The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1933-02-22

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to pack my gladstone and climb the
Flyer and make that long trip to
the far South. So l got aboard
the Limited and soon was roaring
over bridges, through tunnels and
on our way. Nothing of import
ance occurred on the way until We
reached Georgia. As / had been
over the route before, several
times, and seen the family wash
| hanging on the fences through
eastern Kentucky and Tennessee
before. Near Atlanta an old Con-
federate got aboard and sat near
me. l asked him how he liked the
new President-elect. He said he
could never support a Roosevelt as
I. R. had been at Atlanta years
before and made a speech, and in
his speech had said that Jeff Davis
was a rebel and he left the state
of Georgia without making an
apology for saying it, and he could
never support a Roosevelt. From
the earliest days of my childhood
there has been a glamour and fas-
cination around these southern
shores, with the inlets and coral
islands that strew the coast, my
, dreams as a boy, / could see an
old three master with sails spread
coming out of one of these inlets
with black flag nailed to her
mast with crew of fierce looking
men, with long black hair, leaning
over the ships rail, with a red
, scarf around their heads and gold
earrings in their ears, gaudy sash
around their waists, holding q
wicked cutlass. All looking for. a
Spanish galleon to come sailing
down the wind, loaded with dub
looms and pieces of eight. History,
tradition and legend all tell us of
buried treasure on these islands.
Prisoners who had to walk the
Plank and of others of the fair
sex who were taken in bondage.
These old stories, though l am
getting old, and my hair is gray,
still stir my blood. Here was the
home and rendezvous of long list
of bloody pirates, like Morg and
Black Beard, Gasparilla, and many
others who feared no law and were
always ready for a fight. Fiction,
Poetry and Song all contribute to
make this portion of the United
States with such a past and a
climate, tempered by its proximity
to the Equator and famed by
breezes off the Gulf Stream, one
of the most enjoyable to visit in
the winter and of the most interest
to see. And while l stand here on
the sandy shore, looking out over
the sea, watching the Gulls in their
flight circling around looking to
see what flotsam and jetsam will
be left from the ebb or flow Of
the tide, | realize they have not
changed their habits and,9done the
same way in the old days when
down the dim avenue of Oblivion,
come the old chanteys when the
chanty man sat upon the capstan,
while the men would march around
him winding in their anchor chains
and following his lead in singing.
Fifteen men on dead mans chest
and a bottle of rum-Yo-ho,
Yo-ho.
We will divide the spoils wnen the
day is done,
Yo-ho----Heave-ho.
Or, Whiskey for my Johnnie.
Here came Ponce de Leon in
1913, with two objects in view.
First, some islanders in the South
Seas had told him there was land
to the north where gold was found
in plenty. That yellow metal gold
was, and always will be, one of the
greatest incentives to discovery.
Second, he was getting old and the
infirmities of age were beginning
to advise him of the fact, and al
though MS life had been a hard one
and filled with many disasters. he
still wanted to put off that trip
through the Cimmerian Valley and
that voyage across the river Styx
with Charon for the boatman. To
the Great Beyond, and he believed
that in this new country some
where, for an old sooth-sayer in
Spain to whom he had paid a
dubIoon had told him there was
Fountain of Youth over the Seas
in that new land and that he
would find it, and if he would dip
himself in it ne would renew his
youth and become young again.
All me. how many of US, with
long residence here, have learned