The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1915-06-07

D
North Lake were no longer dis
They ran into each
1ther in an endless chain of resi-
Ienees with their surrounding
grounds. At every hundred yards or
80 a solid concrete pier ran out into
the water, and the launches lay be-
tween in shoals. Even at this hour,
there were a score or more of boats
on the lake. There were six or seven
at various points. The
ground of the Carney grove was as
thickly settled as the residence por-
ton of Ocala in 1915, and the main
boulevard from Ocala thru Belleview
terminated at an immense recreation
pier where the big packing house
once stood. Bird Island was the
headquarters of a yacht club, COW
cred with houses and ringed with
piers. One immense hotel stood |.
where Hotel Lakeside once stood; a
smaller one was on the bluff at East
lake, but the aviator said most of the
lake was surrounded with private res
mess houses than were absolutely
necessary. Most of the piers were
private, but beside the large one at
Carney's point, there were many that
were public; all accessible from the
car lines. The round trip fare from
Ocala was a cent, and every bright
Sunday and pleasant week evening,
thousands of people made the trip
from the city and stations between.
put a sly question or two to the
aviator to find if among the recrea-
tions at the lake there was any of
what we used to consider vicious
amusement, but as he did not seem to
know what / referred to, / inferred
that the world had become distress
ingly good.
GLOW big town is Leesburg?" /
asked, as we winged over Bird Island.
He sent the aircraft up, swinging
its prov to the southeast. A long up
ward slide brought us to an altitude
of fifteen hundred feet, from which
we could see many miles. Simmer
ing punches of lights marked score
of towns. Lady Lake was right under
US, Fruitland Park little further on,
its lights thinning out to the south,
but before ceasing thickening up
again into the city of Leesburg, as
big as had remembered st. Pc
tersburg twenty-five years before.
AS the airboat came around,
pointed toward where 1 thought the
Oklawaha should be, and asked if its
shores were in cultivation.
every nearly every mile of them,
he replied. "At the end of the great
war, a Florida regiment was gar
risoned in a German town on the
banks of the Elbe. 1t made friends
: with the people, and induced a mum
Der of them to come over here. The!
took a fancy to the Oklawaha anC
; kept on coming till there were owe
ten thousand families settled along i
; between Arden and Leesburg. The!
! built homes back in the pinywood
and turned the rich soil of tn
: swamps into gardens. They introduc
r ed the cultivation of Egyptian whea
} and made great success out of il
4 Acre for acre, they can make NOR
= bread than a western prairie. The
E raise other things, too; cotton, rice
| things to eat and wear; in fact,
r think they could support US if W
: were shut off from the rest of tn
S world"
= GLOW soon must we return?" / in
: quired.
: He looked at a clock in front @
i him. 81 must report at sunrise; it
). an hour to daylight. Want to fly owe
t Dunnellon?"
d eff there is time"
e "Thirty minutes flight; twenty bae
: home. Plenty of time"
e He turned the boat little north b
f west and moved his lever. The all
f craft didn't seem to move, but tn
d landscape below moved backwaT
a with almost dizzying rapidity. Tt
/ lake cleaned under us for two {
three minutes, we looked down aslaI
e into the streets of the good-size
d town of Summerfield, noted that tt
Y northbound train on the Seaboar
5, which left Tampa at midnight, ar
e would be in Jacksonville in time fl
n early breakfast, had to stop, ar
o meet the southbound at Bellevie'
/ and were then out over a stretch
N what a quarter of a century ago NJ
v been a wilderness. But a wilderne
= no more. Not as thickly settled
D the other territory we had been fiyir
Sc over, it gave plenty of evidence of i
rs habitation and industry.
in "What is this country good for"
so inquired.
it mostly stock farms. Luther Blu
e. bank, who came to Florida in the la
a years of his life, succeeded in col
" bining the wiregrass with the alfalt
ce This soil is particularly adapted
Id it."
of At that minute | saw a train belC
eh running on a railway line about ha
e. way between the Seaboard and t
st | WithlacoOchee.
in ''What train is that?"