The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1918-04-11
A Letter from Florida.

st. Petersburg, Florida.
There is SO much that is interest
ing to write about here one hardly
knows where to commence or when
to leave off. will try to describe
the new post office which has been
one story, REINFORCED concrete with
red tile roof, and would Judge the
outside dimensions including the
porches to be SOx1OO feet, the roof
projects and rests on ornamental
columns: This projection covers a
space of about 1S feet on three of
the sides of the building, and this
three broad, shallow steps lead up
from the side walk. For a post
office it is unique, and it is said to
be the only one of the kind ever
built. The popularity of it is the
patrons of the office have access to
stamp window and everything with
out going inside of the building. |
think it was built in this manner to
advertise st. Petersburg, the idea is
to. show the tourist that they can re-
ceive their mail out in the open air
every day in the year without dis
flee as | have described in he far
north in the winter time with the
temperature 25 below zero and a
blizzard raging, and the patrons of
the. office going for their mail and
every person having lock box on
the north side of the building would
storm was over. You wrote me
about the beautiful flowers and the
warm, drw weather they are having
in California this winter. Will say
there are some flowers here, and il
| the weather has been any warmer
and drier anywhere than it has been
here, the weather man is giving the
people too much of the good thing.
February was record breaker for
high temperature and lack of moist
ure in st. Petersburg and if the
month OF March continues as it has
been. so far with a temperature
r ne from 20 to 81; and without
breaker. Rain is. now needed badly
This place is called Sunshine City,
and every day is trying to make
good. The record shows that but
SIX days on an average in a year
that the sun does not shine some
the eyes here, the bright, glar1ng
sun shining on the pavement and
the sand almost blinds one if they
do not have extra good eyes. There
are a great number of letters writ
ten from this place. The thousands
of tourists here all have friends and
relatives in the north who are anx-
south land. Many of the letters are
printed in the home papers and some
of them come back here and are
printed in the state dailies. Will
copy from some I read here. The
writer says we motored to St. Pet
ersburg together and separated soon
afterward, Mr.. Jones contending that
three weeks to carry him through
the balance of the winter up north
without getting cold feet, so he load
ed his auto into box car and pur
chased ticket for home, leaving
with the PARTING remark that he was
where there were, so many old peo--
pie, sick, blind and crippled, and that
st. Petersburg has the smallest
stoves and the biggest liars OF any
place he knew. To be sure Florida
has had some cold weather this win
ter, the mercury dropping below ,32
degrees, when flowers and garden
freeze did not damage the fruit.
The same writer says to the average
farmer coming here to spend the win
ter, this Florida sand soil does not
appeal to, and he wonders how farm
ers make, living, but they do. and
farms. The same writer says to the
great majority of tourists St. Peters
burg is heaven compared with the
extreme cold weather of the north
ern states which we read about. He
continues OF course the farm prOpO-
sition in Florida is not profitable
industry, and if transportation of
elias county would starve to death
in three weeks, and st: Petersburg
is in Pinellas county. Florida can
not raise enough to feed her inhabi-
tants. My judgment is not infalli-
BILE. This is not the copy, but judy
| believe the tourist crop is the great
est ready money crop in Florida to-
day, and always will be. They are
neglecting their old occupation of
skinniIg the gator in the summer
time and turning all their attention
to the easy and lucrative job of skin
ming the tourists to- all the the time n Col i
peoples city. The majority Of the
haired people. Well, Col. / said,
l can account for that. The people
in the north have to work and save
until they are old and gray haired
before they have saved enough mon
ely so as to spend a winter in the
streets are wide here and in the res
idence part of the city space about
20 feet wide is paved with brick in
the center of the street. That leaves
a wide parking on both sides, which
is planted with flowers, ornamental
trees and Towering shrubs with
roses and many flowers in the front
yards. A Towering vine covers the
porches at this hotel, and it was a
pretty sight when in bloom: Many
passersby stopped to- inquire the
name of the vine which is Begonia.
There is running shrub with pur-
pie flowers; the prettiest thing of
tl,e kind l ever saw Kept trimmed
the bloom will hide the shrub, al
lowed to grow it will run over the
roofs of the houses and cover them
with a mass of blooms. must tell
you about the Magnolia tree which
Is now in bloom. The Magnolia is
the prettiest ornamental tree in the
south, but do not see many of them
here. There is a cemetery at New
Gh.1oorc called MapnO1ia cemetery