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Show CAPDALIZING THREE CENTURtS V ifri pirate: wars I St- Augustine Draws Money I Spending Tourists Who Want t j See Her Medieval Forts and jg dungeons 1 and Walk fLp m Along Her "fiKI S Narrow JK i When Mcnendei de Aviies arrived iff the coast of Florida on St Au-jUF Au-jUF KUBt idc's da) In 1360. little did ho JfJ think i: ,(t lii- ': lie founded on jW ih.- :,i,rii.s the bayou ;it the mouth of the Matanzas and San Ck bastlan Rivers would In time be- come, ft fashion resort. 4jjj Lllllo did the settlors of that city, the oldest permanent wli.le settlement In the L'nlted St situ M think the place where they lived nnd foucht with pirates and Invad-3a Invad-3a ers would some day become the mr scene, of peaceful tango teas. ttm The hltor or St. Augustine for 5B its ii. h t ;fm ..i:-s or life was .one qf continued troubles for the little 5fm colony in ihc land of llownrs It was bulli on the old Spanith plan. Uf Tn- streets were narrow and are 3rt : i ,11 i....-;.. Mai:' of 1 hem arc not 3a more than a dozen feet wide. In H thai city, according in the legends, Ssl Ponce de Leon came in guest of the r..:in'-!f " I Youth. An Indian Im maiden polmed njt a fountain and 1 the Spanlrt. explorer plunged Into the water expecting to see his youth return. Disappointed he went away because he was still old. ills step was still heavy and the spring of early life did not return. Situated as St. Augustine Is right on the ocean side. It early became a prey for pirates of that murderous period in the world's history when might made right. Pounded In blood the city paid the penalty by suffering suffer-ing for three centuries. The first act of Menendei was to lead his soldiers to the St. John's River and attack the French settlement. His warriors utterly destroyed the French- A French soldier retaliated retali-ated later t,y attacking the town of St. Augustine and slaughtering many Of the Inhabitants. The raid of Ihe From, h was followed by successive raids from the Indian thieves and later from the English. Sir Francis Drake, the arch kins if the privateers, who had a. commission com-mission from England to destroy any end all Spanish vessel- he met, started out r. lew years, after the - i founding of St. Augustine on a tour of the world. World lours In tho8e days amounted to something more than a visit of one city and another an-other riding the entire way In luxuriantly lux-uriantly fitted stale rooms. Drake rlundered the cities In New Spain, hut none suffered more at the hands of the legalized English pirate thai, SI. Augustine, He captured cap-tured the city In 1."S6 and plundered the town He took what riches he could find and after setting Are to parts of the city went away to ro-port ro-port hli variety of valor to Queen Elizabeth. With th settlement of the English En-glish colonies to the North, St Augustine Aug-ustine beenme the center of attark for the f.olonlals. who could not hear to think Spaniards were living In the land of sun to the South. The Spanish finally erected ft wall for the protection of the clv. utile ut-ile of the wall remains. The old fort of Snn Marco, now called Fort Marlon, Is a well preserved specimen of Spanish architecture- of nlmost 200 years ago. The castle 9 built In the form of a trnpezluni and covers four acres. It Is constructed of a sheiiy conglomerate quarried on Anastasia Island across the hayou from St. Augustine, This conglomerate conglomer-ate Is sofe when under mound but When exposed to the weather hardens hard-ens and becomes very durable. The some material was used for paving the Mrcets. The southern end or the sea-wall Is now a United States harracks. It formerly was a Franciscan monastery. mon-astery. Anions the Interesting sights In St. Augustine !s the Plaza do Constltuclon. which takes Its name from a monument In the center, cen-ter, commemorating the liberality of the Spanish charter to ths colony. On this square stands an old Spanish cathedral with a Moorish belfry, the old Governor's palace. In 1 T?3 the British captured St. Augustine but Spain regained it In 17S3. The Indians of Florida hiding hid-ing In the Everglades iiecaino a constant con-stant menace to the citizens of Georgia so Andrew Jackson was ordered South to subdue them. Ho crossed the Spanish frontlci Into Florida and pursued the Indians Into In-to the Everglades. Hi act angered the Spanish and caused a continuous continu-ous talk of war. Spain, however, was Involved In war with many of her other American dependencies at the time She finally decided to sell Florida to the L'nlted States and iiiYT:nfisssssi ' ft uSh ssssIbssbsbsbbssssssssbTbs &ssssssHfBssssBsssssss bbl SBSSBSSBSSSBBSSBSBk''- iswAL mWKft&m isB "' iL. fr- ' sSwHSFx sV- 'IZsBfflBKWsssssssBsssBSEHsBWA.. IssMBsl wms BBSBlailBBaSBBtt 1 8BBff H . HisSssslsP l1B H f K: - - HSHsBsSSSSS9lSSSSBBSSa nsSHLW eWMB Ejssb ST fcwaKt' '.j, 7ZJm I'fip- IK 1 tf!f? j '-nfr"itBi . ' '' T ""'"THHKj J other KWfft"; JmBssBf opportunitv cornea when thj g;n sv jcwSy; WM I .' JBsBsaV T-Z 'ItSBmJl where Fonco de Leon took a bath. BmPR y - yfBlSt fit" B TV "K ,1,ore '" ,irr' r 'ban either Flon-Kxfz&si. Flon-Kxfz&si. -.tK 'jHy f t X mrSf ' 1,108 tl)c VH v r P'eastire re- jB?fa&'j9jmm& 1 1 Tiio old forts and walls and the V narrow s' ; i i ts and ni"numents have the .'ale was completed In 1821. For a time St. Augii-tino had a rest from wars. The tramp of soldiers sol-diers In her street was heard no more until tho outbreak of the Civil War. Three tunes the city then changed hands as the Federals and Confederates fought each other. With tho end of tho Civil War the citizens began to reallzo her past had n market value. They saw such an interesting: old town would draw tourists with wlJu open purses. They saw whero leisure loving people of the North would delight to bask In the winter sun and feel the ocean breezes In summer. sum-mer. Some of tho most beautiful hotels In the world wore erected there for the accomodation of winter tourists. In reality St. Augustine has noth-Borts noth-Borts and luxury. It does not have ood railroad Service as Jacksonville. Jack-sonville. It does not have a better Climaj nn th truldea of gt. their value because or tnelr ago. St, Augustine more nearly than any other American city can present a European aspect and In that respect re-spect It Is like a trip to Europe. The settlement at Si. Auguatlno antedates that of Jino stnw n l,y forty-three years, :t is flfty-tlvo years older than the Plymouth col-ony. col-ony. Historians vvrlih much of Jamestown and Plymouth; poets shi' of them, as the oldest settlements settle-ments of the new world, each seemingly seem-ingly oblivious to the fact that St. Augustlno is more than a feneration fenera-tion older than elthe.-. St. Augustine, with Its splendid old age and much m.irjc.rnlt.m, is hut a couple of hours' ride from Jacksonville, with Its modern skyscrapers sky-scrapers and twentieth century enterprises. en-terprises. A visit to tho ancient olty will bo one of the many delightful de-lightful and educating side, trips for reunion visitors. They will tn-Joy tn-Joy the trip and get a chanco to look down the centuries 350 years. Old Fort Marlon, begun in 1552 and finished in 17C6. Is the ooJy medieval cattle In America. It coat an enormous sum of money. Repeated Re-peated heavy drafts of tho bulhWs cause the King of Spain to Inquire If they were building Fort Marlon of gold dollars. Tho castle stands today, guarded by the United States Government. The keeper conducts visitors through the castle, down Into the dungeons, and shows you rlnes !n tho walls where victims of Spanish oppression were chained to die. Report, fairly well authenticated, authen-ticated, has It that Then the castlo fell Into the hands of tho British, two skeletons were found in one of these dungeons chained to the wall. One was of a man, the other a woman. There Is something uncanny un-canny about these dungeons that can not be described by word of mout h. The old Spaniard held to the j ; " ' '' : f . U ' 7 ' A ' i i Mil fjVl " : doctrine that day wan Tor rest and night for sleep, and ho religiously observed his prorrrammo of belief. Tho visitor sees much of this lingering linger-ing belief In tho old town to this day, while In another section of tho town ho finds evidences that Henry M. Flagler, now dead and gone, put his spirit and enterprise Into tho community, Tho Ponco do Loon and tho Alcazar are towering monuments mon-uments to the Flagler spirit. St. Augustine beats tho world for buildings that represent the many grades of archlteeturo from 1D92 to 1914. or period of timo of 360 5'ears. Tho man who delves Into antiquities antiqui-ties will find much to Interest him in Florida, for this State Is probably prob-ably tho most wonderful land In America. When the Continent was In process of formation, clusters of small Islands, poking their heads out of the sea, appeared hero and there on tho present Florida pen- i ".f I insula. These clusters of Islands m arc known as the phosphate belt- E They were composed of silica, sea Lr shells nnd carbonate of lime. There E was but little vegetation on them, W tor the soli had no power of pro- ES duction. In the fullness of time, fol-lowing fol-lowing the evolutionary period, mil- E lions of quadrupeds accumulated f on these desolate isles. Where they tie from nobody knows. They W deposited large amounts f bone and excreta, enriching the soil and WtJ . sllmulatlng plant life. Thousands K of years passed, new Islands grew cut of the sea, adjacent land be-am? be-am? cemented, and through these processes the penlnsul- of Florida was added to the Continent. John H. Welch who wrote most entertainingly on Florida, had In his possession some j -ars ago an ancient coin, found several feet un-der un-der the ground by a negro laborer doing some excavating not far from St. Augustine. No student of an-dent an-dent or modern coins, was ever sssfl able to trace this coin to Its orlxln. The conclusion was that it had lain where found 50.000 years. Visitors to the Smithsonian Institution have noticed the petrified remains of a prehistoric horse taken about twen-t-flve years ago from the Manatee River. Bones of beas's and human beings have been found In one heap, far under the ground at a number of places in the State, leading to the conclusion that thousands of years ago man and beast lnhab-itcd lnhab-itcd the peninsula and were de-Btroyed de-Btroyed by some fnlghty cataclysm. Condition of these remains war-rants war-rants reputable scientists to figure their ages from 35,000 to 100,000 Down nt Silver Springs, Fla., there is a "boneyard" from which hundreds of bones havu been dug. The vertebrae of whales, as much as 19 inches in diameter, have been H found there. In a pond nearby the H petrified remains of a sea monster nearly n hundred feet long, are plainly seen. Sometimes this won- H derful formation sparkles like a H diamond in the sunlight. Scientists H believe that tho mldshlpmlto of H tho depths of the ocean and this H monster aro of the same Both ancient and modern Florida arc wonderful. The g'adual evolu-tlon, evolu-tlon, through the works of nature, H of a Sea waatS into the garden spot Of America forms a most wonder-ful wonder-ful story In geology and topog- LH raphy. The traveler of today H looks out of a car window on fields H and gardens, green with vegetation H and sparkling with Cowers, nnd wonders how It was that a com-blnation com-blnation between man and nature ii oompllshed the change. He be- , . these wonderful Florida cities B and towns, alive with modern en- rgy and enterprise, shipping fruits I and vegetables to all parts of the country, and a stream of gold flow- kng back in exchange. He sees rail-roads rail-roads and steamships carrving an f immense tonnage of freight be- I lvcen tho Florida producer and tho y. foreign consumer. Florida Is the r great fruit and vegetable basket of I tho H To the Northerner, Jacksonville F also has many points of historic in- k t. It was named In honor of r Andrew Jackson, who whipped the L Indians for their rcpectod Invasions Georgia. Tho St. Johns River Is navigable I for about 2 00 miles, and palatial steamers mako regula- trips from I Jacksonville to tho head of navlga- tlon. Tho largest ocean-going ves- I sols come to Jacksonville, with pas- f scngers and freight, from all parts I Of the world. Tho traffic that this V river brings to Jacksonville is an L important factor In its business, and P the river Itself Is a wonderful and I delightful revelation to tho tourist. |
