Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-12-01
WIDE OPEN ROAD
The brief stories of two plain men
who had the nerve to explore it
by Peggy Won der Golfz

told him that the bright little fish the aquarium
guppies that they bore their young alive every month in
patches of from half dozen to hundred and that
the young started breeding when they about three
months old That $780, and guppes cost seventy five
cents pair. Bikran figured. bnked and figured again
According to his calculation the offspring of pair of
pies should the world in about five and they
worth seventy five cents pair! He bought aquarium
and pair of guppies Within six months he in the fish
business Within years he broke not because his fish
didn't breed - they did - but because customers didn't null
tipy as fast fish
Biran was broke but he wasn't quitting If he could find
mild climate and cheap living he could sell guppes for
penny apiece and scalare for quarter.
liz SOLD everything he had and Florida still think
ing he businessman dreaming he out to be
a pioneer. And then he the swamp 1t February.
springtme Florida and the cypress trees covering
their stark gray limbs with the youngest green leaves
in the world Ferns thick and usf wild blue voets
starred the dry spots, eagle nesed in the taest tree,
aigators rolled and beloved in the black Something
happened Bikran something for which his life in city
tenement had not prepared him he fell in love with the
land with the Wild tropical beauty of the jungle He made
down payment the swamp with his last fifty dollars
He didn't have house at first just crazy hut of live
oak branches and palmetto thatch He discovered coral snakes
and cotton-mouth moccasins cenpedes SCORPIONS
tuas, malaria drought and flood But he stuck it He
florists and aquarss in the North. offering them water
hyacinths pickere weed lilies plants and orchids from his
swamp He dug pools and dches snapped plants for tropical
fish populate the pools and he back fish business
But he didn't let business interfere with beauty
through that swamp last spring and sight that shall
remember all the days of my life The cypress swamp still
swamp but firm paths wound beside little that
didn't look all like the drainage bitches they Sparkling
fishes from South America and Africa and Indo China played
in blue Tropical plants from all around the world
waved and climbed and doomed
''Its incredible, said at last Ito think you've tanned a
swamp
Il didn't tame the swamp, Bkran corrected Il made
friends with it. gave the swamp the best had and it's given
me happiness and living.
Of cypress swamps and abandoned farms aren't
everyone; not all of pioneers. But have pioneers
have mentioned only two of the dozens I've known heard
about Our frontiers today actually wider than they
when the early settlers because fifty years ago.
land valuable only for the food crops could produce:
nowadays swamps and deserts and stony hlsdes be
utilized for special purposes The abandoned farm Gus bought
wasn't fit to staple crop, yet it's splendid place
raise game Beyond radng the cypress swamp for lumber
thought of using the place until Bkran along
with his love for plants and fish and beauty
The rural still wait for settlers; but in
crowded cities and in the just outside them there is
for pioneers Opportunity frontiers may exist your
back yard, o in the kitchen