The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1922-04-07

day. / had some money, but there
was nobody to sell me anything. That
night / went to cracker farm near
Zellwood and asked for a place 70
sleep, which, with a good supper and
breakfast, was cheerfully given It
was at that place / made my first ac-
quaintance with tangerine oranges, of /
which / ate dozen or two.
The next day reached Apopka, and
stayed in that pretty little village two
days. I worked on Temperance
paper" edited by a consumptive man
with big family. | set his paper up
and printed it in two days. There
wasn't any more to do until the next
week, and / didn't have the nerve tol
ask the poor guy for any money. So
| hoped train and rode to Orlando.
1t was all woods, except few scatter
ed homes right up to the city limits.
Orlando was then called the "Phe-
nomenal City of Florida" name it
seems to have lost, tho it deserves it
now more than it did then. 1t was not
new place, in fact think it was one
of the first settlements of English
speaking people in South Florida. 1t
was one of the stopping places on the
wagon and stage road from Mellon
vile to Tampa. Mellonville on Lake
Monroe was the head of navigation on
the st. Johns. Its people moved TO
the new town of Sanford and Mellon
vile sank in the mud more than forty
years ago.
In the early eighties, Orlando came
to life. The South Florida railroad
was built northwest to connect with
the st. Johns river boats at Sanford.
| The South Florida was narrow
gauge, and our Oklawaha Valley en-
gines apd cars would have looked
gigantic alongside its rolling stock
But it carried the people and the
freight and made more money in pro-
portion than the uptodate Atlantic
Coast Line today. The st. Johns from
Sanford to Jacksonville was kept
afoam with the passing steamboats,
then. Henry Ward Beecher had short
ly before given the sage advice,
young man, go to Florida and set
out an orange grove, and many u
them took it. The soil and climate
around Orlando were very good for
citrus fruits, hence the name of the
county. 1t was also most agreeable
place for tourists. So Orlando took
on a boom, and the people named it
the phenomenal City"
reached Orlando shortly after the
South Florida railroad had been
widened to standard gauge and con-
nected at Sanford with the Jackson
vile, Tampa and Key West, which had
been built up the st. Johns river val
ley to the last named town. The town
then looked as bright as fresh chip.
Most of the houses were new, the
streets and sidewalks were kept in
pretty good condition, and there were
more new, handsome residences in
proportion than in any other town /
had seen-and | was some traveller
for those days, having been over
most of the South and the Southwest
l stayed in the pretty town about
two weeks, working on the Record
most of the time, and a couple of days
on the Reporter. The Record was a
live but smutty-looking little daily,
always in mechanical and financial
difficulties. 1t had one very good
printer, who occasionally went on a
drunk. He had been soused ever since
Saturday night, so when / came in |
looked like a million dollars to the
boss. He tried to save something less
than a million dollars by not paying
me, tho he stood my board. Then it
had three or four other men and boys,
what we called "two-thirders" in the
union those days and a darkey who
swept out, did errands and fed the
press. l kept having trouble with the
darkey, who wouldn't wash the rollers
on the press. The boss didn't seem to
mind that but it made me mad to set
type all day and then have the paper
printed so nobody could read it. The
darkey gave me too much lip, and one
4 night l stood over him with a gun
until he washed the press, and it work
ed fine next day, but l had to feed il,
in addition to my other work, for the
coon left. The boss was peeved at
that; also, the drunken printer sober
ed up; also, I wasn't getting all my
money. So | went over to the office Of
the Orange County Reporter. The Re-
porter was then easily the best weekly
paper in Florida 1t was edited by
Col. Mahlon Gore, himself a good
printer as we'll as frst-class journal
list. His paper had almost a national