THE OLD CITY OF ST. AUGUSTINE

This funny little cart with enormous wheels has stopped in front of the old gate at St. Augustine, in Florida. Would you like to take a ride through the town?

First let us look at the old gate. Hundreds of years ago the city had a wall across one end, and this old gate guarded the entrance. See the sentry boxes where the men on guard used to stay. The door to one of them is right in back of the cart in the picture. Now, if we go through the gate we shall find an interesting old city, quite different from any other in America, for St. Augustine was built by Spanish people many, many years ago; and some of the quaint old houses are still there to remind us of the times before our grandfathers lived. The streets are very narrow and the houses peculiarly built, most of them made of coquina, a combination of shells and sand, cut into bricks. At the end of the town near the sea is an old fort, also built with coquina walls, and in going through it we should hear from our guide many strange stories of things that happened long ago. Several times the fort was besieged, but the coquina walls were soft enough so that bullets became embedded in them, and the fort did not receive much injury; but the walls are crumbling now. Another interesting old building is the cathedral with its odd-shaped belfry with four bells in it.

A Relic of the old Days, at the famous city Gate in the old Spanish Town of St. Augustine, Florida