The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1912-03-13
Chadman's Florida Letter.

remember few years ago when the
budding rustic prima dannss and the
agrsrian maidens, after hanging out the
weeks clothes and white-wsshing the
front fence and chasing the Chester white
pigs out of the front yard flower beds,
would roll down their skirts, brush their
own hair back from their gentle fore
heads, and then gallop into the psrlor and
wsrble "Come where the lilies bloom so
fair"
And If the light-hearted maid had at
tanned sufficient skill in the technic of in
strumental music she would press the
keys of the baby grande melodeon with a
firm and persuasive touch, and work the
tread mill attachment with her feet after
the manner, measure and time of a one.
man Rrindstone; and the commingled
peIcolste through the flyscreens of the
windows and float out upon aud over and
through the whiterobed branches of the
ox-heart cherry trees aud sooth the ear OF
the blssphemous hired man as he backed
up his plow, the share of which had spite
fully run in under submerged rock.
And this morning as sit here without
a care or thought-as the first paragraph
of this improvised rhsspody will compel
any intelligent individual to MOTEL feel
like calling out to everybody everywhere
to come, come somewhere; come to
Southern Florida If they like, where the
lilies bloom all right; where much more
than lilies bloom; where the air is 'jist
nstch'ly" polluted with perfume, and
where the graceful palms and BAN boo
hoos and bays and msgnoliss and pal
mettos twine and intertwine their tops
and away to and from, sl-a.man left and
ladies chain, to the measured forty
miles an hour-swell of the soft south
wind and the wing fan of the joyous song
bird and the lowering puzzard!
Now, l sm no plagarist and l did not
take the above partly mellifluous lam
gusge from the ubiquitous Florida real
estate ad. The allusion to the buzzsrd
should dispel any such thought, but l
think that that scsvenger bird has as
much right to have his name in the pub
lie prints as aud other winged creature,
or the ozark haun' dwsg," don't you?
Why, Il it were not for the buzzsrd in
these latitudes the pedestrians would
stumble over nine dead cats and twelve
ordinary cartons on his way to the post
office. 1t seems that work down here re-
quires more exercise than ii does up
Moth, and nobody ever did such men,
ial thing as to bury dead cat. 1t is all
right to talk and talk about the redolence
10 the air, the wash of the placid sea, the
silvery moon and the opslescent and duo
tinted sky, but one glance at So ravenous
buzzsrds gleefully doing the work of the
sanitary board by gulping down mouth
fulls Of decomposed cat and larvae filled
fish-head, gives it all sudden and severe
set back.
But this is neither cheerful nor appe-
tizing. Quite no. l only wish l could
change conditions here in that respect as
easily as can change the subject. 1 like
this climate, like the flowers, the zeph-
yrs, the sky, the moon, the salt sea breeze
and the January hammock scenes, but it
would not appeal TO me on a menu card.
Not to any great extent. do not envy
anybody his particular climate, and cli-
mate is the chief asset in some localities.
| have heard of sales of the clear blue sky
up Moth, and here we dispose of climate
at so much foot front. do not covet
the man who has climate for sale; if it is
all he has in stock ii is only natural he
should devote all his time in advertising
It, no? AS tor me l think l still prefer
that climate where the poor down-trodden
hop toad is not compelled to stay awake
all the year and search for food. l be.
lieve the toad here should haye the same
privilege OF sleeping away a few months
as the toad up Moth has. l do not be-
lieve in discrimination along those lines,
and fiatter myself you will join me in
that think when you come to think about
it.
might go on and tell you of the big
fish caught but nobody would believe it.
A story in which 300 pound fish figured
prominently would be branded as a myth
and the teller thereof placed in the Ana
Mas class. But this is the age of skeptics,
and an getting tired paying for photos
to send along to corrobo.ate my texts.
Even the big city papers compelled me to
dc that, but they figure the photos in.
1t doesn't matter much whether we are
in the Moth or the South, or in between,
life is not vastly different. If one rides
on the cars three days and three nights
and lands in country where sunstroke
is the only disease and he is wearing un-
der. gsrmets of the wool wollen, he will
inaugurate change with some haste, and
that is all there is to II. or course it may
require more time to acquaint the inner
man with the difference in grub, but be-
fore long you will come to your grits and
biscuit.
WALLACE CHADMAN.
Punta Gorda, Fla, March 9th.