Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 January 1895 — From Beautiful Orlando. [ARTICLE]

From Beautiful Orlando.

Editor Republican—Having been a subscriber to ' your valuable paper for years I thought it possible your readers might like to know something of the city where we have dur abode for the present winter. Between the wide Atlantic and Pacific oceans there is only one Florida, and in Florida but one Orlando. The city is a picture of beauty and semitropical loveliness with its wide, clean streets, large hotels and beautiful flower-decked homes. A stranger who visits the place for the first time sees and knows at a glance that he is in one of the best located and most progressive cities in the state. Topographically the t situation is higher arid more rolling than other Florida towns. Lofty pines rear their heads on every side of Orlando, decked in feathery needles and ornamented with Spanish moss, at once unique and fanciful. Orange groves dot the landscape for miles around. An air of plentitude, thrift and enterprise

pervades the place, and the more one sees of this typical southern city the more one is pleased. Orlando has a population of 6,000 people, and like all Florida towns, its population consists of people from all over the world. The city has two railroads, is lighted with gas, has an excellent supply of water, has three banks, five large hotels, besides many smaller ones and many excellent boarding houses; also has three well regulated newspapers, two weeklies and a daily; and several manufacturing establishments. A beautiful county court house costing about SBO,OOO, two commodious school buildings, an armory for one of the best equipped volunteer military companies in the state, with forty enrolled members and a hose and hook and ladder fire company. One of the chief attractions of this city are its concrete side-walks and clayed streets acceptable to its own people as well as strangers, many of whom have ploughed the sand of other Florida towns. Another great attraction is the number and beauty of its lakes, which at night lie quiet in the slumbrous air, and during the day glisten at the feet of the principal streets, and in fact all around beautiful Or- —— CT -../ ...

Ivanhoe, at the foot of Orange avenue, is a charming lake for a row or a fish, and no doubt the romantic knight after whom it is named, had he ever seen it, would have stopped his steed, rested his lance upon hie golden spurred boot, and momentarily forgotten his wanderings to gaze upon its quiet beauties. Lake Eola on the north of Central avenue is also a gem, being skirted with large oaks, magnolias, palm and pine trees from which hang a dense quantity of Spanish moss which vibrates and trembles with tropical and soft effect under the breath of Eolus. But the most beautiful of all is Lake Lucerne at the foot of Mam street on account of its high banks, soft beauty and luxuriant surroundings. A clayed driveway surrounds this lake, and on its shores are many palatial residences and lovely homes. In the afternoon and evening Orlando’s elite may be seen bicycle riding, driving, or boating in and around these lakes. Surely they are beautiful, with whispering winds, and gently swaying moss from Palmetto, pine and live oaks; it is a place where any lovely maiden, if so inclined, could tell a sweeter story than Iras told Ben Hur upon the lake of Palms. Around the city may also be seen the spires of twelve churches This is no exaggerated picture of Orlando. The people are kind and hospitable. The location is undoubtedly the highest and healthiest in the state, and as a sanitarium or a winter resort, Orlando has no equal in Florida.

G. B. CLARK.