The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1915-01-18

made here TO settle the great
question. The writer himself
has been for many years lover
of the great spit OF sand which
lies between the atlantic and the,
Gulf. but at the moment he
means only to say something OF
the beauties OF the rival land
scapes.
On what might be termed the
picture postcard standard OF
comparison the Pacific slope isl
unquestionable the winner.
Snow-clad peaks. green foothills,
and placid turquoise sea are
assets undeniable; they even hint
pleasantly at the Italian and
| Spanish shores of the Mediter-
ranean. The Florida scene is in
"a slightly lower key-the Florida
landscape has, once you felt its
spell, more romantic atmos-
phere. more haunting, almost
melancholy charm. Only afoot
and ahoat can YOU earn to appre-
ciate the desolate fiat stretches OF
Florida's sands, where the wind
is forever whistling in the pine
tops and the view always ends
in an impenetrable green wall,
and to love the lonely wndings
:, lpf her brakish coast rivers and
lagoons between sedgy banks
. crowned with low mangrove
. thickets, past bars where oysters
|, are uncovered at low tide, flats
: where blue and white herons
:, fish, and sand banks where peli-
1 cans congregate. Almost every
!, where in Florida, even in the
northern part. the wilderness
still comes to your back door.
rrlIf not quite the wilderness, at
i least something very wild; the
. |monotonv OF the pine woods, de-
serted except by an occasional
>, crew of half savage turpentiners,
: and nthe "hammocks," the real
- lush tangle OF the jungle. Wild
life in Florida seems eager al
- ways to come back to the settle
- ments. The tourists will note
=, here and their Government "bir(
i, reservations" which are now
ss sanctuary to all wild fowl
=. And the oldest inhabitants will
- tell YOU that birds which thirty
70 years ago they thought extinc
:, have mysteriously reappeare'
" and are thriving as wards Of tn
nation.
l. In the southern part of tn
Il, state the actual wilderness is, O
r. ,tourse, close at hand, or was TN
r. til the drainage canals began t
do away with that immemoria
geographical mystery with tn
!, haunting name OF Evergladc
~ =, In the lower East Coast cities
an is especially and piquantly It
=. mantle to see tiny bands of II
a. ,lians who have literally com
-, forth from the untracked water
~ iastness OF the saw grass
- gaze upon the prepostcrot
=" works of the white man and
y, sell the white woman hit
rubbish in the way Of baske
NY land SO forth, They bring bac
memories OF the brave days
Osceola and the Seminole war
ars no European resort can show II
~ agreeable contrast OF the centu
" les. TO be the oldest and new
est state. the earliest to be inha'
"a. .'l tied and the fastest to be real
'a settled OF all those east OF II
Ia Mississippi is Florida's curiol
- characteristic. 1t is not ca,
t,ia elsewhere, only one night O
w ~; from the metropolis on Pu
-. man car, to take up Governme
ay ldllu upon Will you may PCS
=. bly, find, in the heart OF son
-. green tangle. namelcss ruins
w. ~, earlier Spanish days. Ponce
~ Leon made a beginning of t
.en discovery OF Florida, but t
~ work can be carried on by ca
ms new tourist and amateur an
c. quarian.
M. However. great deal
'o,,s known about Florida. and sol
Ike little part oi il may be wol
To- setting down here. Florida
,llv the second largest state east
~ the Mississippi 1t has the loi
aud est coast line OF any OF the stat
,,or- and, except ior Louisiana,
.to,v lowest elevation above the ;
III Florida mountain tops soar
, 70 something like a hundred {
,;,,- fifty feet: and a peak OF sixty
moss seventy feet is notablc-Mo'
,lIed Ararat. a pleasant hummock
re- the writer's acquaintance, lifts
self no farther that that tow
he clouds. The whole east &C
=. is guarded by sand spits OF va