The National tribune., 1910-12-01
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prised to find q firm and very white
sand beach sloping up to the vegetation
which. had a slightly elevation above the
waterrrt This sandy shore line is con-
stant land very pleasing, for with a
mean tide of only IS inches you are
spared those disclosures of unsavory
mud Hats which mar so many beauti-
full places where the tides are high
Whqeyer designed the beauties of st.
Andrews Bay certainly selected the eli
mate II match it. On the mainland, as
have saftl- o1tTof the hurricane beit.ri
is neither subtemperate nor semi
tropical, but a golden, sunshiny, gulf
breezy nIiRgiing of them both. That
benefcent atmosphere will ripen a cab
bage or a kumquat, an orange or an
onion. 1t knows no zones. and will
work the same wonders with a PECAN
as with a pippin In that soil and in
that air anything will grow that man
needs and uses, and all the year s the
season.
And the water is as prolific as the
land. A large fishing industry. already
fOurishing, but hints at the possibilities
of the business in the future. The Bay
abouuds in proper seasons with mack
erel bonito, pcmpano. red snappers,
mullct and many specimens | had never
seen before. The tarpan fishing in the
Gulf, at the mouth Of the Bay, is said
lar tarpan waters. Aud oysters, Oys-
ters as fat and salty and full of flavor
as any that ever came from famed Cape
Cod or Lynnhaven Bay. and free from
that c0ppery taste which characterizes
the bivalves of New Orleans and the
Texas Coast.
Pleasant Adjuucts of Life.
All these pleasant adjuncts of life
that / have spoken Of are interesting in
their way and in their place, but to my
mind they are only the fringe on the
garment-the friils on the main propo-
sition, which is st. Andrews Bay, the
growing, pulsing center of activity and
growth and commerce and industry.
Comparisons are Odious, and still
with all admiration for st. Cloud for
what it is and what it has become,
must say, to make my feeling clear,
that if there was a mound of posSibili-
ty at St Cloud there is a mountain Of
it here. And there is no disparagement
in this. st. Cloud is marvel That
has been proven.
The Sea and Land.
But at st. Andrews Bay climate and
topography, the sea and the land fer
tility of soil, the wealth of forest and of
water. the geography of empires and
the deep-Worn highways of Nations
trade have all combined to open oppor-
tunity. AS / reluctantly turned my back
on st. Andrews Bay and journcyed
back to the North 1 could not but le-
fleet on the impressions 1 had received
and l wondered:
Why people who would fight for their
life, liberty and the pursuit of happi-
ness should spend their days in a eli
mate which freezes them in Winter and
adds the burden of fuel to the high cost
of living, and then turns about and
scorciies tlrem in Summer, when in the
place / had just left Winter was warm
andllindly,f and Summer cool and in
secteffee fr6m the southwesterly winds
across the Gulf of Mexico?
Why should thousands and countless
thousands exc out a bare existence in
the ogorn ands humdrum paths of trade
and busineSs, where population is con-
gested and 1.-The larger rewards can fall
only to the lots of favored few; when
country like that | had seen, JIst
awaiS Sening TO its possibilities offered a
life Of comfortable endeavor and swelled
with business and industrial opportuni-
ties which the most vivid imagination
would try In vain to detail?
Surely. were Horace Greeley alive
to-day his Injunction would be: GO
South, young man."-W. Il. Haskell.