New York Tribune

FEATURES OF WEST FLORIDA.

CLIMATE, RESOURCES AND POLITICS.

SOME INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT PENSACOLA---A DEMOCRATIC LEGISLATIVE OUTRAGE---RAILROAD DEVELOPMENT.

[FROM AN OCCASIONAL CORRESPONDENT OF THE TRIBUNE.]

PENSACOLA, Fla., Feb. 24.---Visitors returning from New-Orleans by way of Florida will find at this place an agreeable change in the climate. There is less wet weather here, and the changes are not so frequent as in the Crescent City. But the traveller who does not come provided with both winter and summer clothing will find himself decidedly uncomfortable. The changes are frequent and sudden and are the cause of many conflicting reports about the climate. A description of a recent day in Pensacola will serve as an illustration. The sun gave out an intense heat, there was a warm south wind and the air was that of summer. The trees retained their foliage, and a stranger would naturally imagine that he had at last found that delightful winter climate which he had been led to expect. But it was not long before a "norther" set in, and in a few hours the temperature lowered to 30 degrees. Winter clothing and a glowing fire were found to be essential to comfort. The inhabitants here believe that they are the proprietors of the most wonderful climate in the world, and the stranger who is not prepared to admit that as a fact is set down as prejudiced. But it is a superior climate to that of New-Orleans, as the experience of travellers and the meteorological records prove. Florida is about 400 miles long from north to south, and in that distance, of course, many varieties of weather may be found.

The ride from New-Orleans here is through a slightly varied country. The road skirts the Gulf of Mexico all the way to Mobile, 140 miles. A vast pine forest, seventy-five to 100 miles wide, reaches almost the whole length of the coast, which is broken by bays, inlets and marshes, the home of the alligator and, apparently, of malaria. It is said, however, that the balsamic odors of the pines, mingling with the salt breezes of the Gulf, bring health and strength. Beauvoir, the home of Jefferson Davis, Bay St. Louis, Pass Christian and other villages on the Gulf through which the road passes are summer resorts, though they do not look specially inviting. Mobile is the only place of importance on the way. An interesting visit may be made to the old forts and earthworks used in the war, and made historic through Farragut's dismantling them. There is a striking difference between Mobile and New-Orleans, though they are so near together. Mobile is an American city; in appearances New-Orleans is not. The shops are closed in Mobile on Sunday, and there is an air of Sunday quietness wholly unknown in the Crescent City, where the Sabbath is given over to public cock and dog fights, excursions, theatrical matinees, and to shows of all kinds, and where liquor shops and gambling houses are in full blast on that day.

From Mobile to Pensacola the traveller continues to gaze into the gloomy depths of endless pine woods with their weird sameness. Turpentine orchards and occasional huts, inhabited by both white and colored men, and now and then a saw-mill are the chief evidences of civilization. Nearly the whole South is said to be a forest region, and riding through it by rail furnishes good evidence of the fact. Florida alone has 48,000,000,000 feet of standing pine, while the three great lumber States of the North---Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota---have only 82,000,000,000 feet. Besides her great area of yellow pine, there is in this State a large supply of cypress, hickory, live oak, cedar and other timber. The vast cypress swamps, hung with Spanish moss and interlaced with a maze of vines and creepers, are an interesting feature in the scenery, and this timber is unexcelled for the manufacture of staves for syrup and sugar barrels, and is in large demand for railroad ties. The difficulty lies in getting at it in the lagoons and swamps, which never freeze. As transportation facilities are increased and manufacturing developed, more attention will be directed to the lumber industry. It is now the principal business in West Florida. From Pensacola lumber is shipped largely to Europe and the West Indies. Last year nearly 600 vessels entered this port with a total tonnage of 348,618. With few exceptions they were sailing vessels engaged in the lumber trade. That has been affected by the general depression in business.

WHAT IS NEEDED IN THE SOUTH

What is needed here is the need of the entire South---a diversification in trade and industry, and more public spirit and political toleration. These will follow the increase of immigration now coming into the State through the extension of the railroad system. There is yet too much of the old Spanish feeling, well expressed the other day by a "Dago" who said that "the night is for sleep and the day for rest."

Until the opening of the Pensacola and Atlantic Railroad, which was finished in 1883, West Florida was almost cut off from the rest of the State. There was no railroad communication except from Pensacola north by the Louisville and Nashville system. To reach Tallahassee required several days' travel over heavy roads in private conveyance. Now that city is on a through route to New-Orleans. The railroads are doing much to develop the Southern country. The development comes as much from the improvement of the railroads and railroad stock as in the amount of mileage laid. There never was such a collection of broken-down and dilapidated railroads as those the South possessed in 1866, beginning---as has been well said by a railroad expert---nowhere and ending nowhere, rusty and with broken rails, worn-out cars and useless engines. During the past eighteen years the Southern railroads have been extended 14,000 miles, the old roads to a large extent rebuilt and newly equipped. The result is increased business, and the consolidation of small and weak lines into big corporations has formed trunk lines with sufficient capital to do much toward building up the country. The railroad operators in Texas of Gould and Huntington are said to have conduced to the immigration of about 200,000 people to that State. Florida held its millions of acres of land until within a few years without finding any sale for them. It then adopted the policy of making land grants to railroads. There are now about 1,500 miles of completed road in the State, and there are no less than twenty-eight projected roads with charters, many of which are now building.

The population is increasing in a greater ratio than that of any other Southern State, and the comparatively rapid development of the State is beyond question. It is almost entirely due to Northern people and Northern capital and wherever is seen the hand of progress is sure to be found an enterprising "Yank." It has been a hard struggle for many of those men to fight Southern prejudice and intolerance. It is a struggle by no means over. If it were possible now for Northern men to exercise the same political freedom here as at home the State would develop more rapidly. Through the railroads, however, land is increasing in value in many parts of the State, nearly doubled and trebled within a few years.

There are still people in the South who persistently set their faces against the railroads. They are the same class of people who half a century ago in Decatur, Georgia, objected to having the shops of the Georgia Railroad, and to Irish laborers. The shops were located in the woods, and there to-day stands Atlanta, the "Queen city of the South." Covington, Georgia, also at that time objected to giving the road permission to pass through the streets of that village, fearing that it would frighten the horses. Covington to-day has hardly any horses to frighten. Not many years ago Elyton forced a railroad to go round its limits; but Birmingham let the road go through its centre. Elyton has practically disappeared while Birmingham's growth rivals Atlanta's.

What railroads built under land grants are doing for Florida and have done for the internal commerce of the entire country, steamship lines aided by liberal payments for carrying the mails would do for the foreign commerce of the Nation. But the same spirit which opposed the building of railroads is found to-day fighting the establishment of new steamship routes. There is too much of this spirit in the South. As some one has sarcastically remarked, men here sit beneath the shade of a hickory tree waiting for some one to come along with axe-helves from the North.

The soil in this part of Florida is not possessed of any wonderful degree of fertility. It is sandy and requires a good deal of fertilizing, yet it gives satisfactory returns for the labor bestowed upon it. There are few oranges cultivated here. It is not warm enough to make orange culture a success. Lumber and fish are the principal products. Pensacola shipped 16,000 barrels of fish on ice last year. The fish shipped are principally the red snapper, the black grouper, the bluefish and the renowned pompano.

The City of Pensacola is not particularly attractive. It has a nautical flavor, and its sandy streets are filled with a motley crowd of mariners and 'longshoremen, colored men. There is a white and a colored union, and the two classes work together harmoniously. Of the 1,200 longshoremen one-half of them are colored.

Pensacola has a splendid bay, unrivalled in the South for bounty, depth and security. Santa Rosa Island, a sand key of the Gulf, forty miles long, is the breakwater of the harbor. On the end of this island, at the entrance to the harbor, stands Fort Pickens, now denuded of guns and guarded by a single sergeant. In spite of its battle record it looks quite modern, though it is the familiar haunt of the rattlesnake. Opposite on the mainland are the ruins of old Fort McRee, tottering amid the surges which dash against its remaining arches. In the distance the remains of old Fort Barrancas lie sleeping with the memories of General Jackson and the Spanish commandant who blew it up at the capture of the place by an American army in 1814. The deserted navy yard is not far away. Its massive buildings look clean and neat and there are stored old guns and much valuable shipbuilding material.

A quarter of a century ago when the war broke out a large force of men were engaged in building a sea wall. The diving-bell they were using was left standing where they quit work, and there it now stands, while piles of unused granite mark the blight that then fell upon this yard. One section of a half-million dollar float for the dry dock, built since the war, stands unused and useless. It was built at Philadelphia and brought here, but being too narrow for the dock, is no use for this yard. The navy yard is surrounded by a twenty-foot brick wall, and the grounds are full of live oaks. It is a beautiful place but it is near the sea, and the depth of water on the bar is not sufficient to make the yard of much use.

The water at Pensacola is secured from driven wells. A well driven in the bay sends up a fine stream of clear fresh water. This water can be obtained anywhere in the city. There is no particular architectural beauty about Pensacola. Back country ox-carts, with great broad, wooden-tired wheels, roll silently over the sand. The sidewalks are ragged and disgraceful, and there is a strange conflict of Yankee push and Southern indifference. Most of the old Spanish houses were destroyed during the late war and by a fire which a few years ago burned up much of the city.

The stories told by Northern men, leading property-owners, who settled here after the war, of Southern intolerance, intimidation and outrages will make an interesting letter, showing what has been the chief drawback in the past. A statement of a few facts will throw light on the subject. In this State the Governor appoints not only all the election officers, but all the judges, county officers and every official, excepting the Mayor and Aldermen in cities. Pensacola has large Republican majority and the Republicans have managed to retain control. Despairing of getting things in their own hands by other means the Democrats went to the Legislature a few weeks ago, and had a law passed abolishing the city government of Pensacola, and providing as a substitute a commission appointed by the Governor. Thus in a Republican city the members of that party have no voice in saying how they shall be taxed or ruled. When they did have possession of the city government the Democrats refused to pay taxes, and as the Judges were appointed by the Governor they were, of course Democrats, and the courts were used to shield Democrats from paying taxes to a Republican city government. This is the spirit of Democratic intolerance which blights the progress of the South to-day.