Mexico weekly ledger., 1911-05-11
LETTER FROM SUNNY
SOUTH-PALM BEACH

1 MeAltOi NO.
My Dear Uncle:-Since you left us
for home my wife and took spin
along the coast of Florida on the
railroad built by Mr.. Flagler, a mil
lionaire, to Miami, Florida. Here
there are any amount of sights to
to be seen, but not like the sights
of Palm Beach. This is the creates
resort of all the South. This part
of Florida has been settled some $50
years ago by the Spanish. Since
the railroad runs within half mile
of the old town that is built on the
sea shore, the new Palm Beach is
built on the railroad, and the hotels
built in the new part by Mr.. Flagler
are built over block. 1t is open
each year from January to June;
then it is closed for the summer.
Here thousands of milllonaires with
their families come from all parts of
the world to winter at these costly
hotels at $4,000 per day. They bath
in the ocean in the morning and play
golf and tennis during the day, then
dance at night. This is kept up
during the winter. This city is
like Augustine and Jacksonville.
Their banks have 81 100000 on depos
| 1t every winter.
The Palm Beaches being one half
a mile apart they cut a street sev
en- feet wide through the mass of
flowers, palms, magnilias and vines
"a regular jungle of beauty, This
street is made of granitoid, and the
transportation from one beach to
the other is made by wheel chairs,
pushed by negroes for the price OF
% cents. There are hundreds cS
these chairs and negroes at each
end of the street
Next we stopped at the old City
of st. Augustine, the oldests city in
America, which was settled in 1912
by Ponce de Leon, who came over
| from Spain in search of the ''Foun
tain of youth" but not finding 1t rec,
lbaFked. Half a century later a col
oney of French Huguenots landed ON
the same spot. A settlement of a pro
testant colony in his domain aroused
the indignation of King Phillip the
Second, o. Spain, who sent an ex
petition under Pedro Mqnendez to ex
terminate the invaders. Pedro Men
endez landed September s, 1865, and
the Spanish lost no time in carrying
out the object of their coming by
destroying the French fort and
massacring its inhabitants. Dur
ing the next century st. Augustine
led very checkered existance. 1t
was plundered in 1886 by Sir Fran
els Drake and by John Davis in 1865
and later by the Indians. st. Au
gustine is a great winter resort.
Thousands coming here every winter
Mr.. Flagler has built two magnificent
hotels, one the Ponce de Leon and
the other the Alcazar; both are plac
es of beauty and are built opposite
each other ON the same street. The
front yards are places of beauty,
with fountains, all kinds of flowers
palms and sweet magnolias. We Wis
tied the same old house you and
were in, which was built by a Span
ish nobleman, 400 years ago, and
standing today as it was first built.
1t seems strange to me there are
no nails in the house or in the fur
niture, only wooden pegs, and the
doors are hung by hooks and eyes.
We also visited the Fort Merrion,
built in 1865, and as solid today as
when first built. We went to the
! ocean to see the white caps roll
with the tide that ebbs and flows
twice in twenty four hours. We al
so wennt to the alligator farm. The
alligators are from one to fifteen
feet in length. We next saw
the orange groves and the trees were
laden with fruit.
! Since you left we went up the st.
Johns River, much farther than you
did. The river scenery is very
beautiful ON both sides. Once in a
while you can see large alligator
Lying ON the sand bank summing him
self and catching flies with his
large mouth. We passed the 100
acre orange grove, where YOU got
such large oranges and grape fruit.
This same orange grove was one day
the property of Harriet Beecher
Stowe, the woman who wrote "Un
lcle Toms Cabin
We reached Jacksonville all o. X.
There are not the $4,000 Northern
Tourists like there were when you
were in Jacksonville. Neither are
the crowds so large at the Ostrich
, Farm, Alligator Farm or Parks or oy
er the river in Dixie's Land. Great
ships stlll come end so to all parts
of the world. II. II. Kabrich
, MEXICO should have retail mel
! chants association to protect them
from chronic dead beats%'