The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1916-12-08
WOMAN'S CLUB DEPARTMENT
MRS. E. VAN HOOD
Editor for the Month of December


George Eliot
We are happy to announce that we
have secured for this department for
the coming four issues, original
papers setting forth different phases
of the recent great federation meet
ing in Miami. We feel sure that
nothing could be of more interest, and
thank the write in advance for giving
to US this treat. The first in the pa
per on 'The City of the Convention"
by Mrs. R. A. Burford.
Miami
Take the rainbow tints of Silver
Springs ard the glowing hues of
some radient sunset, scatter them
broadcast in a tropic land under a
southern sky and you have Miami, the
beautiful. Its color impresses you;
color run riot, brilliant, vivid. The
hedges flare out in flaming reds,
coleus taller than your head; there
are plants like ribbons, and crotons
notified in yellows. The blue of the
sky is the purest, sweetest blue, and
cpalescent the cluods which fieck the
azure. There are puppies and greens
in the waters of Biscayne Bay. Red
rooted are the houses-houses dazzI-
ing white in the sunshine. Over all
reigns the royal palm, royal because
it never bends its stately trunk, but
reaches straight and regal to the sun.
Miami and Biscayne Bay! Soft
words in soft cline suited to poetry
and romance. l have wondered if the
Indian tongue, which framed the name
of the wonder city harked back by
unknown ways to the love verb of
the Latins, and called it Miami, for
we can but love it.
If Italy's sea coast helped to make
her great, then Florida has great op-
portunities. Three hundred and sixty
six miles stretch straight south of
Jacksonville to Miami. A line drawn
directly south through Miami would
strike Colon, the entrance to the
Panama canal.
1t has been said that to be a good
business man one must have imagi-
nation. Carlisle would have said he
must be prophet. A prophet of his
time was Mr.. Flagler, when he realiz-
ed the possibilities of the East Coast
and put his millions into its develop
ment. Money has done much for Mi
ami. 1t was part of the alchemy
which produced it's beauty. There are
homes palatial, with grounds the pride
of landscape artists. Hotels magnifi- |
cent enough for the princes of the
earth, Churches suited to the phar-
asaic taste and beautiful enough for
spiritual conservation. Schools and a |
school system worthy of imitation.
School buildings dot all that southern
country under Miami influence, build
ings to be proud of. Mr.. Hall, super
lntendent of public instruction, is am
bilious and far seeing. Early he must |
have imbibed that old ordinance of the
Continental Congress, i. e., "Religion,
morality and knowledge being neces-
sary to good government and the hap
piness of mankind, schools and the
means of education shall forever be
encouraged"
Mr.. Bryan has home, made and
named for quiet and rest from the
limelight, in which he ives-the Villa
Serena. Standing guard on each side
OF the entrance are two tall cacti.
like two green columns reaching far
above the roof. saw them and else
where night-blooming cereus, climb
ing tall palm trees the better to
faunt their sweetness in the air.
There is an estate already three
years in the making and yet far from
Will it be replica of the
gardens of Versailles or the quaint
ness of LIE Petit Trianon?
The Biscayne Bay was an obstacle
when Miami wishes to reach the sea.
A bridge nearly three miles long
spans it to the peninsula beyond,
which is to be Miami's playground.
Here are parks, golf courses and best
of all, the ocean beach. Cocoanut
palms abound, heavy with fruit. Yet
rs abundant as they are and as
thrifty, they were not indigenous to
his coast. They were the gift of the
sea. In the memory of one of the
oldest inhabitants, a ship laden with
'ocoanuts bound north from the
roplcs was wrecked in a storm and
he waves carried the nuts by the
thousand to this shore. Many were
'lanted and they found a soil and eli
rate suited to their needs.
Nature does these tricks. I was
truck with the japanese type of the {
Seminole Indian of this region. Theyi
laven't the heavy set, small face of !
ne western Indian, and he is yellow, {
ot red With type of complexion all '
esemblance ceases. The japanese
nergy is unknown to the Seminole, {
nd labor word without a meaning. c
So with the growth on Paradise !
ley, the old name for our state park, d
0 which our itinerary led US. Prof. lc
lmpson said it was uniquely tropical
4 vegetation and unlike any thing >
lse IN Florida. In some way, washed /
or -ial Nv 1-lz