The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1938-05-17
In Defense OF Key West
By FRANK w. LOWERING
Editor. The Lakeland News
By FRANK w. LOVERIl
Editor, The Lakeland News

Vi II 0IlA Clt% AACtAOAA NAASA~ ~ " N~%N
ing itself into strange fabric
which circumstance has flung
about the lovely island city of
Key West the ghost-story of the
now vanished Flagler Overseas
railway extension, and the slow,
almost stealthy steps by which
I.thee finrricafe-stricken roadbed
vas finally turned into a path of
salvation for the Overseas High
way, one thing stands out in my
mind: Truth, crushed to earth,
shall rise again..
There is no danger to the safe
and-sa automobile driver who
essays the trip over the bridges
that once carried great Pullman
trains along the narrow ribbon of
concrete between the ocean and
the Gulf, regardless of what SCOT
fers say that ''the balustrades
aren't finished and you'll go over
the side. The high curb-sills are
ample protection.
There IS no danger of wiping
against an approaching truck if
the driver uses even ordinary
care. The road is standard width,
20 it., usually four feet wider than
many of the brick roads that
crisscross Florida like a gigantic
spider web
There is no danger of a lot of
things which people who are care
less in their talk, or who build on
empty headedness. or who have
not been on the highway, say and
sometimes say vehemently about
it-and, too, about Key West
If | had let the first denuncia-
tory words ever heard about the
city-and they were spoken there
sink in; if / had not investigat-
ed to satisfy myself, | could not
have come to love the city and its
people as have for nearly twen-
ty years; nor to have written
volumes for the press, nor to have
published almost eight years
there.
The chatter about safety" on
the bridges, the blighting ref
erences to the Island City that
sometimes meet me smack in the
face-and swing-in central Flor
ida where circumstance has set
tied me as editor of newspa-
per following the losses of the
depression and the hurts to the
publishing business in the Island
City after the 1885 hurricane up
the Keys-these items and others
of like import make me some
times so thoroughly angry that ]
am often impelled to hold myself
in and speak with guarded words
in defence of the "Old Rock"
My first visit to the city was
with my wife off the Tampa boat
down across the Gulf nearly two
decades ago. We had been i'll sew
eral weeks with the flu, and were
seeking health. That morning,
before dawn, / sat waiting to 60
ashore while a porter packed our
grips to the dock. A chap who
had been a seatmate the after
noon before went hurrying past
and asked, What hotel are you
going tor"
He stopped short. Hotel?
Here? He'll, this is the last place
God made. If you can get out
the same day you get in--get OUT
I'm going straight aboard the
train for Miami!"
He did, and at the same in
slant ! made a mental reserva-
ton. which | afterwards found in
Gideon Bible in my room at the
Oversee Hotel, was from Exodus
3:3: "Ill stand aside now and see
this great sight.
Which leads me into a bit of a
Key West panegyric; and Key
West won't appear in it much un-
I'll the end:
In the remorselesS roll-around
of the fascinating kaleidoscope of
life. whose tumbling contents.
rainbow-tinted. jerkily and con-
stantly shake down New Deals.
and many time cast dark shad-
ows. too; but ever pull into rest
less focus the interests and OBJ
jeetives of the newspaper man, it
has seldom fallen my lot 10 fare
forth free lancing for health; nor
had any other similar quest been
So fruitful to this human galleon
and his wife IN body and in spir-
is FURNISHED up again. ia scenes
laid off with the pigments of cir
climstance on the parchment Of
memory BY the frequently cramp-
Cd brush If an adventurer striv-
ing FOR SopEunoFis standing in
the artistry Of words. most Is
peclally these scenes born ii
matchleSs hours In the captivating
environs Of modern Americas
hauntlngly beautiful Old World
Key West.
NEWS Nnr.h raSt west