Year: 1878

Florida has, since the war, advanced


more rapidly than any other southern


State. Indeed, We doubt if any State has


had the same comparative rate Of improve


mont in all respects. While progress does


not occur all at once, yet there are days


when the evidences Of prosperity show


themselves more strikingly than at others.


Any one who remembered the primitive
and slow methods Of conveyance the hardy


species of hotel entertainment, the long
Imiles of uninhabited country which the


sandy roads traversed, and the difficulty


with which the producer got his produc-
tions to market,in the days previous to the


war, would have unhesitatingly pronoun>
ced the goth of November such day, had


he been at Fernandina, for there the con-
trast was 80 strong as to force itself upon
the weakest imagination. In those days
the present site of the city was nothing but


the abandoned plantation which had once
grown indigo for the dowager countess Of
Egmont. But now there is a change; the
old plantation is covered with houses;
from the once deserted shore long wharves,
covered with large warehouses, project;


there are piles of lumber at the wharves Of
the saw,mills, destined to be distributed


among many foreign nations.


From the top Of a superb hotel man


looks out over the ocean. What hs sees
at first as aSlargs black mass rapidly. grows
into form and is recognized as q steamship,
direct from New York. Soon it is at the


pier, and passengers and freight are put off
in a buslness>like way which shows it 10,
no new thing. In the meantime crowd
gathers on another pier to welcome the
new but already famous st. Johns, the
fastest steamer of her class in the world,
Scarcely has she touched the pier ere she;
is being inspected by her eager friends,


who see everything, from the glistening
steel of her machinery to the soft carpets
OF her state>rooms, elegant as on any
steamer afoat. At the same time there
darts into its berth a small but swift
steamer, which transfers passengers from
the northern section of railroad termina-
ting at Brunswick, to Fernandina, from
which point they are distributed to various


parts of Florida. One may, if he choose,


be in Jacksonville within three and half


hours, where he will find beautiful city


in the place of the village he may have


remembered. Ere he has left the train he


will find the attractions of its numerous


hotels presented SO seductively that he


will in all probability, if man Of family,


20 to one hotel himself send his wife to


another, his children to third, and dis,
pose of his baggage among the rest. All
over the State he will find comfortable and
elegant hotels. Or perhaps our passeng-
ers wish to 60 to Tallahassee. They can
do 80 in eighteen hours. They, can 80
from the Atlantic to the Gulf in ten hours,
and all along they will see prosperous
towns, and signs Of a busy population.
They will see men at work upon canal,


and new railroad which is to penetrate


the fertile lands5o of the southsrn counties.


By waiting few hours they may take b
comfortable steamer which will bear them


through land-locksd passage TO- the St
Johns; or at once go on board Of one which


will carry them up through the pictures>


que scenery of the St. Mary's. With


twenty.four arrivals of steamers week,


two lines of steamships to New York, and


rail connections to all parts, Fernandina


may reflect with pride on her commercial


advancement. And the state, recognizing
it as an index Of its own prosperity may
rejoice with equal ardor. And on this
bright day another cause for oongratula-
ton is to be added to the many named.
There comes an ocean steamship moving
majestically up the harbor. Slower and
slower and then obedient to single will,
the huge hulk is quiet alongside the pier.
80 quietly, so substantially has steam
line been inaugurated between Florida and
England, and this, the British steamship
Palma is the first to touch our shores. As


her lines are made fast, and while the
Americans and English grasp heartily
each others hands, the waning sun burst
from behind cloud and the whole harbor


is filled with crimson light. Even the
most apathetic could not repres- q glow OF


enthusiasm or deny that the whole OF cur


beautiful state was warm and secure under


the rays of benifcent prosperity, and
that it is not arrogant to say what she has
indeed borne off the palm.-Florlda
Mirror. n, t>rt,n