The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1934-03-22

, date of Tuesday, March ID, pub
lished in The Youngstown Tele
gram of Youngstown, Ohio, under
the caption of around Towr
With Esther Hamilton, "Key West
gets considerable publicity, mos
of which is favorable, while part.
of the white-up are somewhat op.
posite to the other boosts as Civ.
en-.
The information contained in
the article was sent to Esther
Hamilton by her brother, Edmond
Hamilton, who had been vacation.
ing in Key West.
| The article in question is repro
duced herewith:
/ ESTHER, those Youngstowners
now returning from Miami with
tall tales of how they were gypped
by the native sons high prices
ought to come to Key West. 1t
beats Miami all hollow for elm
ate anyway-it's the only town in
the country where they put venti-
latOrs on the houses instead of
! chimneys and when the natives do
that you can take the chamber
of commences word for it that it's
warm in winter.
"This island squats right in the
Gulf stream and January here is
like July on the Mahoning. On
January midnights we have shed
our clothes and gone swimming in
the moonlight on the beach, and a
midnight swim in Lake Milton even
in dog-days can be chilly bust
ness. All the rest of Florida
brags about their perfect climate
Key West is too sleepy to brag
about anything, but it has what
the rest talk about.
Mentions Hotel Rates
1T tickles me to read of the top
hotel hates they've been soaking
them in Miami. We've been liv-
ing here for a little less than $50 a
month, which includes rent of a
six room bungalow, with oranges,
cocoanuts, figs and six or seven
other tropical fruits in the garden,
food and drinks, movie tickets,
laundry and even rent of a sail
boat in which we've been yacht
ing about the keys, wondering
what the poor .Hamiltons were do
ing these days.
"YOu see, Key West was hot
stuff back in 1890 and 1900, with
cigar factories going, but they
moved away to Tampa and the
town shrank down from 10000
people to less than 10000, and
it's got streets of empty cottages
now you can get at your own fl
CURE. The town has no indus
tries, no farming country to help
support it, no payrolls, in fact I'm
half merits. trying to figure out just
what does make it tick. OF course,
most houses here have the plumb
ing outside and when you go out
at night it's wise to light match
and ascertain whether any scor-
pions are laying for you in a stra-
tegical location, but you soon get
used to that.
Nov and then a destroyer or
two comes in and the sailors throw
chairs for night or two in the
tough section, which is called
Jungle-town, and then she quiets
down again. The town is wide
open as far as gambling is con-
eerned and you can find a layout
within arms reach anywhere, but
nobody forces you to gamble If
you don't want to and all in all |
calls it pretty tolerable arrange
ment.
Liquor Supply Free Flowing
THE liquor supply is free-flow-
ing on every corner, even tho
technically Florida still has state
prohibition. Bacardi comes over
in tides from Havana, you can get
it for less than 50 quart. The
most popular drink here is aguar-
diente. Cuban whisky made from
sugar-cane juice, that looks like
water and goes down like LIQUID
fire. Another native tipple is
compuesto, which is made of fer
mented prune-juice, of all things.
with a dozen other ingredients