The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-01-11


 novel sensation to get, comfortably settled on a camp stool on the rear platform of a. railroad train, run right off the tip end of the continent, vault green sea channels from island to is- land. and make ones way across ter ritory that seemed once to have been reserved forever for sightseeing schooners to the port of Knights Key. which port Is out in the ocean with the nearest land something like q mile away.
 It is interesting to watch from the rear platform the land fading away; fading until 1t seems that It soon will be lost to sight and that the only con nection with the solid earth are the two steel ribbons stretching back to- ward the continent of North America But the jumps are not long. Just as one Is about to come to the realization that he is railroading on the open sea, the train reaches another island and plunges into the heart of riotous. tropical forest.
 This railroad is absolutely unique There is nothing like 1t anywhere. and the chances are that there never will be. for there isn't any other place where 1t could be built. Look at good map of Florida. Stretching away from the southeasternmost point of the peninsula in a regular curve to the
 
 called the Florida Keys. The islands are all long and narrow for two-thirds of the way to Key West they lie in the general direction of east and west. At Knights Key there is longer jump than usual, and after the wide chan nei is crossed the keys lie in general direction of north and south.
 The railroad to Key West has been completed to Knights Key. within forty miles of Key West, and much work has been done west of here. The important link in the uncompleted chain Is the eight-mile jump from Knights Key to the next island over Bahia Honda. or Deep Bay. This work win soon be resumed and within eigh. teen months or two years the railroad win be completed to Key West; now the largest city in the United states without railroad connection.
 When it is completed 1t will mean thas Henry HI. Flagler has expended something like s15.0oo.oo0 to build ls4 miles of railroad from Miami to Key West an average of nearly $l00.o0c mile. Tt will mean a vast extension of the seml-tropical agricultural lands of the United States, placing the rich Florida Keys within striking distance of the fruit markets. It will can great deal to the people of Key west. Many of it's 10000 people will see A railroad train for the first time when .his extension makes its hnal leap over the sea and lands upon the island upon which Key West Is built.
 Ii will mean a much closer connec- tIon between the United States and Cuba than has ever existed. Think or being able to take Pullman car III Boston or Chicago or New fork ano running straight through lo na" s,,, Ha That Is what the new railroad VIII oo. Knights Key is the temporary mid ocean port from which ships now sail daily to Havana. It is nothing put wharf built out in the sea. There IS a postofYice, a hotel and tew houses all built on the wharf The unique feature of the hotel is that there IS dow AIlnd with all sorts of salt water Ash. One looks them over and selects the piece de resistance of his dinner while 1t Is still swimming in Its pa- tive element. . It is no miles from Miami to Knights Rev and no other similar length or railroad in the world presents sucn . varied and interesting roadside panoI rama. Leaving Miami one travels TOT twensy-eight miles southward along thA ridge of the pine-land peninsula which ia a portion of the eastern shore of the Everglades. It Is only In Fior- ida that an inland typographical pecu- liarity can be called "peninsuia, put as this ridge is bordered on one side by the Everglades, and on the other by A manKrove swamp. 1t Is clearly entitled to its appellation. This part of the Journey reveals nothing but nine trees, as yet untouched by the tur- ncntine hunter, with the undergrowtn of scrub palmetto. just what one would see 400 miles further north. Sud' denly the whole aspect is changed.
 
 hind and there Is wide open place, a prairie. covered with rich waving grass and studded over with tiny clumps of trees. It looks like Kansas But in reality it Is the famous and mys- terious Everglades. It Is just tiny corner, but 1t as much as the eye can take in. And here Is the great water station, where the pure Everglades wa fer ia numped into tanks to be carried away in tank cars on tank ships for inc men who are building this railroad over the Keys, and to whom the fresn water question is a most vital one. :
 Gradually the Everglades grass gives way to the mangroves' ana tne nrairie fades into a thicket Of closely backed shrubbery. The land that IS beneath is a mere mockery or sofia earth. The spidery roots of the man sroyes find their places In the shiit- ing. slirny, uncertain muck that GOV era the rock foundation or Florloa 1He watar is still clear. but 1t IS greenisn ana bracxish because of sea water coming in. This was one or the most djfacuIt portions of the road to bulld. from the engineers standpoint. But to the eye offthe traveller on the rear platform of a Pullman It Is All strange ly beautiful and beautifully strange.
 Again there is a little strip or dry ground, with real trees and real grass
 h1 inc mAln- Iand The channel between the main. iand and Key Largo is so narrow that ana would nay no more attention to IL ths, to crossing a tiny river on an ordinarv railroad if the passengers were net told that they were running oN fine continent. Key Largo Is me largest of the whole system of islands' haina forty miles in length. but the raiIroad traverses only about nfteen n,IIas of the distance. Here the right of-wav ia cut through a dense forest of strange and beautiful trees. Here and there one comes upon clearing, a grove of grape fruit or banana plan tation.
 The jurnpss from key to key become longer and longer. the water In the channels becomes greener and green CT. and the sensation of being out to sea Is deepened. Each key has It's own peculiarity and the vista is always changing. At one place there is deep cut through a limestone hill and for few moments it Is impossible to be- lIeve that the whole railroad and train and all has not been carried back to Ohio or New York State by some work of magic