The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1915-06-07
HOW OCALA WILL LOOK
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS HENCE
CONTINUED from Saturday,


During this explanation, the air
ship had been sliding rapidly south
ward at an altitude of about thou
sand feet. 1t was a clear starlight
night, and while the landscape below
was not distinct it was easy to see
that all the country was thickly set
tied and cultivated. Ocala proper
was not so large in area as / had sup
posed from what the chauffeur had
said of its population; indeed, the
thick mass of houses covered little
more than the corporate limits | was
used to. But most of the streets
turned into roads lined with houses
close enough for villages for several
miles out, and in many places a large
clump of buildings showed a suburb.
A boulevard, evidently coming from
Citra and Anthony ran through Silver
Springs toward the lake; another,
and it right under Us, started south
from the panhandle" about where
earns place used to be at the east
end of Fort King, ran to the Atlantic
Coast Line and crossed it, then ran
alongside of it toward the lake. Out
to the right ran the road to Belle
view, and at the minute the aviator
finished his explanation, we passed to
the side of that town; it covered a
square mile, and had many large
buildings, tho, as in earlier days, there
was = generous room between. Still
further west we could mark another
| boulevard; this ran out Orange ave
nue., and the aviator remarked it was
on the highway to Tampa thru Sum-
/ ter and Dade counties. These bOule-
wards were wide and paved, had car
lines in the center, and were marked
| by street lamps at regular intervals.
There was also light before almost
every house, marking every road
plainly as we looked down, but the
street lamps distinguished the boule-
ward, making them look at a little
distance like unbroken ribbons OF
| light. All the street lamps were of
the size put in in Ocala in 1914, and
| SGAO " IAlC N4CtGOI I4Acib IL Ncio q
wonder that with electricity so plen-
tiful more was not used in lighting.
"There is plenty; why should we
have more?" said he. 81 understand
that twenty years ago the country
was greatly given to white ways
which were abnormal and destructive
to eyesight. About that time al
Ocala man, DR.. Boney, at a meeting
of scientific men in New Orleans, ad
vanced the theory that certain
amount of darkness was absolutel!
necessary to the preservation of eye
sight, and that the tendency to pro
long the glare of daylight, and wors
than daylight, for twenty-four hour
day would inevitably result il
blindness for the race. There was s
much to support this theory that
at once sprang into notice, and be
: came the basis for a move toward
less artificial mode of living. Man
sensible reforms were taking plac
then in the customs of cities. an
among them was the abrogation o
white ways, and substituting as niue
light as was necessary and no more
In few years there was such vas
1 improvement, and such falling off i
: nervous diseases caused by eyestrai
5 that the Boney theory was recognize
; as authentic all over the world"
By this time the shimmering e.
r panse of Lake Weir was almost unde
o US, and sloping his planes the avi,
: tor made a long downward glide tn;
e made me think he was going to giy
: US bath. / just had time to figu
: that Oklawaha was big town whe
n the water appeared right under u
g and then the airboat came to a lev
e again. We We're still four hundrt
q feet up, and at this altitude the ri
y boat made long sweep around ov'
e Marion county's Mediterranean. tt
outlines of the lake We're the sam
but the shores all the way arour
1T were lined with villas, with roa'
t, running out in the settled and cult
# waited country at every few hundrt
r yards. Oklawaha was what tqvent