The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1913-09-20
PACKHAM AT CAPE MAY POINT
ScFibbies EntertainingIy of Some
Things He has Seen in Northern
States

Oh some
Things He has Seen in Northern
States
Mr. VI. NJ. Little recently received
the following letter from Mr.. H. c..
| Packham, who with Mrs. Packham
is spending the summer at Cape May
Point \. J. Mr.. Packham says;
When a man has nothing to do.
the best thing for him to do is to get
busy and do it; thus it comes about
| that l have commenced this epistle
| dedicated to you. Well, in the first
Fplace the most important event to be
chronicled (don't know if that aw-I
full word is spelled right is that We
are both we'll and that yours truly
has to get the buttons on the waist
| band of trousers Stacked off every
week.
We have just returned from a
months visit to Philadelphia and
vicinity. which included a trip to
| New York and a ride up the Hudson
river as far as West Point, which
place we visited and took a few notes
on the proper way to make dude sol
diers. Our trip up the Hudson was
on steamer, said to be the largest
river steamer in the world, licensed
to carry 5000 passengers. We did
not fully realize that capacity until
We figured out that you could put
every man, woman and child living
in Ocala on board that steamer with
out rubbing elbows. Everything on
the boat was on the same liberal
scale-stationery postal cards and
every facility for writing free of
charge, while an officer of Uncle Sam
| in the person of a postmaster, is on
board to sell stamps, register mail
and fulfill all the duties of a regular
| postOffice. These boats are exclusive
| ly for summer tourists, they carry no
| freight, have no facilities for sleep
| ing, do not run on Sundays and have
no bar, and yet during the season,
| from June 10 to September 13, they
run full and bring fortunes to their
owners. | have gone many times up
the Hudson, but l do not remember
a time when everything looked SO
| lovely; the magnificent palisades
| lining the western bank for miles on
miles and al times seemingly to reach
| the sky line, those noble works of
nature of which Irving wrote and
| Bayard Taylor is quoted as saying,
| that no scenery Of Europe, not
emitting the grandest peaks of the
Alps, could excel them in sublime
grandeur" but today mans neces-
| sity or mans greed is doing its ut
most to annihilate them. Our boat
| slackened its speed that we might
occurrence for a long time in the
canal zone. Hundreds of holes had
| been drilled into the face of the rock,
| or rather down from the top, these
| holes were a short distance apart
and covered a reach of two miles and
were charged with dynamite, many
tons being used, and as each hole
sent up its smoke and added its
crash to that of its neighbors. it
seemed like an endless peal of thun-
der, echoing from peak to peak as
tho the ghost of Hendrick Hudson
and his crew were sending up last
protest against the vandal work oil
the present generation.
r, L.
is altogether different-a good deal
of rich pasture land extending grad
ua1ly upwards as far as the eye could
reach, while dotted along it's banks.
and close enough to be neighborly,
was a string of private residences or
mammoth summer hotels that for
architectural beauty or costly en-
bellishment could not be equaled in
in the world.
But, to come back to Cape May
Point. Well, the weather is simply
perfect The tide is rolling in in
immense waves breaking on the |
shore with a noise of distant thun- !
der. About a mile out a flock of
hundreds of gulls are adding their |
screech to the din of the waves
they dash into the water, dive for a
fish and eat it as they float with the
tide.-then,. as they have reached |
the limit of the school OF fish they |
rise up and fly back again In the
nesting season, however, as soon as
they have finished their meal. they /
gather a fish in their claws and carry
it to their nest perhaps some miles
inland. H. c. Packham.