Evening star., 1925-08-26
WESTERN OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

Farewell impressions in the West
have F1oridian hue. Florida is
pretty much -ueber allies" through
out the region that stretches from
Chicago to the Pacific. Old-timers can
recall nothing like the scramble to
get rich quick around Miami and
Palm Beach since the klondike gold
rush. Every other man, woman or
child encountered-in the Middle West
Observation-Disclosures or dreams Florida.
and literal hordes of them either have
already gone there or are preparing to
migrate. City dweller and small
townsnan alike have got the bug.
Tall stories of meteoric affiuence cir
culate from mouth TO mouth, and from
house TO house. and the average per
son is in consequence minded to beg,
borrow or steal for the purpose of
taking a town lot or an acreage flyer
in the alligator and Everglades coun-
try.
Found myself in Indianapolis. beau
tiful capital of my native State, dur
ing Greater indianapolis week. -
Was told that Mayor Lew Shank,
Hoosierdom's most picturesque poll
tician, organized the week for the
specific purpose of taking Indianap-
itans' minds off Florida. Shank is
an auctioneer and storage warehouse
man by occupation. He discovered
that his premises were cholled with
household effects of people who had
closed their homes in order TO so to
Florida and tempt tickle fortune in
the magic field of real estate 1t was
said in Indianapolis during the third
week of August that there was not a
sleeping car berth for Florida avail
able Tor month to come! Mayor
Shank's s object was to make people
understand that in India ma polls itself
fine opportunities for profitable land
speculation continue to exist, so he
launched Boost Your Own City,
campaign. 1t remains to he seen
whether it will serve its purpose. for
the Florida epidemic is widespread
and raging.
Indianapolis was revisited by this
observer for the first time since early
boyhood, when his father, a cotem-
porary of Thomas A. Hendricks, took
him To the capital for the late Vice
Presidents funeral. The Hoosier
metropolis has become one of the
handsemest in the country. Its
famed Circle" in the heart of the
city, with its imposing soldiers and
sailors monument towering into the
|
as can be found in the United States
or, for that matter, anywhere. The
abutting form of architecture re-
minds one of London's quaint and
celebrated quadrant" in Regent
street.
No episode of q Summer filled
with delightful experience fingers
more pleasantly than a morning
passed with Senator Samuel NJ
Ratston at his farm on the outskirts
OF Indianapolis. Despite reports of
his failing health, the Hoosiers' IA
vorite son-men of all parties admit
that Honest Sam" is the most be-
loved man IN the State-is in salts
factory. condition. both bodily and
spiritually. He plans to return to
Washington well before Congress
reassembles and to take an active
hand in the big affairs of the sue.
ceeding session. Ralston is genuine
dirt farmer, operating IS acres, on
which he raises nearly everything
that grows, including horses, cattle
and chickens. / can. testify that he
breeds good pumpkins and good
apples, for he spread a feast of
pumpkin pie and cider-a menu no
true Hoosier believes that Lucullus
himself could excel. The other day
Senator Ralston in a letter to his
native county in Ohio, regretting his
inability to attend centennial cele
bration. revealed his deeply religious
strain. He said that the lesson in
stiiled into his mind in early boyhood
God Is good, and am His child -
has remained with him as his philos-
ophy of life. My Washington col
league, Jim" Hornaday of the In.
dianapolis News, was a caller at the
Ralston farm on the same occasion.
Once upon time Mrs. Ralston and
Jim" We're rival reporters on In
diana country newspapers. The one