The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1916-11-14
ON THE OKLAWAHA
FORTY YEARS AGO

Thru the courtesy of Miss Gamsby,
the efficient public Librarian, the Star
has been shown an article about Flor
ida written for Scribner's Magazine of
November, 1874, by Edward King.
The article gave the experiences of
Mr.. King, who toured the South forty
odd years ago for Scribner's in much
the same fashion that Julian Street
toured it for Golfers at this later
day.
The article gave the experiences of
Mr.. King on trip made presumably
the winter before, and large portion
of it dealt with scenes familiar to
many of our people.
The first page Of the article was IL
Illustrated with cut of the little
steamer Marion, blowing it's way up
the Oklawaha. This boat is remem-
bered by some Of our older folks. It
was smaller than the Hart boats now
in use-not much bigger in fact than
one Of Carmichael's daylight boats
and of course not one-third as swift.
The next illustration showed the
water front of Jacksonville forty
three years ago. 1t bears no resem-
blance to the busy and handsome city
of today.
A companion picture q the little
steamer Marion is one showing cars
in operation on the railroad between
Toccoi on the st. Johns and st. Au-
gustine. This road fourteen miles in
length then carried its passengers on
cars drawn by mules. Said mules
were live steppers, too. They made
the trip of fourteen miles in about two
hours.
The manager of this road was a
yankee who blended keen sense Of
hUmor with shrewdness. One day he
was approached by wrathy visitor
from the north who kicked on the
fare-two dollars. why" said the
tourist, sup north can travel fifty
miles for two dollars"
"And how long would it take yon to
travel fifty miles up north?D asked
the rallrOad manager.
about two hours" said the tourist.
"Well, my dear SIR, said the man
ager, in his most honeyed accents,
"you can ride on our road two hours
and more for two dollars. You get the
worth of your money here, the same
as there
The article tells Of St. Augustine
before Flagler's millions rescued it
from picturesque decay. There is a
pretty good description of Palatka, at
which place at that time ocean steam
ers we're arriving, as they might ar
rive now if the people had more git
uE and git. Palatka was in it's hey
dey then, and all the great orange
groves which are yet among the chief
glories of Putnam county were COM
ing into full bearing.
The description of the Oklawaha
trip shows that there is no material
difference in the Marion" of those
days and the Hart boats of today. The
traveller left Palatka, on the Marion,
in the early evalhng, just after the
arrival of the steamer from Charles
ton--there was no railroad then-ano
voyaged up the broad expanse of the
St. Johns. The evening wore away
with the boat padding at four miles
an hour against the current, and when
the traveller went to sleep the vessel
was still in the big river When morn
ing came the traveller found the boat
squirming around the bends of the
Oklawaha and between meals sat on
the deck and watched the sure but
lazy progress of the vessel all day
Trees and alligators were in greater
profusion, but the scenery was other
wise much the same as it is today.
The article showed, however, that
in one way this section has retrograd-
ed, for it said that steamers ran con-
stantly up the Oklawaha thru Lakes
Griffin, Eustis, Harris and Dora to
Okahumkee. There was a semi
weekly line of boats, and while ev-
erything was slower then, it was evil
IDENTIFY more reasonable.
The writer went on up the st.
Johns, and across to the Indian river
the present great development of
which he prophesied. A carpet-bag
government was then in power, and
although northern man he did not
seem to be favorably impressed by it.
The one drawback to the merits of
the article was that Mr.. King, while
his writings showed that he did not
come in contact with the country peo-
pie of Florida to any great extent,
yet sized them up as ignorant, vicious
and lazy. That was the prevailing
opinion in the north at the time, and
visitors who viewed the state from
the verandas of hotels and decks of
steamers seldom made any attempt to
change it.
Better begin your Christmas shop