The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1910-02-25
FLORIDA LETTER.
Cecil Countian In The Sunny South
Sends Another Interesting Ac-
count OF His Travels.
ST.. PnTnRsBuRa, FLORIDA

ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA.
Editors Midland Journal: Should it meet the
approval of the JOURNAL editors to grant me a
little space in the columns of their paper,
wiilendeavor to interest the many readers in a
letter of the things / have seen and heard
while spending few days in Florida. The
object Of our trip was to see and be seen and
one Of the most novel features in connection
with Glen Cove, the second place Of our So
5ourn, and the novel sight that at the time
most interested me, was to see hundreds Of
cattle far out in the river, the lower the tide,
the further out. Standing in water so deep
they can hardly raise their heads high enough
to eat the celery they pull up by the roots in
the bed Of the river which is the only food
supply they have. the natural grasses all
having been burned of by the forest fires for
miles and miles. During my stay at Glen Cove
I had occasion to go out in the country nearly
thirty miles. After leaving town two miles
we drove through, turpentine camps of years
gone by which had had visitations of these
forest fires, and the old pitch being suspcetible
Of ignition, these old boxes caught fire burning
the trees off, and millions of cords of wood
and feet Of lumber are going to loss, being
too far from market to become available.
This is only one circumstance while there are
hundreds Of similar ones all over the South.
On Febs14 1914 our train was scheduled for
Tampa, but as we enjoy three kinds of time
IN this part Of the world, Sun, Standard and
Schedule it varies from Is minutes to an honr
and half, and the rate of speed is from IS to
p miles per hour. Our trip being in daylight
the scenery was typical of what / had pre-
yiously yet forth, speeding through miles OF
burned OF forests Ny feeling of pity for the
cattle trying to find some green vestage, but
none to be had. only TO succumb to the pangs
Of starvation. All this time these scenes pass.
"a before our eyes as a panorama, until we
reached Platake, another resort on the St
Johns which had some evidence of thrift even
after we got out Of town limits, an occasional
orange grove half cared for would loom up
Soon this passed away to be supplanted by
the continuation of burned forests, until we
reached the town Of Orlando. Here the forests
are thin and no fires had left their tracks
while In the distance we could see the lofty
palms. with only hat on the top, and as we
sped along we noticed the celery interests in
small patches, then in fields of ten acres soon
to be left in the distance, being told the celery
area was small in that section, but the
quality was fine. The Celery King. of Orlando
was street waif in Jacksonville twenty years
ago. Today he can count his dollars by the
millions, and his acres by thousands. By this
time the shades of nightEbega lowering over
us. so that the last 75 miles am sorry to say
was not obvious to us. Just here wish to say
in the vicinity of Kissimmee for some miles,a
lake was visible at all times from the train ex-
cept such places as growth of timber might
intervene. Intthose sectionsit is not consider
ed healthy as mosquitoes and malaria nrevail