The National tribune., 1910-12-01
ST. ANDREWS BAY.
A Bostonian's Impressions of
St. Cloud and the Marvellous
Opportunities Offered at St.
Andrews Bay-Thinks Greeley
To-day Would Say, go South,
Young Man."

Young Man."
Boston, Nov. 20, 1910.
The National Tribune: 1 have just
returned from a trip thru Florida, our
Winter Wonderland and am moved to
write you concerning two places that
visited, in which l note from your col
umns you have more than passing
interest.
Much as had both read and heard
about st. Cloud, 1 was not prepared for
the amaZement that overwhelmed me
when l stood on the ground and looked
around me at what had been accom-
plished in the short space of Is months.
Broad streets and avenues meticulated
the former unbroken eXpanSes of pines
and palmettos, and stores and dwellings
had come into being as If at the wave
of a magician's wand. Could anything
short of wizardry have created a mod
ern hotel. with electric lights, baths
and every modern convenience; a bank
building that would do credit in its
architecture and appointments to the
financial center of any city; street after
street of snug homes built of brick or
blocks or wood. and stores and
business enterprises to satisfy all the
of $500 souls in so short a time?
If not wiZardry, then what?
Comparison With the West.
l have lived in the West, and have
seen settlement start at a railroad sid
ing, have witnessed its growth into a
village and have then seen ic develop
into an active and bustling town of a
thousand or 1900 people. But that
took ch "a yt-1- IL
ual that one could hardly perceive it
from iyear~t to year. But here was city
that grew while you looked at it. over
100 buildings, factories, stores, homes,
were in process of erection
while l was there, and the local carpen-
ters and builders were at their wits
ends with the new orders they were
receiving.
OF course. there is no such thing as
wizardry. but there is in the mind of
man the power to visualize latent pos
Sibilittes. and then by dominant ge-
nius-that infinite capacity for detail
to build into actually the things his
mind has seen. And this is the wiz
ardry that has built empires and that
has made possible in so short a time
st. Cloud of over $500 active. happy
and supremely contented people.
The old soldiers 1 met without an
he change from clustering winds and
Winter billiards. to a land where any
hing would grow at any time of the
year, and Nature never frOwned, but
smiled benignly and urged them on to
onger life and greater content.
Could Write a Book.
Cloud and the causes of its birth and
being. 1t is marvel. 1t grew like a
but il is as solid and perma-
lent as a rock. American homes have
oeen founded there, and Industries have
grown and are growing all around. The
activities, social, domestic, civic, are;
lot those of new place. but. rather,
hose of an established municipality.
| was glad to have seen st. Cloud,
Doth for its own marvellous sake and
also for the assistance a personal view
If its wonderful development gave me
n realizing the important possibilities
'f St Andrews Bay, which was my
lext stopping place.
st. Andrews Bay.
1 had looked up st. Andrews Bay
IN the map. 1t appeared to he d slight
in the coast in that western
Irm of Florida which bounds part of
he Gulf of Mexico on the north. 1t
vas southwest from Tallahassee and
omewhere between Appalachicola on
he east and Pensacola on the west. On
he map it didn't look any more inter-
sting than any other indentatiOn on a
coast line. Its location on the water
vas attractive, but there are many To-
cations On the water, and why should
his possess advantages over any other?
Suff1ce 1t to say that as the train
oiled into the station and st. Andrews
Say expanded to my expectant eyes II
tnew at once and for all time why ST
Andrews was unique and why its de-
'elopment into one of the important
ports of the United States is about to
De written IN the history of our coun-
rvs growth.
For st. Andrews Bay is one of the
ew naturally protected deep-water har-
)ors in the country. That little inden-
alton on the map is great beautiful
pay, several miles in width and deem
enough to float Il Nations battleships.
is two great arms embrace an interior
peninsula some nine miles across of
zeal topography for the establishment
" industries, enterprises and homes-l
IF villages and suburbs for at least two
;ities. OF the two arms, the north
lrm, so called. extends northerly and
hen bends to the eastward around the
Peninsula mentioned
Deep water extends up this arm for
more than a dozen miles from the
mouth Of the Bay, and at one point,
where the Bay narrows between the
north and south shores, where Grassy
Point and mill property, now called
southport, front on a natural harbor
With steady depth of four to five faith
oms, Nature herself has picked the site
.or one great city covering both sides
u this narrowed portion of the Bay
or Tor two, If you please, one on either
side and facing each other. This
natural deep-water harbor the near
EST dcep-water harbor in the United
States TO the Panama Canal. ;as
already attracted the serious attention
Of our National Government which has
made careful surveys and an appropria-
1on-of quarter of a million dollars for
he deepening of the channel connecting
he Gulf with the Bay.
Opportunity Seen and GraspcG.
Here is opportunity seen and gragped
by the same mind that visualiZed the
possibilities lying under the redolcnt
pines and whispering palmettos along
he reaches of Lake TohopelSaliga at 81,
Cloud. And here are empire and com
nerce and industry only waiting for the
ouch of the magic wand. You enter
he st. Andrews Bay territory over an
indulatlng but fairly level country that
1ihers from the fiat Florida | have
fnown. This region is a part of The
mainland, north of the Gulf, and there
-ore different from the Peninsular Dor-
.ion, which we were taught was quilt
rom the oceans depths by the little
coral insects and leveled fat by the
There is a heavy growth h