Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 January 1917 — Jay H. Newton Writes Of Florida Trip. [ARTICLE]

Jay H. Newton Writes Of Florida Trip.

i West Palm Beach, Fla. January 22, 1917. Editor, Republican, Dear Sir: As per pre-arranged schedule, we visited Niagara, went on to New York and proceeded by steamer to Key West. - . Two weeks ago today at 12:44 noon, we 'left the station there and started for Vancouver on foot. We carried our outfit in the form of blanket rolls , and they weighed about 25 pounds each. We are now. 223 miles from Key West and made the first 126 miles over the ties of the Florida East Coast railroad.—This 126 miles put us into Florida City, the most southerly incorporated town on the .mainland of the United States. The whole distance was a pretty hard trail, for we found the ties too close together for a full step and too far apart to allow us to step over’ one each time. Between the ties and at the sides of the track was the ballast, chunks of coral rock, hard as iron, sharp as broken glass, and as irregular as the mind of man can conceive of anything being. These chunks varied in size from that of your fist to that of your head and they failed to fill the space between the ties. No other route for foot passage offered, for not a single road crosses the track in the hundred and a quarter miles. Jungle grows to the edge of the right of way and the stubs of the cut off brush extend right up to the ends of the ties. By aeroplane we might have gone above it, and by boat we might have gpne around it, but we were on foot and shoe leather disappeared like wax. —= We walked a rail over 20 miles one day as the least of two evils. Sand flies and mosquitoes bothered us some at night but were not greatly.in evidence when we camped at the end of a bridge on a grade. Seme hold that this “extension” — the “Overseas Route”—is the greatest engineering feat in existence. Certain it is that it is a wonderful accomplishment. The railroad runs from one island to another all the way from Key West to the mainland. We walked one bridge that was 6.7 miles in length, nearly half a day’s hike. It was slightly disturbing to look beneath and see the sharks and there are many of them visible on such a trip. At Miami, 126 miles out of Key West, .we stopped two days and built a pusfli cart to carry our equipment on. Si nee th at we h ave had a much easier time of it. It works well, too. We started toda£ at 6:17 a. m. from our camp on the sea beach and at 1:30 p. m. were here- at -West- PalmBeach. That is some IS miles, and we were not tired. At present we are hikino' on the Dixie Highway, a hard surfaced road (which is a noveltv in Florida). Hopir/’ to hear from all my Rensselaer friends, I remain Sincerely vours,

JAY H. NEWTON.