Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 December 1879 — A Natural Wonder. [ARTICLE]

A Natural Wonder.

From my hotel window I can look out almost any clear dhy and see a dim column of smoke in the’ far southwest. I have asked the cause of it and have been told that it is the vapor from a boiling spring, which has never been found, owing to the impenetrable nature of the swamp in which it is situated- My informants say it frequently deceived blockade-runners during the war. The runners would suppose it a signal from shore and run in to certain capture. I suggested one day that perhaps there might be some illicit whisky distillation going on in that swamp. The possibility, and even probability, was admitted. “ Then none of you, I presume,” I asked, “saw that column of smoke before ;or during the war?” None had seen it until the tax on whisky was levied, for, they said, they had never had their attention called to it l until of late years. ( I accosted a gray-haired negro on the subject of the smoky column: “Well, sah,” says he, “if you was down in de neighborhood of whar datsmoke is, and you should leave a jug alongside de | road wid a quarter tied to de handle, you’d lie mighty ap’ to find dat ju«r filled wid whisky next day.” . “Where would the quarter be. Uncle?” “Dat would be gone, sah.” * l And could I spend a quarter that way every day?” “As many as you like. If you tie half a dollar dey’ll give you half a dollar’s worth of whisky, and dey’ll gib vou good measure,* sure/’

“Do they do much business in that line?” I asked. “I don’t know nuffin about dat, sah. I only knows dat you get as much whisky in de jug as the money tied to de handle will pay for.”. I don’t want the readers of this to discredit the existence in Florida of great springs, natural bridges or sunken lands making room for lakes, for these are natural phenomena, and can be seen and verified.— Cor. Tallahasse {Fla.) Sun. - ■