Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1920-03-13

dlm oC0Cus r 1o-s NAL OA L.
Crossing the everglades used 70 be
thrilling and dangerous adven-
ture; now any tourist can do it in
two days on comfortable boat.
The glades used to produce moth
ing but alligators and magazine
stories; now they are producing
sugar cane, corn, and garden
truck.
: This means that one of the last
great American wilderness is
about to be tanned. True, only a
small fraction of its area, which is
about the same as that of Con-
necticut, has been made habitable
for men. Fifteen thousand acres is
an estimate Of the area now under
cultivation, and about three thou
sand people live in the Everglades,
including the 200 in Morehaven,
the glade metropolis. But the drain
age canals which are to pierce the
watery heart of the great swamp
are almost completed. The water
is receding steadily, the area of
farm land creeping farther in.
There is part of the glades, per-
haps fifth OF the whole area in
the far southern end. which will
probably never be drained because
it is too low. This will remain as
a momento to what the glades
were, and it should by all means
be made into a state or national
reservation. For the glades as a
whole are doomed.
The glades are certainly one of
the most stubborn and resistant
wildernesses on the face of the
earth. Within So hours of New
York by rail, surrounded for a
long time by populous and cult
waited territory, with some Of the
most fashionable resorts in the
United States within a few miles,
the everglades have remained al
most unexplored until quite re-
Gently, and even now there are
parts Of them that no white man
has ever seen. A seeker after con-
trast could hardly do better than
to spend day or so at Palm Beach
in one Of the most luxuriously civil
lied settings in the United States,
and then go 10 miles west. into the
wilderness of the saw grass and
palmetto, where bear, deer and al
ligators still abound.
Hunters, fishermen, Indians, ex-
plorers and naturalists have ira
versed the glades for a good many
years without in any way changing
them. but now an individual has
Invaded their sacred silences who
brings change in his wake. This
Individual is the Florida real es-
tate man, than whom there nc
more belligerent, imaginative and
indomitable representative of his
ubiquitous species. A Florida real
estate agent can sell you a pile OF
sand or puddle OF water without
half trying. He can take you out
and show you some Of the widest
and dreariest spots in creation, and
by the sheer power of the spoken
word he can make you see that
same desert blooming with orange
blossoms, and green with corn
When travelling in Florida it is al
ways well to keep the fingers
crossed and make a resolution not
to sign anything.
But the real estate man is not
supreme in the glades. OF its
drainable lands there are about
two million acres in private own
ership, but nearly a million and a
half are still owned by the sttae Of
Florida. The state is doing the
work of cutting the primary drain.
age canals. and a settler can buy
land direct from the state.
To understand this work o.
drainage you must know that the
glades are not swamp in the usua
souse Of the term. They consist Of
a great shallow limestone basin
elevated a dozen feet above the sea
This basin is filled with clean fresh
potable water by innumerablt
springs in it's bottom. The water i:
always slightly moving. For thi:
reason there are scarcely any
mosquitoes and the region is quite
healthy.
The state began the work Of pri