The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1915-04-15


eral days with very long face, saying
that he was only bird in gilded cage.
That he wished to be funny, but wasn't
allowed to be, etc., giving such clever
impersonation of a henpecked husband
that his wife gave him up in despair.
This couple, who were great lovers of
nature. took long tramps together every
day and perhaps got more real enjoy
ment out of Daytona than any other of
the house guests. One day another of
the guests came to the side door s;ear my
desk and said miss Newell come out
and see the pretty snake" The pretty
snake" which he had killed only few
miles below at Port Orange was hide
GUS pilot snake more than five feet long
as large as my wrist and covered with
shiny black scales. 1t was the only real
snake saw in Florida, but it was quite
sufficient. T. never got me INTO any
more swamp lands afterwards-and my
longing to get back to Maine redoubled
in vigor from that moment.
Speaking of the swamp lands reminds
me of the old canals through Daytona,
which are commonly called the old Span
ish canals. Doubtless some portion of
them may have been dug by the Spani-
ards several centuries ago, but Mr..
Clement, whose acquaintance with Day.
tona dates back twenty-eight years, told
me that in the early days one of his
teams loaded heavily with lumber and
drawn by four mules went over the en-
bankment into one of the canals and was
pulled out by the "Spaniards" who had
been digging there. l had lot of neg
roes and three Irishmen and the Irishmen
dig the canal" And I. heard rich
Irish brogue say: eyes, l was the Span
lard that had charge of digging this
canal'-all of which rather lessened the
romantic interest with which Georgia and
gazed upon those old canals last year.
However, Mr.. Clement told US many
stories that were full of interest about
the Spaniards and the traces of their
settlement here. Down at Turnbull Bay
was settlement where Minorcans were
brought over and treated as slaves, and
it was interesting to know that the
young lady who was assistant operator
in the main office last winter is a de-
scendant of these Minorcans. Her father
is now in charge of the bird reservation
on an island just below Daytona. Mr..
Clement told US that twenty-eight years
ago the streets of Daytona we're simply
trails where it was difficult to drive an
OK team through-looking at them now
it is hard to realize this, for the wide
avenues of Daytona are her chief beauty.
One afternoon while Mr.. Clement and
I. were down the river fishing, Mrs.
Clement took Georgia and l for an auto
mobile ride down the New Smyrna road,
and we greatly enjoyed this opportunity
of seeing the country. This road is
favorite one with the automobiles as it
is an especially fine one. Only the
weather. the damp, disagreeable, dismal
weather, with its chilly east winds and
its general "deadness," interfered this
year with the pleasure of automobiling,
as with all other out-of- door pleasures in
Daytona. In yesterdays Boston Herald
l saw that the base ball boys had to give
up their oyster roast and stay in Daytona
in their hotels on account of the weather.
and | was glad to be in Maine, where as
yet we expect no oyster roasts out-of-
doors and consequently are not disap-
pointed.
R. T. NEWELL,
Citypoint, Me-, April 8, 1915.