Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 298, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 December 1920 — FLORIDA LETTER. [ARTICLE]

FLORIDA LETTER.

Wheatfield Review— < Hypolux, Fia., Dec. 8. : Dear Editor:— i We are camping at Camp Myers I and are enjoying ourselves. The time passes so quickly, Brown and Swartz are fishing every day and are beginning to catch some whoppers. Bill said he seen a fish so large he removed his hook from the water so he wouldn’t lose hook, line and pole. Bill has been offered a job here as watchman to keep the coons out of the banana orchards, but he does not like night work. A man passed our camp today with 37 coon skins which he caught the night before. He said they only worked one night then laid off a month. We saw a big shark that was washed ashore and a fisherman ran up and cut its throat. There is practically no game laws here—fish and seine all you want. Frank Austin said one man made over S2OO in one day fishing. A native’s hunting license costs sl, but a tourist pays sls. About 60 miles from here is an island where the whiskey smugglers operate. One boat contains five men and a quantity of whiskey was upset and 3 of the men drowned, that makes the whiskey come high. The natives report plenty of deer and bear in the interior, but the trouble to get them makes the deer very dear. Snakes are very plentiful. Oscar shot a very large one. We enjoyed our trip. Our first night of camping we elected Bill to be the cook, and a rule that the first one to kick had to cook. I Bill is still the cook, even if the I beans were very salty Sunday morning. ’ Who did we see hiking it down the pike carrying his coat and wiping, the sweat from his brow, but Shorty Clager. He stayed for dinner and invited us down to the ' dredge boat where he is working digging a canal from the ocean into the Everglades. Shorty says there is lots of alligators where he is working. The trip was very interesting over the hills, the roads not being very bad. The state of I Georgia has several state owned I highways which are kept in repair by convicts. We saw several gangs of prisoners. The people along the trip are very good. You can camp anywhere. We saw lots of gray mules on the road but not the kind they use in Wheatfield. The soil here is very sandy and will grow anything if you keep the fertilizers going good. Bill Helmick is located at Lake Worth, 3 miles .north of Hypoluxo, and Bill is doing a large business. Lake Worth is a second Gary, almost springing up over night. Frank Austin has had several long talks with the bunch. He has turned over his big business to his son, Charlie. Nellie Austin made us a present of a King Mackerel and it sure was the best fish I ever ate. Fruit is of course plentiful here, but the ripe fruit can be pur1 chased just as cheap in the north. Most of the fruit is picked green fori ' shipment, and if you it on i the trees to ripen the coons scratch | it and destroy much of it. Tell ' Charlie Deming the game laws don’t. amount to much but they do require a tourist to have a license, i i What this country lacks in one thing ; they certainly make up in another. | i We have made several trips along the coast and have a nice collection }ef shells. Of course the water near Palm Beach is nearly always filled with mermaids but there is more of them on the sandy beach I than in the water. , . THE BUNCH.