The Union Times

A VERY INTERESTING LETTER.
Little Crystal Ray, of Kissimmee, Fla., Writes a Very Entertaining Letter of Her Visit to Historic St. Augustine, Florida.
KISSIMMEE, FLA., Aug. 3.
Dear Editor:--Again I ask for a small space in your paper. I have just returned from St. Augustine, the oldest and most historic city in the United States. St. Augustine was settled 55 years before the Pilgrim Fathers landed on Plymouth Rock.
The most unique token of Spanish rule in America is the sculptured device of the arms of Ferdinand and Isabel, sovereigns of Aragon and Castile, above the entrance of Fort Marion or St. Mark." Confronted by this symbol we are face to face with the St. Augustine of the Past.
Fort Marion is in the four-hundredth year of its age, yet with but little sign of decay. Entering this dismal gloomy fort we were met by Sergt. Browne, who required us to register, and then proceeded to show us over and through this wonderful structure, built of coquina as solid as iron, the inner walls once white, are green from age, and the most weird, dismal air pervades the scene. Passing through a vast hall you enter the court, beyond which are the dungeons, I will mention only two. One is which, during the "Inquisition," the "wheel of torture" was kept. One member of the entire body could be torn into shreds by means of this machine of death.
Bending to my knees I entered another dungeon through an opening in a wall 4 feet thick. Horror! Orcus on earth, darkness reigns supreme, so dark that the torch in guide's hand looked dim, and the dungeon is air tight, one half hour in here and life is extinct. In this dungeon just 20 years ago a most horrible discovery was made. The skeletons of a man and a woman chained to this wall.
Hon. Albert W. James, for forty years in the service of the U. S. A., (now in charge of Government property at South Beach) whom I was pleased to meet, rendered the following in connection with the skeletons found in dungeon: Long years ago a wealthy Spanish lady was determined to wed a gentleman with little worldly goods, and to prevent which, the father of the lady confined them face to the wall in this air tight cell where they died of suffocation."
Amid all this horrible history there is yet deeper mystery connected with this cell. Just seven and one-half feet below the cement floor there is a sea of quick sand, so when desired the Spaniards would thrust their unfortunate victims underneath the quick sand forever out of sight. Running my hand along the rock wall I grasped the broken links of chain from which have suspended the unfortunate victims of every nationality.
The light house on Anastasia Island is 180 feet high from low water mark and is one of the finest lights on the coast.
The Catholic Cathedral was erected in 1791. Inscription on one of the bells in open belfry: "Sancte Joseph Ora Pro Nobis. 1685," one of the oldest bells in the United States.
Under the Pyramids in the United States Military Cemetery are the remains of Maj. Dade and 107 of his command, massacred at Fort Dade, by Indians, Dec. 23, 1835.
Central Park is grand. A monument stands in the plaza, erected in 1812.
Now we must leave, historic, ancient St. Augustine, over which for two hundred and fifty years Spain held despotic sway, and look at modern St. Augustine. Here is the Ponce De Leon hotel, one of the finest in America. The interior of one room alone cost over $100,000, it simply beggars description.
The Alcazar, Cordova and Memorial churches, all modern structures and surpassingly grand.
The freedom from insects is strikingly singular, but St. Augustine is free from dirt and insects.
With a few descriptive lines of Tampa and I will cease. Tampa is 75 miles South of Kissimmee. Your City and Tampa comprise one city, having a population of 25,000. Tampa Bay hotel, situated on Hillsborough Bay, is claimed to be one of the finest hotels in the world. It is of red brick comprising 600 rooms, serpentine in shape and entirely vine clad, 150 acres in the grounds filled with tropical fruits and flowers, fountains, casino and conservatories. Asphalt drives like huge serpents, thread through lovely grounds, miles of arborvitae hedges, as parallel as lines on a map, frame the drives and walks, the whole enclosed with vines of roses, miles of them. The interior of hotel contains even more relics than the Ponce. At St. Augustine the "Queen's room," the Alcazar nothing surpasses. Tampa Bay is gloriously beautiful.
While in Tampa I saw relics of the Battleship Maine, part of riggings, the sidelights, Cuban swords, etc. At Tampa Bay, by anchored the ship in which Dreyfus was sent to Devil's Island.
CRYSTAL RAY
[Come again, Crystal, we are glad to receive your interesting contributions whenever you find it convenient to write.-ED.]