The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1914-12-23
A TRIP INTO SOUTHLAND.
Mrs. F. r. Northrop Writes Interesting
Description of Sights.
Dear friends in Barre,

Z lance between and we trust he may hli
Z us only good news from Barre.
! We left Royalton Dee. and me
!: Henry and Justus Ketchnm on the tran
!. making five in our party. We sailed ft
B Jacksonville. Fla, via Clyde Steamshl
Co. aboard the Arapahoe.
A dense fog, reported by our Wireless
to be the worst in rs years, envelope
the coast and made it very unpleasant
We reached Charleston at ! o'clock p. II
Dec. and had nearly four hours in tn
city. 1t is here you see the black mar
Charleston is peculiar city III IL
growth. 1t has many fine new building
and many miles of paved streets but tn
old Charleston and the new are strangel.
mixed. You see many of the old bricl
buildings standing on the principa
streets. These buildings show man,
marks of the earthquake of Aug. 81, 1886
We visited st. Mielael's church, ia
nous in history and story, for it wal
here
"The mayor he called for a pen
And the great seal of the city
That he might read who ran;
And the slave that saved st. MiehaePs
Came forth from its doors-a man."
This is an Episcopal church which was
founded in 1852 and opened its doors for
worship in 1861. 1t is built entirely of
wood, which is in marvellous state of
preservation.
! The pipe organ was installed in 1868
and is still used each Sunday morning
and said to be very sweet in tone. The
church was fired upon and badly dam
aged in the fall OF 1868 and seriously in
jured by cyclone III 1865, but was inme-
dlately repaired. During the earthquake
in 1856 it was nearly demolished. The
tower base sank eight inches and the
tower now leans to the north three feet
This room remains the same to-day
and is used for weekly prayer service.
Pew No. 43 was built for the use of
the governor and is twice as wide as the
other pews of the church. Ii contains
several easy chairs beside the pew couch.
All pews open from the aisle by a little
door. Many noted people have occupied
pew 80, among which are George Wash
lngton, Lee, Princess Lorraine and many
others.
We went through the old slave market.
which is now used for selling vegetables
and other produce Colored men con-
Quoted these stalls. We ut for Jack
sonville at O'Clock and arrived there
at ; o'clock by our time the next morn
ing, but found we must set back one hour
ii we We're to be good sontherners.
Jacksonville is indeed a beautiful city,
ranking well with the cltics Of the north
with her modern skyscrapers.
The Heard National Bank building il
IL stories. 4 great many of the build
lngs are made of southern granite. which |
resembles our cement blocks but when
polished makes a fine finish. We spent |
two days in tins city. Perhaps you
would be most interested in our trip to |
the ostrich farm and alligator ranch |
This ranch was established three years I
ago and there are only three gardens in 4
hc world where they have the trained 4
,lligators. This garden is enclosed by
Ugh fence and contains about one acre.
There is one at Hot Springs, Ark, also
4 Los Angeles Cal IL takes from two
. IL years to train these alligators. We
aw many thousands OF them, all ages
nd sizes They are fed from april to
GOV. ! and not again until April. II
axes three tons Of fish each day 10 feed
hem. besides an other food they con
ume. Alligator eggs resemble that OF
duck, IN both size and shape In sum
ncr these eggs are placed in the pond
nd a screened box placed over them. but
d winter they use large incubators. IL
axes 90 days for incubation. The ALI
ators are enclosed in pens according 90 ,
heir size, age. etc. ! STAYED longest az
he baby pen. whore there were hun.
reds Of them huddled together
Each pen has large cement fountain
D the center and a. il was cool and
loudly that day they were piled three !
nd four deep IN some Of them. In con
ection with each pen Is an underground
IN, 80 the keeper informed us that there
ere hundreds 81 them which We did no, ,
NJ.
The average age when skins are used
" commercial purposes Is from 10 10
J years; length from four to five feet !,
b. growth ~ an alligator j. very slow !,
itcr they obtain this age they are sold 4
r exhibition only, a. the skins become u
llueless We saw the oldest alligator !.
captivity. "Ocklauaha 300 yesrs Of :.
r. aud l3 feet eight inches long. They :
Ter ~ 600 to any person who viii bring !.
cm one that vii meazufe more.
We heard him roar and the keeper
AIDE him open bis mouth slowly ~ far
possible. then az q signal with his cap :,
snapped Il together and il sounded u
10 the report II a rife. he performed =,
INV tricks with them, perhaps the most I,
.eresting was seeing Molly" shoot the n
ute The keeper told us i took SEVEN =
ars 81 constant daily training before 4.
could make Der accomplish the feat
im hi. orders alone 10 the showroom
II have everything on sale from PIN y.
ldp n alligator teeth 70 chairs and "a
4 marked $3.50 eagh
We neat entered tise ustriHh earlcn
3 yn0 and found bath Interesting The
"a la- heru mueh enIaraed TIE fast
b grars end extends back b. the nv
Trees with ottriaanF ~ NOES make
deuce shade Hnf here arr tnuul hd ~
nls similar e. suuuIff fssrfts tH o.
ri r0ur mGuft Faftuua teIieIs- gam -.