The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1918-04-22

They buried him as best they could
and started afoot for Punta Gorda,
Nine, miles nearer Punta Gorda Hans
died. His faithful friend buried him
There. Later relatives came with q
fine casket and Hans nameless COM
panion alone could guide to, the jews
grave. As they went the Florida
cracker soliloquized thusly: Nov In
,life's inequalities here is Hans, a geed
fellow, poor all his life, died poor,
and as a sacrifice for faithful service
Ito this rich Jew, he perhaps deserves
la monument more than this rich Jew.
Here is his chance to get It, Besides
it is only nine miles to Hans grave
land eighteen miles to the Jews. $50,
Jas he was Judge, lawyer and jury in
the case, he decided to have Hans
body taken to Baltimore and to thus
get his monument. AS muttered half
defense and explanation, he said:
Now Hans deserved a monument per-
haps more than the Jew, and he got
it and now is resting in Baltimore
beneath marble monument, and
ladies place flowers on his grave. The
Jew rests amid palmettoes and pines
in an unmarked, unknown grave, and
the soft moaning pines sigh over his
grave. This humorous, no doubt,
Ifctitious, legend led me, say, in curl
osity, to see Punta Gorda. Before I
write directly to the text about Pun
ia Gorda as place having my sym
pathies, wish to recall and relate
an experience of my own. This exper-
fence and the occasion furnishing 1t
was an old maid auction Mr.. Editor,
did you ever hear of or attend one?
| am sure | never did until about six
years or more ago For 25c admission
fee / attended one at Punta Gorda,
being then, as now, lone bashful
widower. / felt longinga vague
hope of myself striking Hep Did L?
No, sir. 1t beat the band to see those
hungry old bachelors and widowers
IBID for pigs in bin mean old
maids disguised, identity hidden,
swathed up in pillows, mother hub
bards and other DISCUSSES. This alone
caused me for time to want to tell
this on Punta Gorda as a partial re-
,venge for their clannishness in elbow
ling lone widower away from the old
maids auction stand. Now, have my
revenge have told on them. Am
sorry they had so many old maids
that they had as a last resort to sell
them like pigs in bag" Now all
this aside for it belonged to Punta
Gorda as a has been" For Punta
,Gorda seems after all the seat and
origin of big expectations, wild goose
dreams and half completed enter
prises. Three noted ones alone illus
trate this. First, two million dollar
ice plant. saw it before it was
pulled down and hauled away for
Junk. 1t is said the A. C. l.. R. R. or
Plant system or one of them lost over
$4,000 on freight charges on the ma
terial there. Second Her big hotel
stands now a seeming monument OF
her. folly. And later today her half
built concrete bridge stands as her
latest arrested effort. 1t is this and
the cause of suspension in building 1t
| started to write up as one of her
seeming late failures. walked out
on the bridge itself as far (about one
mile) as it Is completed. The punta
Gorda abutment alone is one hundred
steps or three hundred feet long to
where the bridge proper begins. This
abutment is about twenty-eight steps
wide, has side concrete abutments
similar to those at Tampa on La
lfayette bridge. The bridge is about,
say 16 or IS feet wide and from end
! of abutment to its stop off or COM
pleted point is IS spans of Is feet
length, resting on concrete coated
pile supports. This imperfect glance
at it as huge undertaking, demand
ing both money and labor, must APP
pear to all my readers. To stand or
walk over it, as I did, am sure,
would bring them to see, as ! do, a
large attempted enterprise, like to,
and perhaps equal to Mr.. Flagler's
railroad through the sea. have seen
both and cannot but associate them as
kindred undertakings. This arrested