The Caledonian-record. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1920-current, 1921-03-09

! lnclQQeS cnuICHcS, cOIIec houses
rooming houses and many homes.
Many of the fishermen are expert
divers and the boats sometimes make
trips that last for several months be-
fore coming back to Tarpon Springs
with their dirty looking, but precious
cargo. The sponges are washed and
bleached, then bleached and washed
until water and the sun kills the ami
NAL and the white sponge of the drug
store is ready for market. The
sponges are then strung on large
skeins and placed in one of the cells
in the sponge market, This is a one
sto1y brick building looking exactly
like a jail for on each side of the
square court yard are cells with
grated doors heavily locked and
I guarded, An auction takes place
every morning where thousands Of
dollars change hands. The day visit
ed this interesting place the harbor
was filled with Greek fishing boats
and the sight was quite like bit Of
the Aegean sea transplantcd into the
western hemisphere.
About half way between "St.
Pete" and Tarpon Springs is the
/ county seat of Clearwater with its
$140000 court house, a $4,000 hos
pital and a Carnegie library. You
will find the architecture in. any place
in the state varied both as to its cost
and beauty, but in every shire town
you will find spacious court house
in every city 2 palatial government
building and everywhere else large
and substantial school buildings
Tampa, with a population Of over
$1,000, is the second city in Florida
and besides claiming the largest
cigar industry in the world is one
of the largest ports of entry in the
United States. In fact, it ranks
seventh in the country in its custom
receipts and ships mo"e phosphate
than any port in the world The $50
cigar factories employed 1900 work
men who could make million cigars
q day, but since last April the work
men have been out on strike for the
closed shop. The strike was called off
February ) and now the open shop
policy prevails. The strike cost the
United States government $1,500,000
in revenues from the stamp tax and
at one time when the strike breakers
were being inundated by union men
Gov. Hardee YVES requested to declare |
the city under martial law. This he !
refused to do and order was not re-
stored until the manufacturers OBJ
tanned an injunction against the union !
men to prevent alleged intimidation.
The workmen are mostly Cubans and
Spaniards and the Cuban section
known as Ybor city is little Havana.
In days gone by Tampa was far from
being temperance town.
Tampa has palatial Elks' Homo
with a large library, marble stair
ways and many rooms for members
in its seven stories and the club
houses of the Italians, Cubans and
Spaniards are among the finest
buildings in the city.
But the great attraction of this cos
citw is the Tampa Bay
hotel whose present manager is w.
F. Adams. the manager of the Lake
Talleton Club house.. This hotel was
built about 30 years ago by the late
Thomas G.. Plant at a cost with its
rich furnishings of S3,000000 He
expected to develop the west coast,
but whether OF not it has done this,
it has proved about as profitable an
investment as the St. J. and L. c.
Some years, ago, | am told,
it was taken over by the city for un-
paid taxes Of SIS, 900 and | guess the
present owners would be glad to give
t away 1t can accommodate 800
guests, but three years ago it was not
opened at all. The day | visited it
here we're about 200 guests there and |
since they have lowered the rates TO {
SO day the hotel has ben filling up
Is vacant rooms. Tn architecture il
Moorish throughout and there is d {
wealth of arch and pinnacle, while in 5
SIDE the oriental tapestries, Chinese
md japanese blic-a-brac and East :
indian carvings harmonic with the
whole decorative scheme. Before the !
lotel changed hands the widow Of
he builder disposed Of million dol
ars' worth of furnishings, but She
eft enough to make this hosiery one !
# the great show places of the sunny
outh
A visit to one Of these big hotels, /
VI even a short stay in any of the II
mailer ones in Florida reminds one
cry forcibIy Of John G. SaXe's poem 3
N Saratoga which l believe ends |
husly: c
And what do they do at Saratoga? c
they eat and they drink and they