Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 December 1888 — FLORIDA FACTS. [ARTICLE]

FLORIDA FACTS.

Which Strangers Are Not Prepare* by Reading Florida Literature. [Palatka Cor. New York Sun.] At almost any bookstore in this state yon can buy a score of books, pamplets, and periodicals devoted exclusively to Florida topics. Some of them contain a good deal of information. Yet, having read all of them, the northerner in Florida is continually coming upon facts that are new and surprising to him. Yon may be surprised: To observe that a region which was discovered nearly 400 years ago, and is said to be so inviting to man, has found so few to accept the invitation. To find [notwithstanging all you have read concerning Florida winters] the January sun so warm at midday. To find |in view of all you have read] so few wild or cultivated blossoms thriving in the sun’s rays, and so little fragrance in them. To find so few birds, barring hawks and other birds of prey, warmed into a voiceful mood by the semi-tropical sun —to find so few birds of any description. That the duration of twilight is so brief. To find how little covering you require on your bed upon retiring, and to find how much covering you wish you had when you wake up toward morning. To §ee, upon going out doors, that the ground is not covered with frost, and that the flowers [such as they are] are not killed.

To note how little soil there is, and how many empty tin cans there are above the sand. To see orange trees, with rich green leaves and loaded with yellow fruit, growing out of the gray sand. To cross gardens in which plants and vegetables are growing in great quantity and luxuriantly in this same sand. To obeserve that so few persons have these flourishing gardens, and to be told that not many can afford to buy the quantity of fertilizer this luxury calls for. To find the sidewalks shaded by orange trees weighed down, by tempting golden frust. To discover that this golden fruit is wild oranges, and very sour. To be told that strangers should be careful about drinking much of the water at first. To learn how little self-denial the observance of this caution calls for. To see how yellow most of the native and acclimated residents are. To discover, before long, that you are turning yellow yourself. To note how few persons there are who are past 70 years of age. To see so many idle negro men, to observe that nearly all of them wear heavy woolen caps, and to learn that their heads are still cold. To be told by so many of them that they were “bo’n in de norf.” That the negro laborers on the docks can’t work without making such a bedlam.

That they can do any other work while making it. To discover that your water-tight top boots leak sand, and to be told that everybody’s boots and shoes contain more or less sand. To be forced to the conclusion that wherever there is sand there are red ants also. To hear the voice of the nocturnal musquito in midwinter. To wait in vain for him to settle down and bite, so that you can get a whack at him, and to be told in the morning that musquitoes haven’t enough energy in winter to do much biting. To find yourself wondering whe her they, too, are yellow and bilious. To be assured by a plain afid candid appearing white man that the musquitoes were so thick here last summer that, they not only darkened the air at high noon, but put out the lamps which were lighted in the stores. To find that there are b'gger and less harmless liars than he in nearly every neighborhood. To have to fight so many flies in the houses in the winter. To be told that flies do not come into the houses in the summer. To reflect that you permitted yourself to be surprised at the information, when it would have been so much more reasonable to assume that your informant lied.

To come face to face in the sandy wilderness with a pack of gaunt, bony, shaggy beasts of almost every color and resCjnuling nothing you have ever seen before. To be informed afterward that they were Mr. Julius Lemon’s shoats. To be assured that Mr. Lemon and bis family contemplate eating then ultimately. ax choort as full ash a bog cf floor,’’ remarked an inebriate to a sober friend. “There is a difference betweea yon and a sack of flour, however.* ■Whas ish difference?” “When a sack to full ft can stand up, but when you •re full you can’t even lie down on the pound without holding on.”— T«mm WNuHI Sabecribe for The Denu Hentiftel