About Palatka are many very fine orange groves, and the city is in a flourishing condition, largely through the business of fruit growing. In writing of the St. John’s River Mr. Edward King says, with truth well told: “The banks are low and flat, but bordered with a wealth of foliage to be seen nowhere else upon this continent. One passes for hundreds of miles through a grand forest of cypresses robed in moss and mistletoe; of palms towering gracefully far above the surrounding trees; of palmettos whose rich trunks gleam in the sun; of swamp, white and black ash, of magnolia, water-oak, poplar and plane trees; and where the hummocks rise a few feet above the water level, the sweet-bay, the olive, cotton-tree, juniper, red-cedar, sweet-gum, and live-oak shoot up their splendid stems; while among the shrubbery and inferior growths one may note the azalea, the sumach, sensitive plant, agave, poppy, mallow, and the nettle. The fox-grape clambers along the branches, and the woodbine and bignonia escalade the haughtiest forest monarch. When the steamer nears the shore, one can see far through the tangled thickets the gleaming water, out of which rise thousands of cypress knees, looking exactly like so many champagne bottles set into the current to cool. The heron and the crane saucily watch the shadow which the approaching boat throws near their retreat. The wary monster-turtle gazes for an instant, with his black head cocked knowingly on one side, then disappears with a gentle slide and splash. An alligator grins familiarly as a dozen revolvers are pointed at him over the boat’s side, sullenly winks with his tail, and vanishes, as the bullets meant for his tough hide skim harmlessly over the ripples left above him. For its whole length the river affords glimpses of perfect beauty. It is not grandeur which one finds on the banks of the great stream; it is nature run riot. The very irregularity is delightful, the decay is charming, the solitude is picturesque.”
I may add to Mr. King’s description the regrettable fact that the animate scenes which he pictured are no longer to be witnessed on the St. John’s River. The persecution of alligators by travelers on the steamers has resulted in the practical extermination of those curious creatures in that stream. They are now protected by a State law, but it came too late; where alligators were plentiful five years ago they are now a curiosity, though in some parts of Florida, where travel is not heavy, their number is not yet diminished, but every year they are becoming scarcer, and in a little while they will no doubt be extinct. Not only are alligators persecuted for the mere sport of killing, but thousands are annually destroyed by professional hunters for their hides, which make an excellent leather. The taxidermist also finds his business increased by the sale of stuffed specimens to visitors from the North, while great numbers of the young are caught and sold to the lovers of curious things for pets, all of which contribute to their rapid diminution, and their total extinction is therefore a matter of only a short while.
A PALMETTO GLADE NEAR PALATKA, FLORIDA.—The palmetto is intimately associated with the history of the South, having on several occasions been adopted as the national tree and emblazoned on the flags. It has also done good service on many occasions as material for forts and breastworks, the tough and spongy nature of the wood being well suited for such a purpose. No wonder, therefore, that it is regarded with a certain degree of love and veneration by the people who live within the limits of its growth. As a forest tree, or for the ornamentation of lawns, nothing could be more beautiful, as may be inferred from its elegant appearance in the photograph before us.
SILVER SPRING AND OCKLAWAHA STEAMBOAT.
Palatka is a pretty town of 3,500 inhabitants, and situated in the heart of the orange belt. Besides its picturesque surroundings and importance as a shipping point, it is healthfully located on high ground and in the midst of a piney region noted for the blandness of its climate. Florida has been transformed within the past very few years by the Plant railways from a state of comparatively sandy desolation, without roads through its dense growths, into a country of great advantages and thriftiness. Fruit trees have supplanted the coverts of palmetto, and there is health and prosperity abounding everywhere. The “Florida Cracker,” as her languid, backwoods, one-gallus type of slovenly, slow humanity is called, has not yet wholly disappeared, but the transition to more industrious and cultured citizenship is going on, and it is particularly apparent about Palatka. The old-time conveyance of an ox in shafts hitched to a cart of uncertain age is not quite obsolete, but it survives more as a relic than as a thing of every-day service; and people who visit Florida on a winter trip, people in fine linen who are able to fare sumptuously, are more given to using the ox-cart, than are the permanent inhabitants. In the mountain districts of Colorado tourists ride burros; in Florida they affect a preference for the harnessed ox. It is the influence of locality that diversifies custom. Another curiosity in Florida, peculiar alike to Cuba and the tropics generally, is the palmetto hut, an unsubstantial structure roofed and “weather-boarded” with palmetto leaves, but which furnishes protection from the sun and rain. These huts are usually built to serve as temporary abodes for orange-pickers, and are therefore usually within or near the groves. Throughout Florida it is the custom to sell the orange crop on the trees, the purchasers being fruit dealers from the North. These dealers employ trained pickers, who work throughout the season, going from one grove to another, until the gathering is completed; usually they provide their own supplies, likewise their shelter, and the palmetto hut serves them both well and economically. When the fleas become so thick as to crowd the occupants, they burn the hut and build another. It is the cheapest way yet discovered of getting rid of these elusive pests.