An east Florida romance

Front matter

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Contents

CHAPTER. PAGE.

I. The Sisters Confer i

II. On the “ New York and Florida Special.” 8

Chapter I. The Sisters Confer

“ To-morrow and to-morrow and to-morrow.”

The Hunter sisters were no gossips : they were far too clever for such wastefulness of brain and time : but when the married one ran into the paternal mansion “ for a moment, dears,” and settled herself before attentive Elizabeth and impulsive Christine, there always was so much to discuss that it must be confessed only the absence of malice and uncharitableness distinguished the ensuing chats from other less kindly tele-d-tiles of gossipy sort.

As a family, they had become thoroughly familiar with the usual round of fashionable interests. The large, old-fashioned house in Washington Square — in which not only they but their father and several grandfathers had been born and lived successively — was the central platform of their life-drama, from which they had diverged, with all the others of their set, to the resorts, north and south, from the Maine Coast, White Mountain heights, and Adirondack forests and lakes,

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all along the Atlantic shores to Sunny Florida, with occasional trips across the water interspersed.

Perhaps, consequently, they had grown a trifle difficult to enthuse upon the subject of travel, but even habit could not dull the irrepressible ardor of Elizabeth Hunter’s artistic temperament, who saw pictures in every fleeting scene and possessed a divine creative gift that cast lovely possibilities over the crudest people and things, while Christine, but two years her junior, never failed to yield quick, if not always comprehensive, response to all her enthusiasms, and “ Nell” — pretty, fair Eleanor Maxwell — stolen from their girl-lives by their devoted brother-in-law, Philip, less than a year before, had been both guardian and sister to them since the dreadful time, four years earlier, when their mother had passed out of their loving sight, leaving them to comfort Dr. Hunter and grow more than ever united and dependent upon each other through the common grief and loss.

Although mistress of her own home — farther up-town — Eleanor Maxwell managed to be with her sisters most of the time that Philip’s absorbing business left her free, and neither outside nor inside circumstance* often proved sufficiently uncontrollable to prevent the daily reunion at one or other of the houses.

On the morning of a frosty January day, when raw east winds were whistling across the town, making everyone scurry around corners and withdraw below coat collars, Eleanor made her appearance in her sisters’ .sitting-room, evidently much in earnest about something.

‘‘Nell, darling, you look like a rose ! are you frozen?” cried Elizabeth, meeting her with outstretched

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arms and an impetuous hug, followed by a critical look of general inspection that was the inevitable result of her training as an Art League student.

“Come over by the fire,” called Christine, rousing herself from the couch where she had been lounging. “You look as if you had something important to say.

The sisters confer.

Beth, push that chair up, and here’s a place for you. There) now go on, Nell.”

Eleanor, having returned salutations with warmth,

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and seated herself with alacrity, lost no time in preliminaries.

“Christine, Philip is going- South to see a lot of men about his steam patent. Father ran in last evening and said he would like very much to have you taken away from this cold weather. I’m sure I see no fun in keeping house alone, and it will do Beth no harm to take a vacation from her studies. It is too early yet for the hotels to be crowded. Why not start with Philip and stay wherever we like it, while he runs after his engineers, etc., between places? He told me to try and persuade you to go.”

“ Isn’t he a dear to want us ! ” cried Beth. “There never was such a love of a brother ; but, Nell, how long should we be gone ? I really ought to get into the Life class this year, though of course whatever father thinks best for Christine must be considered first. ”

The thought of separation from her younger sister never occurred to Elizabeth Hunter.

“When are you planning to go?” asked Christine, with evident apathy.

“ Philip cannot be definite — who can, where mechanical enthusiasts are concerned ! but probably within a week. Father says the sooner the better for you, Tiny.”

“ Goodness ! how can we get ready so soon ? ” exclaimed Elizabeth. “What clothes must we take? Thin things, of course.”

“As far as I can find out, we shall need suitable apparel for every degree of temperature from zero to ninety. Of course the start will be cold, and the coming back, too. From Jacksonville to Key West will be summer weather.”

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s

“ Key West ! ” echoed both girls.

“Yes, and the Bahama Islands, too, if Philip has time. Father says he hopes we will not get back before April, so you see we must go well provided. You know what a crank Philip is about all of us. Make yourselves as fetching as possible.”

“I suppose — going into that wilderness — that we can’t take our wheels, and of course they never heard of golf down among the rocks and tangles,” sighed Christine. “ It is so comfortable at home, and such a short time to get ready for a journey ! ”

Christine certainly evidenced no great enthusiasm, but a look had passed between Nell and Beth, and the latter proceeded to ply the young matron with practical questions, to all of which she answered :

“Wheels ? Yes, dear, the Florida coast is no longer a desert, you know. Since we were in St. Augustine ten years ago, things have changed, and now, so far as I can find out, we may expect to do everything that is done anywhere but sleigh, snowball, skate, and congeal. Dear me ! I’ve stayed over an hour and have an engagement at the dressmaker’s at twelve. How do we go ? From Jersey City to Richmond by the Pennsylvania ; then the Atlantic Coast Line to Charleston, and Plant Line to Jacksonville. Philip has a stack of folders a foot high from the railroad companies, each one being sufficiently convincing of its special superiority to all others to make a choice based simply on merit no easy thing, but business and time values decide our way. A certain engineer is to be in Jacksonville for a limited time, and Philip runs a large chance of missing him if he does not get there by the 21st. Important matters here are

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hanging fire agonzingly (excuse the slang — it is a quotation from my liege lord), and the hour they are settled he will fly South. It is a question of days at longest. We can leave New York at 4:30 any afternoon, by vestibule train, be as cosy and comfortable as possible, and get to Jacksonville the next evening at 6:30. Doesn’t that seem like magic? Philip says Jacksonville is interesting, and he is sure we will like the St. James for a week at least. The dear boy knows, however, that I know what a relief it will be to him to get us contentedly settled, while he indulges in his morbid propensity for the companionship of his own sex and profession. ,,

“Bless his heart ! ” cried Beth. “ Any other man as clever as Philip would put his hobby first and his family next. He just spoils us girls and gets little but abuse for it. Well, of course I do not mean regular scolding, Nell, we are not that sort. But when he so much enjoys meeting men of his own ambitions I do think we might be more sympathetic."

Christine, seeming to disapprove of the turn the conversation had taken, smiled into Eleanor’s face as she said, “ Philip would laugh if any one suggested that he lacked sympathy in his family. We may joke him but we all dote on him. Nell, dear, I wish father would not always be fancying me ill. I suppose I remind him in many ways of mother, but there is nothing serious in my colds, and to tell the truth, I am too indolent to think of all this breaking up of homecomfort without dread. Must I go ? ”

Eleanor was a keen reader of human nature, and had made up her mind about her youngest sister’s state of heart as well as health, but she was far too shrewd to

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commit herself while there could be nothing gained and perhaps much lost, so she contented herself with a rearrangement of Christine’s pillows as she answered —

“ Father really wishes it, and you will not mind after we once get started. We shall have every comfort on the train, and you need not speak to anyone unless you like. Jacksonville is the metropolis of the land of flowers; the gateway to sub-tropical delights; the scene of many a romance beneath its trees, moss-draped, upon the peerless St. Johns, and — h’m ! how would I do for a special correspondent, girls?”

“ But Nell, ’’cried Beth, as she pulled her laughing sister down from her dramatic pose, “you say we may go in a week. That means attention to business. Take me with you, as far as Stern’s? — Now, Christine, stay where you are while I am gone. Luckily your gowns are all right. I’ll send up some fresh hats and wraps for you to select from, and you need not bother about anything. Oh, Nell — did I tell you? John Bartlett has gone to Savannah or somewhere south with his mother and sister for the season. They say he has given up the law — I suppose money is no object to him, but I did think he was too ambitious to step out of the ranks. Why, Christine, how flushed you look — the heat from that grate is too much. There ! (putting a screen in front of the lounge), now good-bye, dearie. Try to get a nap. ”

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Chapter II. Off On The New York And Florida Special

“’Tis pleasant through the loopholes of retreat To peep at such a world.”

A week later Philip Maxwell inspecting his “ family,” as he always termed his wife and sisters-in-law after the train rolled out of the Jersey City Station on the afternoon of January nineteenth, gave utterance to the following flattering remark :

“Well, dear girls, thank goodness we’re off, and now rest all you can, for they do say there are more men lounging around the places on our route than are left at home, and I am proud to believe myself the escort

of the most stunning female show ”

“ Phil, I'm ashamed of you ! interrupted his laughing spouse ; “ but do you really know of anybody from our set that we are likely to meet ? *'

“Our set! You ask me too much, my love. Do you mean the New-Yorkers that we know, or the people we hob-nob with all summer, or the goodly array of relatives — or what does that term include ? Let me see ! John Bartlett told me last week that he might see us in Jacksonville. That is a jolly place to spend a few weeks in. I was only a kid when we spent a winter there, mother and I, but I quite anticipate looking up my old haunts, and fancy I shall be able to recognize

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them. Christine, I do believe you are looking brighter already ! That’s right. Ta-ta— I’m off for a smoke.”

Left to themselves, the sisters fell into a discussion upon time, distances, and the best plans for passing the evening.

The winter day faded into a clear amber sunset as they were swept through the Jersey country, and before its high lights had faded and the exterior world had entirely disappeared from their sight, Christine, with amazing energy, exclaimed :

“ I love to travel.”

Eleanor looked at her wonderingly.

Elizabeth looked at her tenderly.

The first recalled her sister’s recent reluctance to leave home and recognized the power of mind over matter.

The second rejoiced over the encouraging change, unmindful of special cause.

“ We are due in Philadelphia at seven. Just dinnertime. How perfect this road-bed must be. We run as smoothly as though on rubber tires, but we must be making forty miles an hour at least. We will improve our minds after dinner, for a while. What do you say to my reading this sketch of Florida travel, written five years ago by a northern woman, for a literary club that a friend of mine belonged to. She borrowed it for me, thinking it would be a good preparation for our Florida trip. Daintily gotten up, isn’t it?”

Eleanor was a good reader and both Elizabeth and Christine were equally good listeners, so the proposition met with prompt acceptance.

Dinner was served in the seclusion of their own apartment, and was a merry affair. Philip acted like a boy out of school. He joked until the waiter nearly

IO

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had apoplectic fits in the effort to preserve official dignity. He paid compliments to the trio with a sincerity equalled only by his audacity, and finally brought their united indignation upon his tawny head by calmly declaring them to be predestined to the society of two of his men friends, who at that moment were awaiting his summons in the next car.

“They are not particularly brilliant fellows, but a good sort enough ; and we’ll get through the evening quicker with company.”

“How horrid of you! — how ungallant, ” cried the girls.

“As though two stupid strangers were a relief from our company ! ” exclaimed Eleanor.

“Stupid! Who said they were stupid? There is a long difference between stupidity and brilliancy — a land thronged with a large proportion of this world’s inhabitants, ” declared Philip calmly. ‘ ‘ But perish the thought if it pleaseth not your majesties — only what shall we do?”

“Be cosy and comfortable w’hile Eleanor reads us something she has brought with her,” said Elizabeth, as she glanced into a mirror and disposed of a stray lock of hair.

“All right. Anything for a peaceful life. What’s the subject, soul of my soul ? ”

“‘Yachting in Southern Waters/ — I’ve only glanced through it. Smoke, Phil, if it will reward you for the sacrifice of your friendly mediocrity outside, and we will be as hospitable as possible to-morrow. Now for a change of scene. You can look at the illustrations after I get through.

The Nethla. — Soft winds blowing free ;

Sails spread, like birds at sea :

The sound of swash and rush and roar, The dip of the bow, more and more.

“On a moonlight night in December, 1890, the yacht ‘ Nethla, ’ poised like a graceful white-winged bird just before its choice of a resting place, dropped anchor off one of the lower of the Florida Keys.

Above and below her floated the constantly varying loveliness of silver-edged cloud and lapping lustrous waters.

No human sounds broke the sweet silence.

Only the whirr of a night bird’s flight, the soughing, shining slip of a porpoise's back, as it dipped by ; the splash and gurgle of a silver fin and the lap of waves against the little ship, fell upon the ear.

The eye and the soul at peace alike with each other and with all the slumbering beautiful earth, communed with nature, finding in the utter quiet of heavens and waters a resistless alchemy for every form of heart and brain weariness : a very well of Kanathos.

With a murmur like the swarming of the bees of Hybla, the fragrant night-breezes played through the blossoms and leaves of the mangrove-edged islands at our stern, deepening the spell of the evening hour.

We had chosen the southern approach to Biscay ne Bay, via steamer from New York to Key West, where the ‘Nethla’ awaited us with everything in readiness for a four-months’ cruise, and there we were, after a long day’s run, during which our northern eyes had grown familiar with the marvellous coloring of water and sky, the low-lying Keys, with their bordering thickets and towering pines and palms, the solemn egrets and cranes mounted guard on solitary reefs and shores, and the submarine beauties that were as clearly to be seen as life in upper air.

We had heard the legends and histories of many a

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g-reaming bit of coral strand that seemed too small to merit such enduring remembrance.

Perhaps the most notably historic island was Indian Key, where Dr. Perine, the pioneer in the cultivation of Sisal Hemp, was murdered by the Seminoles, his wife and young children escaping by hiding themselves in a .turtle-crawl under the wharf, whence they were rescued the following day by a passing government

Solemn egrets and cranes mounted guard.

boat while the Indians were carousing on the opposite side of the Key.

That tragedy took place during the last Indian war, and put an end to the thrifty settlement which then outnumbered in population any other on the eastern coast. Its remaining barn-like buildings are now the tooroomy homes of a few fishermen and their families, and the chief object of curiosity is an evil-tongued and

Sisal Hemp.

bad-tempered parrot whose discordant screams rend the air like echoes of that awful night.

After our first night at anchor, during which the silence and solitude were almost oppressive, the charm of early morning revealed a new sense of ecstasy in simple existence.

No words, spoken or written, no picture by sun, pen, or brush, can convey to the uninitiated the wonderful freshness and buoyancy of atmosphere, the exquisite tints of sky, water, and land, the rare music of birds, qpd the beauty of the leaping, darting fish around us that flashed through the air as if on wings, to return to their native element in sinuous, graceful curves that were doubly enchanting from their reflections in the crystal depths, through which they sported.

Appetite, that fleshly penalty of the enthusiast as well as of more common folk, make the steward’s skill our salvation. How we devoured the dainty fish, fluffy biscuit, crisp fried potatoes, and savory coffee, and how W£ pitied the less fortunate who were on various small craft of sloop or schooner rig with nothing more in the way of creature comforts to be thankful for than the most meagre fare and the barest accommodations ! No inducements are held out to tourists to investigate the water-ways between Key West and Biscayne Bay; and unhappy is the voyager who, in lieu of own or friend’s yacht, embarked upon the mail or merchant schooners that are the sole means of reaching the land where he would be. One short investigation of the matter generally ends in a reluctant but decided determination to give up the undertaking.

Cocoanut Grove is quite the show place of the Miami region.

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It lies in a curve of the bay, about twelve miles back from the Gulf Stream, a little more than seven miles from Cape Florida, and four miles from the beautiful Miami River.

For a frontage of two miles it presents the appearance of a seaside resort, minus any taint of cumbersome civilization.

Its shore residences are all of the rural and tropical type, a bit of hammock land in the foreground furnishing a luxuriant setting of vine and tree growth that is entirely lacking farther back, where the straight, tall pines hold full sway to the limits of the Everglades.

The picturesque estate of that prince-of-out-doorsports and writer of clever stories, Kirk Munroe, lies in the southern end of the curve. When he bought the place, it was a tangle of scrub palmettoes, pines, rocks and twisted roots of vines and hammock growth.

Now, its fine sea-wall and neat boat-house afford a suitable foreground to the seven acres of trim lawn, ornamental, shade, and fruit trees, rose-gardens and spicy pine-grove, in the midst of which stands the pretty cottage with a white jasmine vine clustering over its front porch, the fragrance of orange and lemon blossoms, heliotrope, mignonette, and a wealth of tropical bloom forever drifting through the open doors and windows, while day and night, the unison of ‘purling, lapping waters on the shore/ with ‘soughing, murmuring, rustling ’ of the cocoanuts, dies away

‘ On through the pines —

The pillared woods,

Where silence breathes sweet breath.’

In the harbor lies their yacht, ‘The Allepatta/

“ The Scrububs. ”

A white jasmine vine clustering over its front porch i i8 AN EAST FLORIDA ROMANCE.

(Seminole for alligator), and under the shadow of the pines is the first lawn-tennis ground on Biscayne Bay shore, made upon 515 barrows’-full of seaweed that were wheeled over many a knotty obstacle by Mr. Munroe and his ‘ Man Fridaj-,’ thus entitling the former to another feather in his cap of athletic honors, as if it were not quite enough to have been, at one time, the commander of ‘The League of American Wheelmen/ Vice-Commodore of ‘American Canoe Associations/ Commodore of ‘ N. Y. Canoe Club,’ Captain and President of the ‘ N. Y. Bicycle Club/ and Secretary of the ‘ Biscayne Bay Yacht Club/

It was in this ideal nest, that Mr. Munroe wrote ‘Under Orders/ ‘Camp Mates/ ‘Canoe Mates/ and others of his recent works, and it is there that his wife — a daughter of Amelia E. Barr and an inheritor of much literary ability — makes housekeeping a drawing-room accomplishment, and the hospitality of ‘The Scrububs/ a poem set to dainty ministrations.

The adjoining places, each with its sea-wall, yacht, and house, are owned and occupied more or less of the year by a Bostonian, by a French officer of the reserved corps, by Commodore Ralph A. Munroe — the originator, promoter, ’and ruling spirit of the ‘Biscayne Bay Yacht Club — and by several other residents whose homes and grounds are less pretentious, and whose time and thoughts are more engrossed by daily avocations.

Among the latter stands the ‘Bay View House/ or, in common, parlance, ‘ Peacock’s,’— the only hotel on Biscayne Bay — with its postoffice and store, the latter being the trading-place of all the settlers and Indians not provided for at ‘ Brickell’s ’ or Lemon City.

The only buildings of interest besides these are the

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little schoolhouse where most of the social, educational, and religious gatherings of the community are held ; the Yacht Club-House, where members gather and guests are entertained from all parts of the country, and the Biscayne Bay Manufacturing Company’s factory, where

Biscayne Bay Club-House.

toothsome dainties are made for northern consumption from the cocoanut, lime, pineapple, guava, and other local fruits.

The primitive comptie v starch mills, in which the sweet starch of the comptie root is pressed and prepared for table and laundry use, may be found all

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through the pines, worked by men, boys, and an occasional mule, and yielding a handsome profit.

Fishing, sponging, hunting, and land-clearing, as well as building, are the chief occupations of the settlers, who now number several score.

There are no finer fishing-grounds in the world than within a radius of twenty miles of Cocoanut Grove. King-fishing from January to May, and tarpon-fishing (with shrimp bait) after March are the exciting and fascinating sports, but the number of smaller fish always playing in the bay and Gulf Stream is legion and the quality rare.

Duck-shooting from January to April is equally fine; millions of ducks and coots lining the upper bay shores and inlets.

English snipe, quail, wild doves, occasional bears, otters, coons, ’possums and deer are found according to the sportsman’s skill and wisdom in choice of time and place. The Seminoles seem to have no difficulty in supplying themselves with venison and game, often bringing quantities to the whites, and either trading or selling at good prices.

Pelicans, bald-headed eagles, fish-hawks, owls, crows, cormorants, woodcock, plover, snipe, cranes, herons, water-turkeys, mocking-birds, robins, red-birds, bluejays, and many more of the bird world pursue their various pleasures in the almost perpetual sunshine,

Where the average temperature, winter and summer, is 75 0 , and the lowest is 40°, there seems little possibility of physical suffering to either bird, beast, or man, and the tourist smiles at the ‘ norther’ as merely a brief and a strengthening invigorator, although its approach is something to see and remember

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2 I

Fancy the vari-colored, sparkling waters of the bay stretching, north, south, and east, beneath a cloudless and heavenly blue sky.

From the ‘Nethla/ at anchor in Cocoanut Grove harbor, one can look across the settlement to the background of pine forests, and the experienced eye of the captain marks a line of white cloud.

‘ Listen ! There comes a norther ! ’ he says. ‘ All hands attend to making everything snug, for it may be a hard blow and it may be a drenching rain, and it may be both/

Looking toward the Gulf Stream we see a circling line high in the heavens ; so high, that at times it seems to dissolve in cloud.

‘ Cormorants going home to the Everglades/ the captain explains.

The birds follow a leader in his search for the desired landmarks, making wild hieroglyphics in their dartings and turnings until, satisfied, he flies like an arrow straight across the bay to the Everglades and the hum of their great wings — hundreds in number — is lost in the majestic swells and diminuendoes of the approaching ‘norther/

A change has come over land and sea.

The clouds in the north and west assume ominous and leaden hues.

Although the south and east are still bathed in sunlight, angry lines of foam mark the advancing disturbance of air and water.

The birds disappear ; sails are reefed ; the spongers and fishermen take necessary precaution and pleasureparties content themselves with such shelter as i§ pearest at hand[i

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All nature seems to brace for the inevitable.

Organ-like fugues sweep through the pines.

‘ It is like the approach of a mighty mass of horsemen,' cries one. ‘Hear the patter and clang and rustle— how it increases in volume ; and how chilly the air has grown ! ’

‘You'd better go below, or you’ll get wet,’ warned the captain, not a second too soon, for down pours the rain in solid walls of water that blot out one-half our horizon, accompanied by a wind that would blow us to ‘Kingdom-come ’ if it were not for those blessed protecting lines of coral between us and the open sea, while still the sun shines beyond the blackness of cloud and rain.

In an hour the vengeance of wind and wave is spent, leaving the earth refreshed and the air only cool to our northern pulse, but ‘awful cold ’ to the settler who abhors anything below 70° The effects of this norther sometimes last for three days.

A curious freak of nature is evidenced in the numerous springs of pure drinking water that bubble up through the white sand and salt water of the harbor, within a hundred feet of the shore. They work a hollow in the sand and can be plainly seen several feet below the surface. But one of these springs has sufficient force to make it available for drinking purposes and the supply from this one seems exhaustless, furnishing water to all the yachts, spongers, and other craft that choose to pump for it.

Below Cocoanut Grove, seven miles down the bay, or eight miles by a primitive road, through a stretch of pines and then into a lovely bit of hammock, lies the ‘ hunting grounds ’ in which the Seminole stalks his

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2 3 deer and the tourist goes daft over orchid-covered oaks and mangoes, gnarled and giant fig-trees, clustering, climbing morning-glory and moon-flower vines and deep, dark, perfumed bowers of tangle, through which the tropical sun never burns and where birds nest in perfect safety.

‘Addison’s ’ and Cutler are the only landings on the bay edge of this fairy-land.

The former is named after its occupant, John Addison, the widely known Indian hunter who has been in charge of the Perine grant of land for many years. It is on his tract of redeemed hammock land that the experiment of cultivating the sisal plant is being vigorously pushed, 2,000 acres having been planted for the purpose.

The sisal plant grows as far north as Jupiter, and bids fair to become a source of large income to Southern Florida as material for fine cordage.

The next local interest seems to be the raising of pineapples, and at Cutler — a mile and a half north of Addison’s — Mr. Wm. Fuzzard has the largest growth of ‘ pines’ on the main land.

A pineapple field is an exceedingly curious and beautiful sight, and to taste a ripe specimen of the fruit direct from the mother stem is to know a draught fit for the gods.

The fever for homesteading has flooded the region with settlers, even decoying into the forests cultivated women, who have a tiny house built, a clearing about it made, and such vegetables, fruits, and flowers started as suit their fancy. There they spend the necessary portion of five years and then prove their title to a tidy estate of 160 acres by simply paying a petty fee of about