The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1910-05-18
DELIGHTS OF THE OLD DAYS
A Visit to Florida Before the Time of
Palace Hotels and Vestibule Trains

Inc COIonel signed as ne SSlIleu
himself in his favorite chair at the
club and beckoned TO an attendant, and
when that emissary of Bacchus had
placed a glass of something conven-
iently near the Colonel sighed again.
| says Sundays New York Sun.
whats the matter. COLONEL" asked
one of the group. You seem inclined
to be sentimental Is ii the influence
of spring or has some fair lady fitted
across the path of your range finders?"
| Neither. said the Colonel I've
just spent winter in Florida, the first
in thirty years, that's all
We'll. it's the same old Florida, isn't
Iit?" asked his companion
Il should say not" replied the Colo
mel with emphasis. "Florida today is
a hasty pudding of Fifth avenue. Mar
ragansett Pier and Newport
When l was last in Florida there
was a fascination about the very lack
Iof luxury and the crudeness of the
country. In the first place there were
no twenty-four hour vestibule trains
to take you out of snarling snow
storm and land you in the odor of or
iange blossoms. We were obliged TO
travel in a more leisurely fashion.
From Richmond down the trains
were drawn by discarded locomotives
from Northern railroads that had been
converted into wood burning engines
with huge smokestacks. like the pic
lures l used to see in my school geog-
raphy. At every stop the train crew
hustled to fill the tender with pine
logs and frequently stops We're made
for that very purpose.
when the firemen put on fuel the
pungent smoke of burning pine tar
filled the train, and one chap that
recall who was on his way the
Southern pines to build up a pair of
ilimping lungs declared that by the
time he reached Savannah he was so
benefited by the treatment the rail
road gave him that he was we'll
enough to go back to New York.
There were no solid trains then.
but the cars were linked together and
the links wedged with wooden blocks
AS rule there We're not blocks
= enough. and every time the train stop
ped brought up with a jerk that
had a most beneficial effect upon
torpid liver; in fact 1 recollect nothing
! quite stimulating to that organ un
less it top of one of the old
! Fifth avenue stages.
NO through express took US into
\ the heart of that ancient city of ST.
Augustine. but at Tocol the st.
\ Johns River We boarded q train con-
! sisting of an engine and one car. The
: car was divided for baggage, coons and
! white folks. The time consumed was
two hours and the fare was just 50.
l was tempted to criticise the rapacity
Iof the Southerner until l discovered
that the road was owned by a couple
iof New York capitalists.
From Palatka we took a diminutive
steamboat for a trip up the river 1t
was stern wheeler with no paddleboX
lover the wheel and it was great to
watch that little waterwheel throw
lspray over the afterdeck. 1t spent
more energy throwing spray than in
! idoing anything else. for the highest
- |speed attained by that craft was five
y miles an hour. The alligators on the
e banks never even woke up as she am
- ibled along.
- cat night they had no searchlight
r but instead built a fire of pine knots
in pan on top of the pilot house and
the Pickering light of the fire as ii
shone on the dense forest growth and
long festoons OF Southern moss wav-
ing from the trees made a scene fas-
Y cinating as it was weird. Then the
niggers would gather on the lower
deck and sing, and the peculiar har-
mony all that was needed to com
plete the scene.
when the boat had to round a SHARP
turn two OF the deckhands would jump
out upon hummock and with long
poles push the stern of the steamer Out
until the bow pointed around the turr
and then Chamber aboard when they
n were not hauled by the rest of the
crew.
l. Il never ate so many oranges ir
q my life l ate that trip. Every
, hour or two would stop at some
landing and while the hands were busy
piling on pine logs to feed the engin.
the cook and walters would scampel
y off into an orange grove and fill theil
aprons with fruit to feed US. We hac
fried oranges. orange fritters, orang,
E pudding, orange pie orange tarts, or
20 ange ice cream, orange marmalade ant
Just plain oranges. 1t certainly die
not cost the company much to feed tn,
- passengers that trip.
AT Silver Springs / saw somethins
funny. Housed in a barn was a nice
self-respecting locomotive and tende
that bore the Inscription in gilt letters
, i''Silver Springs, Ocala and Gulf Rail
% road and it had been there for fiv
years. They had expended all tn
money they could raise on that loco
motive and when it arrived they hat
- nothing with which to buy rails, s.
they had to put it up.
The only rolling stock of that com
pany at the time consisted of a fiat ca
drawn by a pair of mules that made
trip over wooden rails as far as Ocal
once day. They tell me it's -four
fishing road now, but I did not go t
. see it for fear l would destroy the TO
mantle remembrance of the locomotiv
living tamely under a haymow.
But Florida is only annex o
New York today he finished as h
reached for the push button 1T is no
the Florida of thirty years ago, al
though the Southern moon and starr
ar sky and the Southern girls are just tn
same, God bless EN-"
h SHALL. WOMEN VOTE!