The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1917-01-10

I1N VIII lONC AohAAcf OOO
bathing. select this region and they
find ample accommodations at Ia
wares. Eustis. Clermont, Mt. Dora, and
other nearby towns. At Clermont a
great development has taken place
under the charge of the Lake High
lands company, a club house, expert;
ment farms, and quite little city OF
bungalows has been built overlooking
Lake Minnehaha.
Just below Sanford is Orlando, the
beautiful. Orlando is far ahead OF
even the average aggressive Florida
city. Nature began the work by
planting numerous little sparkling
lakes right where the city was to be
and man has taken advantage of these
natural conditions and added ever
pleasing touch. Princely trees adorn
the streets and parks, and surround
the lakes. Swans float lazily in the
Ilimpid waters and the weird and fan
itastic Spanish moss festoons the
trees.
Kissimmee, twenty miles south, is
la growing city, a clearing place for
large lumber interests, and the point
from which boats ply the Kissimmee
River to that great Inland Sea, Lake
IOkeechobee, 200 miles distant.
Lakeland just below, is one of the
commercially promising cities of the
Highland country. 1t is husky town,
full of ginger and pep, and the get
there" spirit, and an important termi-
nal point for the Coast line. 1t is
honey-combed with lakes, and these
lakes are fast becoming centers of or
namentation and development.
From Lakeland, it is but 1875 miles
to Fort Myers, one of the Souther-
most points reached by railroad on the
Gulf Coast. Fort Myers, on the Ca
loosahatchie River, profits by an ideal
location and many attractions for win
ter visitors, not the least noted of
whom is Thomas A. Edison, who
make his permanent winter home at
this place, in a villa surrounded by
royal palms.
Tampa is an aggressively active
city, and has had spectacular
growth, the beginning of which may
be dated to the Spanish-American war.
Before that time it was simply hap
hazard collection of commonplace
houses, thrown together at random,
without aim or ideal. With public at
'tention focused on Tampa, and with
growing shipping interest Tampa be-
gan to round into form soon after
the Spanish-American war, and has
made great strides ever since. 1t
has seventy thousand people, includ.
ing it environs at Ybor City and West
Tampa. A large number of these are
Cubans and Spaniards, attracted
hither by the all-important cigar bus.
mess, for Tampa holds the worlds
record in the manufacture of high.
grade cigars, averaging almost a mil.
lion cigars a day. all Of them hand.
made, all of them selected tobaccos,
and the price of many running as
high as fifty cents and one dollar each
To the traveller and the sightseer II
is known for the celebrated Tampa
bay Hotel, magnificent Moorish pal
ace, erected and lavishly furnished by
Plant at cost of 100000 and later
sold to the city for a nominal sum
This unique and massive structure
with it's artistics setting of palms and
tropical plants. and its picturesque 10
cation, overlooking the river and the
Bay, forms one of the most charm
ing pictures in all the Southland.
: But Tampa has all the self-relyine
qualities, the vim, the energy, the
foresight, the spunk. to make a great
city. For instance, one million dollars
are now being spent for hard roads,
a municipal hall has been erected at
cost of two hundred and seventy
five thousand dollars. Harbor i'm
provements have run into the mil.
lions. and the estuary project is one
of the most stupendous on any coast.
Tampa not only entertains a large
number of the winter visitors, but Its
activities are perennial. Exports are
heavy. owing to the tremendous ton.
mage of phosphates. lumber, rosin and
other natural products shipped from