The Ocala evening star., 1915-05-01

office was as goodlooklng as the out
side, and both were in fitting with St.
Petersburg's big evening paper.
AS we passed along, we noted two
things. One was that there were many
ing a good business. Another was
that many people with f1shpoles over
their shoulders were going to and
from the pier-those coming carrying
their fish with a serenity of spirit
that is entirely absent from Ocalans
who return from Orange Lake on No.
9 on Sunday evenings.
We again congratulated st. Peters
burg on having attained that Nirvana
of tolerance that enables fishermen
and Sunday school scholars to meet
and greet in amity. When men and
women can go fishing and to Sunday
school, to the baseball diamond and
the church, the picture show and the
prayermeeting, without hurting each
others feelings, the American spirit
will more fully prevail, and the mil
lenium will have moved several thou
sand years closer up.
That mildeyed person Boisseau, who
sells tickets in Ocala for the Sea-
board, on hearing we were going to
st. Petersburg, had threatened US with
personal violence if we didn't come
| home on his road And as his road
out of ST. Petersburg is good deal
more crooked than Teddy Roosevelt
says Barnes is, carrying passenger
| fifty odd miles to take him twenty,
the train had to leave early.
The train, however, was the Sea-
board limited, and its worth going
around few corners to ride on it.
Also it's route gave a mighty good
view of the country. Leaving st. Pc
] tersburg at 10 a. M, the train first
ran west almost to the gulf, then
went northward to Clearwater. For
4 the first ten miles there was ample
evidence of that spirit that expects
! and intends to make st. Petersburg
grow. Suburb after suburb was laid
out. There were more cement walks
out there in the pinywoods than there
are in Ocala. There was square after
square of well constructed sidewalks,
waiting for the houses that will be
along them and the streets that will
be between them; and if we stay OUT
side of Abraham's bosom for another
five years, we are going back in the
belief that we will see a city bigger
and prettier than Galveston built
from the bay to the gulf.
Pretty soon we came to Clearwater.
| And passing Clearwater we saw the
baseball diamond. And from our
knowledge of athletics, farming and
topography, we are convinced that
diamond was originally intended for a
duckpond, and that very little of its
originality has worn off. This led US
| to wonder why Powell doesn't quit
trying to reform the curfew law
Ocala hasn't and reform the diamond
Clearwater has. We have an interest
| in that diamond. Two or three Ocala
boys have been with difficulty rescued
from drowning on it. It's true it has
good grandstand. We would have
picked up the grandstand and brought
it along, if we could. But you can't
| play baseball on a grandstand much
better than you can play it in a duck
pond.
After passing Clearwater, the road
heads back east, by the noted health
resorts of Green Springs and Safety
Harbor. 1t goes around the north end
of Old Tampa Bay, one of the finest
and best protected bodies of water in
the world. On over the north end of
Hi1lsborough county it goes, then
south across the Hillsborough, which
out in the woods is pretty little
pocket river, and finally down to
Tampa.
The people along this route use the
Seaboard limited for a local train
which gives them the use of perhaps
one of the best day coaches in Florida.
1t was quite a long trip thru the
suburbs of Tampa, which city by the
way reminds one of benevolent and
cnterprising octopus, whose tentacles
constantly lengthen. Even from the
car windows, the improvement of a
year was evident Some of the new
ness has worn off the union passenger
station, which is about fourth the
size of the one in Jacksonville and
| forty times better looking.
| There was no more local business
by the limited after it pulled out from
/ Tampa. 1t has a schedule time of
about thirty-fve miles an hour, and
as it has to make seven or eight stops
between Tampa and Ocala, it often
hits a gait of mile minute. The
writer went to sleep this side of Plant
City, and dreamed he boarded an air.
ship, which floated rapidly to Ocala.
Waking up and finding the Ocala
courthouse clock apparently staring
him in the face, he began to believe in
dreams, but suddenly discovered the
train had stopped at Dade City, the
courthouse cupola and clock of which
is much like our own.
Then we went out on the back piaz-
"a of the train, and watched the NOV