The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-02-09

Ky DOLLY DALNt MfLH
 ~ WEN a day in January-no. not fl in June. altho' every environ NS1 ment smacks of that warm,
 sensuous, beguiling season of the year-when you step with the damned pulsating crowd from the Pull man car and plant your tiny llttle leet on the soil of Florida, the land Of sun shine and flowers'-into Jacksonville, "the gateway"
 Given a day in January-warm ana scented. harmonized with birds and ieweled with flowers; add to this the ever-lovely turquoise sky; a bit fur- ther is the deep, deep azure of the ser uentine river-the historic old St. Johns, which surrounds the city; crown all with enthusiastic, sightseers, million aires, bloated bondholders, the oligarchs of fashion and the tyrants or ton" Hooking to find the fountain of youth which Ponce De Leon located Somewhere in Florida'-and you have a glimpse-a pastel-of this WohderIui section of the country.
 The day I stepped out of the train after an absence of F long years from Florida-it was a day IS beautltul as that on which Paradise was made' the air. the sunshine, the flowers-the whole entertainment of the opal-tinted skies and water and the lull of the soft exotic air-produced an effect lke mandra gora-a sort of cataleptlc trance which makes you long for such nepenthe; there is absolutely no other place in the whole universe which mas the same charm and same fascination the same beauty as Florida; 1t 1alrly hvpnotizes YOU. and no other city in all the world is any more lovely than Jack- sonvIlle; poets have sung of it. painters have etched its beauties; and countless thousands have carroled it's pralses' Il is one of natures arabesques.
 Jacksonville-"th gateway" of the land of enchantment- is Florlda,s one bright particular beauty spot; human ln- yention has done all in it's power to add to what nature has already done s,,perb edifices, buildings, structures ol all kinds and descriptions, have been erected and of all the many supert ubildnigs, none is half so lovely as the palatial Windsor hotel.
 On the particular morning in Janu- arv when I stepped out of the tralf if seemed to me as if all the world and his wife Cor somebody's else wife}, hac dropped down "out of the nowhere inte the here"-for people were laughlne and talking, promenading and fllrtlhs glittering, glimmering men, women an. children-Florida bound-from the colo icy regions of the north ana west 1ooJxinr eagerly and anxiously for this
 
 rious seems to be forgotten and one breathes and lives close to nature heart--in the dolce far niente' Of thlS southern cline
 The memory of that particular mofn- ing has stayed with me very closeiE for it was just the beginning or th' most wonderful of visits-a Vlslt every moment of which was joy, a reNe-a ton and a pleasure
 However beautiful Florida is-an' however wonderful as others ha. made it-Alabama-and especially h4f < mingham has had a finger Tn the pie which has been big spoke in th' building up of Jacksonville ana Whlci is indissolubly connected with the ae yelopment of this great southern citE
 refer, of course, to our 1elloN townsman, Robert Randolph Meyer only wish that the people of Alabam. could know the high regard when l expressed for this wonderful, progres sive young man down in Florida Wa proud that Alabama could send repre- sentative so worthy of every fine Qualit