The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1919-08-01
THE PARTING OF THE WAYS
Denver, Colo. July %

Denver, Colo. July 25.
Editor Star: Most unkindly l left
you on top of a desert mountain near
Riverside, California.
Without definite knowledge that
your tastes for refreshments have
been made to conform to the XVIII.
Amendment, and being very uncertain
as to what class of liquid l may now
safely offer an editor, without offend
ing the law, not the editor, will with
your permission lead you over many
i1rigating bitches, from which, by the
use of your last winters hat, which
| presume you still wear. you may
easily quench your thirst, as we travel
east up the valley through thirteen
miles of orange groves to Redlands.
At Redlands the late lamented
Smiley Brothers, the good men, if
not "the wise men of the east" used
some of their accumulated millions to
subvert the law of gravitation and
have made crystal springs gush out
of the top of a desert mountain and
built there a beautiful park, to the
eLd that the people of Redlands and
you and | may repair thither without
cost.
Upon that rugged peak we find our
selves lost in a labyrinth of roads
through the tangle-wood of exotic
shrubbery and great trees that nod
and rustic in the sporting winds.
Out of nice little rustic summer
houses nestled in green palms at the
top of sheer, rocky cliffs, we look
upon the scenes of industrial life a
thousand feet below. To the west all
is beauty, but in the distant east we
now plainly see the edge of that vast
region known as the Great American
Desert.
The three great railroads, that
handle more than half of the COM
merce of California pass under our
view out fthe valley into the desert,
the ways.
We see the Southern Pacific bend
to the south over those torrid wastes
down by the Salton sea; to the north
over those crusted and bitter sands
the Salt Lake railroad makes its way
to the Mormon city, while to the east
the splendid Sante Fe road boldly
sets out through that parched and
sweltering region.
So we have come to the parting of
the ways.
The coasts and valleys behind us
represent industrial California, and
with the exception of few mines and
small irrigated spots the names that
denote counties are mere geographic
al expressions used as a means of
dividing between five states a desert
900 miles long and $50 miles wide.
Out in the desert some counties are
800 miles long, and one may frequent
ly meet men who must travel 250
miles to get to their county sites.
What a splendid opening is here
presented for some of our Florida
Legislators, and l believe you will
join me in the wish that some of them
may avail themselves of it.
Surely Florida has been divided and
sub-divided enough. but here once
their tent is pitched they can demand
plebiscite in the territory to be eff
fected and by that token can make
new counties ad nbltum, as long as
they can out vote the coyotes and
jack rabbits.
1t is written that the shores OF
Hades are covered with asphodel, the
pale flowers of death, and to those
dismal coasts may have hkened these
desert wastes with their gray, bitter
stunted, sapless weeds.
Yet, perhaps there are some legis.
lators who do not fear Gehenna, much
less this mere desert imitation.
If such there be, let them stanC
forth to tell the tagging west how
prosperity is conjured out of new
names on the map, TO the glorious enc
that ever thereafter the Hon. Alkal
Pete of Saddlepocket Gulch, may lay
perpetual claim to sit in the council:
OF state. Sincerely,
| Wil1iapn Hool-aF