Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1920-03-19
LADYSMITH MAN TELLS
OF FLORIDA AND CUBA
c. X. EllingsOn Writes Entertainingly
OF His Trip Through the
South

| Dear Editor:
| AS I now feel calling of the north
! ern springs, | think | shall terminate
my vacation within a week or two,
/ and return to the north and see the
most beautiful sight there is Oh earth
| to-wit: the springing up of the clover
all over our fields in the clover belt.
Myself and wife had most enjoy
| able trip. We started in by doing
! Washington. We inspected the most
| of the public buildings, and enjoyed
| very much Il visit with Senator Len
root and other men of my personal ac-
| Qllaintance We next took the Attain
| tic seaboard for Jacksonville. Florida,
which we found to be a progressive
and beautiful city We had not gone
| out of Washington but few hours be-
fore we struck the yellow pine belt.
| This great belt covers practically all
of the southern states or at least the
part of them | have travelled over.
The character Of the soil wherever |
| have found yellow pine the prevailing
timber is sandy.
All through Florida, pure white
sand. and none of it appealed to me as
a profitable district to undertake dairy
ing, because of the very meagre supply
of grass Glover | have not seen in the
south anywhere before | got to
I 1nn w in ON
quantities. Their dairy herds look too
much like dried beef on hOof.
From Jacksonville we proceeded
south TO Miami, Florida. \ rapidly
growing young city. that will in my
opinion overshadow all other points IN
Florida as Il winter home for the peo-
pie of the north. The Miami beach,
cut off by Biscayne Bay from the main
part of the city, has been plated. and
beautiful streets and parks Laid out.
Far more extensive, and | am sure II
will be far more beautiful inside of
two wears. than even Palm Beach.
Miami has now Il summer population
of at least thirty thousand people, and
in winter at least twenty-five thou
sand more The northern tourists and
hotel men, real estate men. eac. have
fOcked hither for the winter, prac-
tically doubling the population of
Miami during the winter months
At this point | overheard Il good
argument between Il native OF south
ern Florida and Il defender OF upper
Wisconsin, as to which of the two sec
lions would he the best suited for the
average hOme-seeker to settle in. The
FlOridian insisted that you have to
give it to Florida because OF her great
production of fruit. We'll, what fruit
do YOU produce in Florida" Oranges,
orape-fruit. cOcOanutS, Strawberries.
and even pineappleS and bananas.
Yes replied the Wisconsiner. land
that is all You raise strawberries
by sending north after the matured
plnats and planting them in Septem-
tember and then have Il February or
March crop. provided frost does not
min them in the blossoms I'm WIS
consin we raise without cultivation
Glackberres. raspberries, blueberrles,
hazel nuts: and by cultivating, we
raise strawberries. apples, grapes, cur
rants and a variety of nuts ana 0thef
fruits. Why man, you down mere IN
the south don't understand the glory
of living i'm a fruit belt like northern
wisconsin If | had you in my moth
er's cellar. | could treat you to more
varieties of preserves and Jellles than
YOU ever dreamed OF" The Floridlan
had another appointment about that
time and walked off.
Later we shot off for Key West and
Havana. For lack of any knowledge
of the Spanish language, we did not
enjoy the city of Havana as much as
we would have otherwise. My impress
sion of the people there was very favor
able. In fact, | believe that on the
whole they are the most courteous and
polite people that | ever met. Tie see
woman standing up in street car
and any man sitting down, III Havana,
was an unheard of occurrence. Even
myself, with my gray whlslers, when
standing up in 4 street car, was oHefed
seat by younger men who, though l
declined. insisted that Padre-pointmg
to my gray whiskers-shOuld have
seat.
The streets of old Havana inside
the old city walls-built not TO DEFEND
the city against the Indians as often
supposed, but to supply the city with
an adequate defense against the French
pirates that infested the Island at the
time-are extremely narrow and the
sidewalks are often not more than
one foot and half wide. And where
street cars run on these narrow streets,
it is quite up against the sidewalk ON
| one side of the street, SO as to leave
| room for automobiles to pass the street
| car on the other side. To my wife and
I. it was a novel experience to crawl
along single file on these narrow side
walks, and always guarding against
| the possibility of being hit by some OF
| the thousands of Ford cars, aut0m0-
| biles and street cars passing along
| these narrow streets at the same time,
rf ~