The Lakeland evening telegram., 1917-01-25
Henry WattersOn's
Tribute To Florida

Pictured on the map of the United
States the state of Florida looks Tx,
the caudal appendage of some strange
monster curled around the South At
lantic to embrace and protect the
Gulf of Mexico. Pictured in the pop
ular fancy it is the land of sunshine
and flowers. Forecast by the devel
opments of the present and the prom
ise Of the future it is Ell Dorado
which if scarce fulfilling the dreams
of Ponce de Leon in the matter oi
the spring of eternal youth, yet far
surpasses those of the gold hunters
of the Spanish Main in the matter OF
everlasting wealth.
From the st. Johns to Cape Sable
in the east and Charlotte Harbor in
the west, Alladin's garden would
seem by comparison a brief patch,
the Everglades. but half explored,
awaiting the hour when they NAV
pour their riches into the common
stock
Thirty years ago this sublime PEN
insula was practically undiscovered
Disease was supposed to start in the
Dry Tortugas and to spread contag.
ion northward. In Benny Havens.
o. the ancient drinking song of the
West Point cadets, W ecome upon the
line, "On Tampa's deadly Shore" ex-
pressing prevalent idea of those
days. Tampa is today as healthful
city as there is in the world. has
doubled its population in a decade
and is forging right along to the front
as one of the leading ports of the
country. Just across the state is
Biscayne bay and its Magic City,
which is giving Tampa a close,
though friendly race, but has already
become aristocracy's winter Newport,
someone having irreverently said, yet
with warrant, that "the swells and the
sports go to Palm Beach, the ladies
ana gentlemen to Miami"
Nevertheless, all along the Atlantic
coast between st. Augustine and Key
West there are notable and delight
full points, like Daytona, Ormond and
Eau Gallie-to mention only a few
and on the gulf coast between Jack
sonville and Shark river, we have St.
Petersburg, Sarasota, Ft Myers and
Naples. Ft. Myers is connected with
the gulf at Punta Rassa by the noble
McGregor boulevard, intersected at
Whiskey creek by the Marco and Ma.
pies highway.
Presently the Tamiami Trail, run
ming east and west, will be compile
ted, closely joining the two coasts.
There is projected and bound to fol-
low line of railway uniting the old
Plant system with the Flagler system
and saving the public thousand
miles of travel. Ultimately there will
be as hip canal up the Caloosahatchie
river and across Lake Okeechobee,
cutting off a thousand miles Of sail
ing through and around the danger
GUS Straits of Florida.
The Courier-Journal twenty years
ago called the Gulf of Mexico the
Mediterranean sea of the western
hemisphere. Florida the American
Riviera. The European Rivera, how
ever. is mainly playground. The
Riviera neither of Italy, or France,
or Spain, has any such productivity
as have both the east coast and the
west coast of Florida. Our land OF
sunshine and flowers, within days
ride of thirty millins of people is q
grapefruit and orange grove, toma-
to, potato and cabbage patch-a plan
tation of vegetable luxuriance paral-
Ilelled only by California which is too
far away-the celery of Sanford riv-
aling the celery of Kalamazoo, the
avocado a thing apart and joy for
ever. just as the pompano is the
Spanish mackerel translated and
gone to heaven.
Man of genius that he was, Mr..
Flagler builded even wiser than he
knew when he penetrated the terra
incognita which Mr.. Plant likewise
man of genius had generation be-
fore barely touched with the wand
of enchantment The oversee rail-
way is a unique and lasting monu-
ment to a capitalist supplementing
the courage of the adventurer with
the imagination of the poet. The
problem of the Everglades is solving
itself. They will ere long blossom
into a myriad of truck gardens rich
enough to feed the universe. New
York may have ost the political bal
1900 - nouar-Npw England may no !