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Show OmiMIEgf Off The Sea Wall at St. Augustine. is f w A s town and the establishment of the fori at his tongue's end, and once he is started on the story there Is no sidetracking side-tracking him until he has finished. Fort Marion is the water end of the old Spanish works, which began at the city gates away over at the other side of the town. Between the entrance and the main fort it has a barbican, a small fortification which may have had its uses some day in the past. The fort is surrounded by a moat and originally was reached by two drawbridges, one of which extended from the glacis and the other from the sally port, which is now the only entrance. In the casements are to be seen the old dungeons where the soldiers whe had gained the enmity of the commandant command-ant or the governor were confined in chains. Let it be whispered, however, that the thrilling tales of skeletons found chained to the walls and of the tortures authorized by the inquisition and carried out by its agents are largely large-ly If not wholly moonshine. From the watchtower, a beautiful view is gained of the Matanzas river, Anastasia island, the rolling sand dunes and the heaving sea beyond. On Anastasia stands the "barber pole lighthouse," so named because It has been painted black and white in spiral stripes so that mariners may distinguish distin-guish it from other beacons. The bathing beach of St. Augustine is on Anastasia island also. Here landed the band of Huguenots who were slaughtered slaugh-tered by Pedro Menendez, away back in the sixteenth century, after they had been Induced to give up their arms by false pretenses. Menendez sent boats to them, brought them over in small bands, bound them when out of sight of their waiting comrades, blindfolded them and took them behind the sand hills where he put them to death. All this, done in the name of "religion," happened in America, not in mediaeval Europe. The Matanzas la aptly named. Matanzas Is Spanish for massacre, and the name and memories cling peristently to the spot. The ocean constantly moans on the beach of Anastasia island. Superstitious Supersti-tious persons say it is wailing for the victims of Pedro Menendez; others claim that the soul of the murderous governor Is bound In the waves and that there it will always stay, mourning mourn-ing and weeping for the evil deeds of Menendez in the flesh. The slaughter of the Huguenots Is not the only massacre remembered here. Not far from the United States barracks, once the old Franciscan mon-astry, mon-astry, is a military cemetery, in which three white pyramids rise conspicuously conspicu-ously to mark the spot where rest the bones of the massacred men who went out against the Seminoles under Major Dade. The old palace of the governor general gen-eral fronts on the Plaza. Ancient glories glo-ries are suggested, but a touch of modern mod-ern reality is added in one of Uncle Sam's letter boxes in the main court. Not far from the palace Is the old Spanish cathedral, one of the oldest buildings in the United States, and still redolent with historical charm. The bells still hang in the open arch, and it is not so very many years ago that priests came out on the landing and struck them with hammers. Now they are supplied with ropes and are rung from below. The cathedral Is in constant use, but has seen many vicissitudes. A few years ago the interior was nearly ruined by fire. A northern millionaire advanced $50,000 on bond and mortgage mort-gage for its restoration, and the next Christmas the bishop of the district found the canceled mortgage among his presents. The city gates, set in a massive wall and having the lion of the sturdy Leon of Castile as their escutcheons, are always al-ways visited early by tourists. The ride from the modern railroad station to a modern hotel built In the charming charm-ing Spanish style extends through these gates, and thus at once that indefinable inde-finable blending of the ancient and the modern is noted. On the Plaza stands the old slave mart, a plain open structure reminding -one slightly of the Greek Parthenon, though there is nothing Grecian about the stubby, square tower which rises ' from one end. nor is there suggestion of Grecian architecture in the stout, I square pillars which uphold the roof, j Along the sea wall one finds many i quaint and curious buildings, and all ' through the town reminders of Spain j are thickly scattered. The city wall j may be traced the entire length, but the gateway is about the only tangible, reminder of It that Is left. E RECENT Cuban hurricane ; which swept across to the Flor- Ida peninsula and, among other ( i ( places in its path, greatly damaged dam-aged St; Augustine, serves to call attention to this our oldest and perhaps most interesting city. The entire en-tire business section of the city was flooded with lnrushing sea water, while the wind and waves created havoc, the water pouring over the famous sea wall. The spirit of manana tomorrow is so visible in St. Augustine the moment the traveler alights from his train that he does not need to be told the Spanish Span-ish once lived in and ruled the town. There is not another city in the United Uni-ted States, not excepting such few typically typ-ically alien towns as lie along the Mexican Mex-ican border In the far southwest, which Is so foreign. No matter where the visitor goes he finds reminders of old Spain, constantly beckoning him to behold be-hold her ancient glories. Yet here there is a delightful blending blend-ing of the old and new. Spain left many old buildings which are quaint and odd in their typically Spanish and Moorish architectural features, and their methods of building are still followed fol-lowed to a considerable extent, adapted, adapt-ed, of course, to modern needs. It is nearly a century since Spain ceded Florida to the United States, but St. Augustine remains as a living reminder of the rule of the Don, and the shadow of the Andalusian regime remains. But it is a shadow without gloom. Everywhere Every-where in this old, old city the spirit of Spain is breathed, but only to the wonder won-der and delight of the visitor, never with bitter memories. The wealth of many millionaires has been lavished on St. Augustine. Realizing Realiz-ing that the chief charm of the old city was its antiquity and that its monuments monu-ments and structures left by the Spanish Span-ish were necessary to its life, as it were, the ancient landmarks have been preserved or restored, and many sections are as Spanish as they ever were in the days of the haughty governors gover-nors of Castile. The Spanish flag floated float-ed two centuries over the bastions of San Marco, and were it to be suddenly raised again on that old fort the Spanish Span-ish effect would be complete. San Marco, by the way, is probably the greatest object of curiosity to visitors. vis-itors. The United States government das renamed the place Fort Marion, but modernization cannot take away Its quaintness nor its charm. Over the door of the sally port, the coat of arms of Spain still looks out, carved in stone, and nearly as sharp as in the days when it came across the ocean; and all the "Fort Marions" in creation cannot modernize that. It is one of the first things the tourist sees when he comes to the old fort, and it prepares pre-pares him for the typically Spanish things he will find further on. Visitors like to stand long in the shadow of the walls of Fort Marion, and climb to its watchtower at the corner cor-ner of the rampart. The sentry towers too, are attractive, and the place is visited vis-ited over and over again. What there is in this old fortification that exerts so subtle a charm is a mystery. Other places there are in this country which have more of history and & great deal more of Importance, but they have not the power to attract, lo me the fact that it Is the only example of mediaeval strongholds on the American continent is something of a reason, and doubtless doubt-less others are similarly impressed. The spirit of Spain hovers over the old fort. In imagination one sees the soldiers of centuries ago lolling about the place, gambling, dueling, quarreling, quarrel-ing, drinking, swaggering. There these swaggerers and adventurers had their taste of life in the western world, and there they left their strongest imprint im-print that we have in any part of the American continent. Fort Marion is in charge of a rapid-fire rapid-fire ordnance sergeant of the United States army, who takes the visitors to the many points of interest. He has avery detail of the settlement of the |