88 NEW ENGLANDERS IN THE SOUTH. promoted by the complete fusion of the North and the South. I see here on every side the signs that Northern capital and Northern enterprise have come among you, and come to stay. But I should be sorry to think that this was to be a Northern city in any exclusive sense. It is Southern by latitude, by climate, and by population, and such it must remain, only deriving additional strength from the infusion of another element, the mingling of Northern and Southern blood. In this beautiful city of the South, you, sons of New England, have fixed your home. You are not aliens here, but fellow-citizens with your Southern brethren of this goodly Commonwealth. You will be none the less so for remembering where you were born, and cherishing the principles and the habits which you learned from your fathers industry, integrity, fidelity; and that fear of Almighty God which becomes the descendants of the Puritans. Brothers! you who have come from Maine and Massachusetts; from the Green Mountains of Vermont and the White Hills of New Hampshire; from the valleys of Connecticut and the rocky shores of Rhode Island: you are heirs to a great inheritance—the inheritance of two hundred and fifty years of honor and glory. Keep that honor unstained! Wherever your lot may be cast, in the North or in the South, or in the mighty West, let the sons of New England show that they are not unworthy of their glorious Mother. CHAPTER VII. NORTHERN FLORIDA. I felt a real sinking of the heart when it came to saying good-bye to St. Augustine. For seven weeks (except the interval of the excursion to Jupiter Inlet, and a longer visit to Havana) it had been my home. Never have I been in a more restful spot. Coming from the incessant roar of city streets, the change was as great as if I had been transported to some mountain top, or to some deep valley in the Alps, where the sounds of the busy world could not reach me, and I could quietly gather strength for the opening year. But all its pleasures come to an end as the stalwart porter-a man of mighty physique and stentorian voicecomes up into the Rotunda, and cries in a tone that rings through the halls, "All on board for Jacksonville!" Reluctantly we vanish from the scene, and as we roll under the arches and over the smooth road to the new Union Depot, we keep looking back to the Spanish towers of the Ponce de Leon, under the shadow of which we have passed so many weeks of rest and of happiness. It softened a little the pain of departure, that I could make the first stage of my homeward journey a short one, 90 THE BEAUTY OF JACKSONVILLE. and stop at Jacksonville, and spend an evening with the friends who had invited me to make the trip with them to Jupiter Inlet. We met as brave companions-in-arms, and as we sat round the table, we recalled our thrilling experiences by flood and field, and fought our battles over again in the most approved style of old soldiers. When I first saw Jacksonville, it was only to pass through it from one end of the main street to the other, which I supposed to be the whole town; and I thought that, though it might be called in Western or Southern phrase, "a right smart chance of a place," it was not very picturesque nor attractive in any way. It was not till I came again for the New England dinner, and spent a day, that I got any idea either of its extent or its beauty. But when it came to a drive of several hours, I found the place expanding in every direction; and that the business portion, instead of being confined to one street, overflowed into many, in which the shops and stores and markets, the railway stations and landing places, had an air of busy, bustling activity, not common in a Southern town. A stately ship, just coming up the river, reminded us that this was a seaport, and had connection with all the cities on the Atlantic Coast. Miss Thursby, whom I met at St. Augustine, told me that she had never had a more delightful voyage than that from New York to Jacksonville. The Sub-tropical Exposition, inaugurated last year by President Cleveland, but broken up by the yellow fever, had been recently reopened-an event which was welcomed by the people as a good omen, it being interpreted as a sign of the revival of general prosperity. The city is well laid out, having as a centre a square, on which are two fine hotels; and the wide streets, along which they have begun to plant trees, are adorned with many beautiful residences. The ground already built over, ON THE BANK OF THE ST. JOHN'S. 91 must be two or three square miles in extent. Nor is this all that is available for a city. Behind it is a large plateau, elevated above the river suficiently to furnish perfect drainage, now covered with pine woods, but where in the future I see in imagination hundreds and thousands of suburban homes, such as now line all the roads radiating from that most beautiful city of the west, Cleveland, Ohio. In truth, Jacksonville reminds me of what Cleveland was when I first saw it, forty years ago; and suggests the pleasant anticipation that what Cleveland is to-day, Jacksonville may be in forty years to come: her own enthusiastic people would probably say, in half that time. Returning from this plateau, we drove for a couple of miles along the bank of the St. John's, where at intervals are spacious dwellings, half hidden from view by the shade of trees, and that on the other side look out upon the broad surface of this noble river, the sight of "a busy city far away" only adding to the sense of perfect seclusion. I did not wonder that Mrs. Stowe had pitched her tent a few miles to the south of this, at Mandarin, where under the overhanging boughs, she could enjoy to the full the solemn stillness, the whispering winds, and all the majesty and inspiration of a forest home. When I left Jacksonville the next morning, it was not to take a course directly north, but west, which took me through Northern Florida, a portion of the State that has a character of its own. Southern Florida, all of which is in the peninsula, is as flat as if it had but just risen from the ocean bed, but here the country rises in gentle undulations, like the rolling prairies of the West. The vegetation also changes instead of endless pine barrens, the trees are at once larger and more varied, reminding one of the oak openings of Michigan. There are also signs of activity 92 OLD PLANTATION MELODIES DYING OUT. along the road, more frequent than in the farther South. Villages are sprinkled in the woods, and now and then the welcome sound of a saw-mill mingles with the rushing of a stream. I was not looking out for streams, for I was not making a study of geography; and perhaps my readers will smile when I tell them that the only one which I asked to have pointed out to me, was the Suwanee river. It is not much of a river, and as it glides away under the trees along its banks, it seems to be hiding from sight. But even the glimpse of it as the train rushed over the bridge, set me to humming to myself: "'Way down on de S'wanee river, Far, far away Dere's where my heart is turning ebber; This is one of the most popular songs in the world. The evening before I left St. Augustine, there was a gathering of the colored people in the Opera House, which was chosen as the only building in the town large enough to hold them. As I sat on the platform, between the |
