture painted by | the God of Things as They Are for the
 people who dwell in the islands of the summer seas
 (Copyright, 1909. by Frederic ]. Haskin.)
 Tomorrow The Tropical Town of | Tampa. f