The St. Lucie County tribune. (Fort Pierce, St. Lucie County, Fla.) 1905-1920, 1909-06-11
FLORIDA BEST
OF ALL STATES
Willis B. Powell, Formerly of st.
Petersburg, to Come Back
VISITED MANY PLACES
In Letter the Former Editor Says He Has
Found No Climate That Compares With
That Our Own Land of Sunshine


twas freely predicted by his friends
that Willis B. Powell, who, with Mrs.
Powell and daughter, spent sometime
in St. Augustine last winter before
leaving for the Pacific coast, would
sooner or later return to Florida. The
prediction is about to be fulfilled and
1t is case of 'sooner," for Mr.. Powell,
in letter to Editor Lew B. Brown of
his 70 mer paper, the ST. Petersburg
Independent, tells of his new plans and
what has induced him to change his
mind. His letter is of general interest
inasmuch as it answers effectively
many questions that have arisen in the
minds of thousands of people in Flor
ida who have never travelled to the
Pacific coast. Mr.. Powell pays high
tribute to the Land of Flowers and his
experience of the past few months will
be of value to the community in which
he may decide to locate, says the st.
Augustine Record. This is what the says:
Los Angeles, CAL, May 22,l9O9.
Editor Independent:
| shall leave here about the first of
June for the Imperial Valley, Ell Paso,
Old Mexico, Houston, Galveston and
New Orleans on our return trip to Flor
ida. By the time / return shall have
been in some twenty states and terri
tories. Been two miles up in the air
and $50 feet below the sea level. |
have ridden along snow that was eight
cen feet on the level, and will within
two weeks be in a country that gets
l4O degrees hot in the shade.
am very anxious to see this I'm
perial Valley and the SaltOn Sea. This
sea was caused by break in the Col
orado river a couple Of years ago flood
ing the valley, which is below the sea
level. An engineer on that work told
me that he saw granite blocks so large
that one had to be carried on two fiat
cars pitched into the flood of water and
carried on the crest of the waves like
straWs.
have been in the state now nearly
month. 1t has been cold, dreary,
disagreeable every day except two,
when the sun shone for few hours.
The sun is hot-a walk of couple
blocks puts you in perspiratiOn. Step
into the shade, or draft, and you chill
Immediately.
went into theatre the other after
noon to enjoy matinee. The place
felt like cold storage room. After
sitting there two hours wearing heavy
overcOat, | found it difficult to rise
from the seat. When | essayed to
walk my bones creaked like they needed
oiling There is rheumatism plenty
quote an advertisement which l
took out of today's Times: "For Sale
Game; to Los Angeles from Ohio for
rheumatism and got it BAD; now
want to 60 to Arizona to get well; to
do so now will sell my strictly, etc.
264 E. Add street, Maple avenue car"
Southern California brags of it's eli
mate, yet | have walked eight to
twelve miles day. Have been to
twenty different towns on the street
car lines, and have not yet seen Their
mometer- rand | have looked for them
because ] wanted to see what the
weather really was when reduced to
honest thermometer readings. The
papers here feature the weather at the
heads of their first pages. The read
ings are taken at a. M, Los Angeles
time, against ! a. m. eastern time.
If the Los Angeles weather these days
registers IS ut a. M, it will run not
above 60 for the entire day on account
of fog and clouds and winds. In the
east the track of fogs and clouds
would make the weather run up to 70
or 80. 1t records for comparison of
weather New York, Chicago, St. Paul
and other northern cities. ! asked
them why they did not record Jackson
vile, Jupiter and Key West weather,
and they told me they did along in
July and August. told them that in
Florida were recorded Los Angeles
weather every day in deadly parallel, !"
and have seen Florida weather in Aug
ust at IS against Los Angeles weather
at l04. Then the man said: "But you
have blizzards down there and they
freeze your orange crops" And re-
occasionally, but | saw something in
Southern California that never saw
in Florida. Yesterday ! saw a mile or
so of groves with smudge pot under
each tree of the first row, and the pots
were charged, ready for frost even
at this late day."
l may be prejudiced. but yet am
honest in what ! believe. BY the time
return to Florida it will have cost me
a pretty penny to satisfy myself as to
the better climate of the two States.
came here after a residence in North
ern California eleven years ago. |
| La hnn svn Al
climate between that of North and