Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 January 1902 — FLORIDA LETTER. [ARTICLE]

FLORIDA LETTER.

Ocala, Florida, Jan. 13. Editor Democrat: We arrived in Ocala about 3:00 m., Jan. 3, and Mrs. M. and the pup staid at the depot while Mr. M. sallied forth in search of “where to lay our heads.” In about half an hour he came back with the tidings that he had rented two rooms and a dray was coming for the baggage, so at six o’clock we were moved, settled, unpacked and had our supper. We get two rooms and a closet, one room with fire place, and the use of a small oil stove for $1.25 per week. Ocala is a town of about 4,000 and has at one time been a very prosperous and wealthy place. But everything dates from before or since the “freeze.” Many very fine residences are going down for want of care and money to keep them up, while many more who have given up the culture of oranges as a forlorn hope, have turned their attention to other industries and are doing fairly well in other lines. We find the search for orange groves, bearing fruit, very much like trying to find “Nubbin Ridge” in our country—its always just a little farther on or a little ways back. We came through a strip of country interspersed with small lakes and saw a good many young orange groves but not much fruit. We saw one very small tree with three oranges on. Now, they tell us here, that 100 miles farther we would find them in plenty. Thus everything good in life is just a little farther on. This part of Florida is different from any we have seen yet, being a sort of high, dry limestone ridge, covered with hard wood timber, principally ash and hickory. There are factories here that get out wagon material in the rough and ship to New York by water There is a large spoke and hub factory, basket and barrel factory, planing mills, hardwood lumber yards and hnrd pine lumber, also a lime kiln. On our way down many of the Northern people wondered how the people lived in such a poor country, and the story went around that they fished in the summer and lived on the Northern people winters, but since we begun to fit up for our camping trip we came to the conclusion that they never fish any here—they get enough winters to last all summer. We have to put up $75 for a S4O horse, a Florida plug. We have our wagon rigged all ready for a gipsy trip to the Gulf Coast, but have not fully decided on our motor yet, but it will probably be a “cracker” horse.

Last Sunday we strolled around town and went past a “nigger’’ church built up above the ground about four feet with nice hog wallows underneath. The windows were glazed with cheese cloth so we cou'd not see in but we heard them singing "Old time religion is good enough for me." Today we drove out to Silver Springs, a wonderful freak of Nature, six miles east of Ocala. The water comes up out of the ground from n basin in the rock about 75 feet ncross and wells over into a pool about 150 ft. in diameter, nearly circular, and then Hows nway as a river with a good current and large enough to run a freight steamboat which comes from Jacksonville. This spring is one of the feeders of the Ocklavvalm river and its waters nre so very dear that a dime on the bottom, 80 ft. down, can be seen. The bottom, where not covered with vegetation, is a white lime stone rock. We have been nearly two weeks from home and have had only one cloudy day. It has been “Sunny South, so far, sure. Wo expect to take to the road some time this week so when we write again we will be gipsying.

MYERS & MYERS.