The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1921-05-20

III the State and been just as accu~
rate. He is one Of the few living men
i in the Satte who can testify to the
fact that Florida is a product Of the
last half-century. Mr.. Harris can also
testify to this.
And the State has only been made!
Speaking Of transportation facin-
ties, Mr.. Davis says:
There were only two railroads and
two little pieces of railroads in the
State. One ran from Jacksonville to
River junction and the other from
Fernandina to Cedar Keys, crossing
each other at Baldwin. The pieces
OF railroad ran from Tallahassee down
| to st. Marks and the other consisted
of twelve miles of road from the ST.
Johns river to st. Augustine. There
was then no all-rail connection be-
tween Jacksonville and st. Augustine.
There was no way to get from Pensa-
cola to Tallahassee, the State capital,
by rail, except to go from Pensacola
to Montgomery, Ala, and thence
through Eufala and Albany, Ga, to
Live Oak and to Tallahassee. No one
ever dreamed of railroad to Tampa,
and If Key West had Ieen suggested
as possible terminus. it would have
been ridiculed
There were two stage coach lines
to the then village of Tampa. One
began at Palatka and ran to Ocala.
The other began at Lake City and
joined the Palatka line at Ocala, from
which place both lines, running as
one, pr0ceedd to Tampa ] have III
my possession now an advertisement
of this stage line, containing picture
of a coach drawn by four horses, with
the long whip of the driver merrily
curving over their backs. The adver-
tisement especially mentions the com
forts and delights this line afforded
| invalid tourists. As nobody bothered
| themselves, in those old contented
days, about good roads, and as pine
and palmetto roots in the road were
not regarded as any particular hind
rance to travel, we can well imagine
that those invalid tourists had jolly
time But-speaking seriously those
rocking old coaches may have shaken
| life back into many feeble invalids who
would probably have died under tend
/ er nursing. Who can tell?''
Picture the changes which have
been wrought in less titan fifty years.
More than a half dozen big rail
road lines cover the State; thousands
of miles of permanent highways make
/ it possible for the automobile to travel
more distance in an hour than the
old stage coaches covered in day
and. as time passes, these railroad
lines will extend their terminals, new
railroads will enter the State and eff
forts are already being made to build
a permanent system of highways from
one end of the State, to the other! If
III. G. Wells is correct in his state
ment that civilization follows trans
portation facilities, then the progress
of Florida can be readily understood.
In his first article Mr.. Davis, except
for a few personal references, confines
himself to the development Of trans
portation. We will look forward with
interest to the other articles
Fifty years hence, after Mr. Davis
and Mr.. Harris and their contempt
raries in years have set out for green
er fields. the youthful newspapermen
Of today will be writing their recollec-
tons and their stories will appeal to
the imagination just as much as the
stories Of forty and fifty years ago APP
peal to the imagination today
Jacksonville Metropolis