\' .0-^. ^^< -U .yi%W^^ ;xv -^ .;^^ ■^ r SO o^ '% "^0 ^^' N^^ "'^r '■^^ v^^ -<.%^ f:^ p>\- V- V o' ^f '-^/...x^ o "oo^ A- aV <^^ - "- ^.^ "^ v^ aX A^^ (\ ,0- % ^^' ^'{^k^'Ss^y:t. ,' s > .A- > /. -^^ C^^ ,0 c v^ ''^ ^ 0' , "oq' ^^^. rf. f, -i.^ , \ I « o ■ 0- -p. a\ i> 0^0 ^■^ T- c: C ■t' -fl . . . is^ .\^ ^^ °-. ..0-' .o^^ ^ •x^^' "^>- v\ ^^- V -5^ "^ ^^ ' -bo' - a^' a'^' •O // .■^^ r-^sr -' .*■ ,0- ^^' .^^<^. "o / ' '~~:'. "^y. v' '\-, '^ ..-^^ ■^oo^ N .^*- -4 -7-. ^0 4 -r. PRICE TWENTY-FIVE CENTS. For Map and Ready Reference see pages 93 and 96. Standard Guide Advertiser. te If in Florida for pleasure, ask some of your friends to give you a ride on a Naphtha Launch And their opinion of them, as they are m use on nearly every lake and river in Florida. Then send for a Catalogue. GAS ENGINE & POWER CO., MORRIS DOCK, NEW YORK CITY. Builders of the Only Naphtha Launch. RUINS OF THE CITY GATEWAY. ^ A The Standard Guide ST. AUGUSTINE ILLUSTRATED ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA E. H. REYNOLDS y Copyright, iS8q, by E. H. Reynolds TO THE READER. THE STANDARD GUIDE is intended to give such practical information and intelligent descriptions as it is hoped may add to the convenience and pleasure of the tourist in St. Augustine. The present edition appears in an enlarged form, with text revised to date, and much new material, including a description of the Hotel Ponce de Leon. The generous list of illustrations given in former editions has also been enlarged. If this little book be not cast aside, its prose and pic- tures may in the future prove pleasant reminders of a visit to St. Augustine. u CONTENTS, St. Augustine, -. Hotel Ponce de Leon, The City Gateway, The Plaza, Fort Marion, The Sea-Wall, St. Francis Barracks, - Harbor and Beach, St. Anastasia Island, - As A Health Res(3RT, Floral Calendar, Gun and Rod, Lawn Tennis Tournament, Page 9 26 ■ 46 49 ■ 55 70 • 71 73 ■ 77 84 ■ 87 90 • 94 TN the realm of flowers, a perfumed land, Girt by the sea, by soft winds fanned; Ravaged by war ifi years grown old. Its former glory a tale long told. Stands the quaint old Spanish city. The scene of many a hard-fought fight. Of. majjy a siege, when Spanish rnight Was o'er the land: in its decay It hath a beauty to live alway, That quaint old Spanish city. Poems of Places. ILLUSTRATIONS. The City Gateway, . . . St. George Street, . . . Charlotte Street, - - . - A Study in St. Augustine, St. Francis Street, Ruins of the King's Forge, Garden Overlooking Plaza, St. George Street, - - . Treasury Street, - - . . A Woman of the Balearic Islands, The Plaza Basin, - - . . St. George Street, near the Plaza, In the Old Days, - - . _ The Villa Zorayda, - - . Grace Church, - - . . Hotel Ponce de Leon, from the Northwest, Hotel Ponce de Leon, from the Alameda, - Hotel Ponce de Leon, Plan, PIOTEL Ponce de Leon, Portico and Entrance, Hotel Ponce de Leon, Fountain Court, Hotel Ponce de Leon, Grand Entrance, Hotel Ponce de Leon, Ladies' Entrance, - Frontispiece. Page 10 II 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 21 22 23 24 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 viii Jllustrations. Hotel Ponce de Leon, Roof Terrace, - - - - -. 44 Plan of the Alcazar, - - - -'- - '■ -45 Ruins of Gateway, from Without, - - - - - - 47 Ruins of Gateway, from the Northwest, - - . - - - 48 The Old Plaza Market, - - - - - - - - 50 Plaza Monument Inscription, - - - - - - - 51 The Plaza, _.-.---- 52 The Cathedral, - - - - . ■- - - -53 Fort Marion, frc^m the Water Battery, - - - - - 54 Fort Marion, Plan, - - - - - - - -56 Fort Marion, Spanish C(5at of Arms, ----- 57 Fort Marion, Inclined Plank, - - - - - - - 58 Fort Marion, Niche in Chapel, - - - - ' - - 60 Fort Marion, A Casemate D> >• '^ 34 The Standm^d Guide. Without the council hall, aloft on its staff was the effigy of an antlered stag, looking out over the ocean toward the sunrise. For annually, at the coming of spring, the people of Seloy selected the skin of a huge deer, stuffed it with choicest herbs and decked it with fruits and flowers; and then bearing- it with music and song to the appointed spot and setting it up on its lofty perch, consecrated it as a new offering to the Sun god, that because of it he might smile upon the fields and fructify the planted seed and send to his children an abundant harvest — Old St. Augustine, ^'The Huguenots in Florida" Passing beneath the raised portcullis of the gateway and through the portico, we enter the fountain court, a delicious mass of foliage in many shades of green, with tropical plants, waving plumes, brilliant flowers, and a fountain plashing in the center. On the north side of the court, directly opposite the gateway, is the grand en- trance; and in the centers of the wings, east and west, are other entrances. From the gateway and the entrances walks converge to the fountain in the center, and are intersected by another circular walk, which runs around the court. The whole area is thus divided into garden terraces of geometric patterns, after the Spanish manner. The court is surrounded by arcades, whose pillars and arches give them the char- acter of cloistered walks. Rooms open upon the arcades, vines clamber over their arches, and easy chairs invite to repose. The ranges of windows in the second story are broken, in the spaces above the doorways, by arched open balconies; and around the third story, just beneath the overhanging roof, is a continuous loggia, whose carved woodwork is in pleasant contrast with the masonry. Still higher, in the great red roofs, are the rows of dormer-windows, giving a cosy, home-like character to the whole composition, and suggesting swallows under the eaves, although there are no swallows here. The central dome of the main building is one of the distinguishing features of the Spanish Renaissance, and the open arcaded story at the top was with the architects of that period a favorite device to secure lightness and deep shadows. Turn which way we will in the court, there are charming combinations of light and shade; the general effect is restful; there are cool inviting vistas everywhere. Here, where the sun shines in winter as in summer, the architects have improved every opportunity to make the most of shadow effects; and the overhanging roofs, affordmg grateful shade, are repeated again and again. From the gateway of the court the majestic towers are seen for the first time in their full proportions. The towers are square, with a balustrade about the top, and from the upper platform is carried up a round tower, with high conical roof, sur- mounted by an elaborate metal finial. Each side of the square tower is pierced near the top with an arched window, opening upon a flat corbelled balcony, with a low projection. These windows remind us of the balconies of Mohammedan mosques; and from them, at morning, noon or nightfall, we might almost expect to hear the muezzin's call to prayer. Above these windows is an open gallery of observation. The massive and donjon character, which towers of this magnitude might easily have, has been entirely avoided, and their chief characteristic, considering the size, is an airy lightness entirely in keeping with the remainder of the composition. The shadow and color combinations, as the eye follows the stately tower to the bright metal tip, 165 feet against the blue sky, are changeful and effective. Crossing the court, past the fountain — which is a well-ordered combination of 36 The Standard Guide. marble, stone and terra-cotta, the shaft being of terra-cotta inlaid with marble mosaics, surrounded with grotesque frogs and turtles and other water creatures in the basins, all spouting water in different directions — we approach the grand entrance. This is a full-centered arch, twenty feet wide. Around the face of the arCh, in a broad band, carved in relief on a row of shields, a letter to a shield, runs the legend. Ponce de Leo7i. Garlands depend from the shields, which are supported by mermaids. This-is an- other suggestion of the sea as the source whence came the shell composite of the hotel walls; and also of the sea as the field of his achievements whose name is here in- scribed. The suggestion is further emphasized in the shell-patterned diaper in the spandrels of the arch, and yet again in the marine devices of the coats-of-arms on the two shields. To complete the composition of the doorway, there are above the main arch six small full-centered arches, in pairs, carried on spirally-fluted columns. About each pair of arches is an elaborate belt moulding, which is also carried down in vert- ical lines on each side of the main door, terminating in corbels at the springing line of the arch. On either side of the door is a circular window of stained-glass of geo- metric pattern. The other entrances, on the east and west, should have attention before we leave the court. In the wall, on each side of the doorway, is a deep fountain niche, with the top carried up into pinnacles, which give fine shadow effects. The water issues from the mouth of a dolphin. Above the door, in the key of the arch, is a shield with a shell device, and medallions with Spanish proverbs occupy the spandrels. As in the main entrance, the composition of the doorway is completed by arched open- ings above; the arches are carried on similar spirally-fluted columns, and there are elaborate belt mouldings. The dolphins of the fountain niches have special appro- priateness; they are not only typical of the sea, but have a local significance as well, for the bay of St. Augustine once bore the name River of Dolphins, given it by Laudonniere, the Huguenot captain, who anchored his ships here in 1564 (see p. 75). The allusion to the sea, in the dolphins and the shells, is a motive repeated again and again throughout the hotel; even the door-knobs are modeled after shells. The garlands and Cupids on the window caps and the other decorations and orna- ments of the court deserve a more minute description, but their elaborateness and pro- fuseness forbid more than just an indication of them. The amount of wall space is so enormous that it was impossible to treat all the surfaces with like richness; this led the architects to distribute the ornamentation and make it very rich, thus forming the most happy contrasts, really producing all the effect that it was possible to obtain, and avoiding the fault of over-decoration. Standing in the doorway of the main entrance and looking through the pillars of the vestibule to the caryatides of the rotunda, and beyond them to the marble columns at the entrance of the dining hall, we begin to have some conception of how rich and palatial is the hotel. The vestibule opens upon a corridor, surrounding a rotunda which occupies the great central space of this main building. On the right a broad hall leads past the hotel office to various public rooms; another on the left leads to the ground parlor; and directly opposite, a broad marble stairway ascends to the dining hall. The pavement of vestibule, corridor and rotunda is a mosaic of tiny 38 The Standard Guide. bits of marble, laid in Renaissance manner. The wainscoting of the vestibule is of choice Numidian marbles imported from Africa; that of the corridor is of quartered oak. Marble fireplaces of generous dimensions give an air of welcome, and musical fountains tinkle in the corners. In composition and decoration the rotunda is a marvel of grace and beauty. The immense dome is supported by four massive piers and eight pillars of oak, carved into caryatides of life size, cut from the solid quartered wood, and terminating in fluted shafts. The sylph-like figures have laughing, mischievous faces, and a won- drous semblance of life. They are in groups of four, standing back to back; and so graceful are the forms, so light and airy the poses, we forget the tremendous weight they are supporting. The rotunda is four stories in height, forming arcades and galleries at each story whose arches and columns are of different designs. These galleries overhang each other, and are supported by decorated vaults forming pene- trations. The effect is most pleasing, as one looks up through the entire open space, to the great circular penetration in the vault of the dome, sixty-eight feet above. While the decorations here are true to the Spanish Renaissance style, the motives for them have been found in the Spain and the Florida of the sixteenth century; the symbolism is of the spirit of that age and the impulses which then held sway. Painted on the pendentives of the cove ceiling of the second story, are seated female figures typical of Adventure, Discovery, Conquest and Civilization. Four other figures, which are standing, represent the elements. Earth, Air, Fire and Water. The paintings are in oil on a silver ground; the colors are rich and varied, and the ac- cessories chosen with excellent taste. In the four subjects last named the com- position is completed with arabesque figures of appropriate designs; and the several backgrounds are scattered with distinctive emblematic devices. Adventure wears a cuirass and in her helmet an eagle's crest. She holds a drawn sword. The pose is eager and alert; the features and the bearing denote reckless enterprise, courage, readiness to encounter peril, and the resolution which overcomes. The emblems on the background are arrows radiating in different directions. Discovery is robed in drapery whose blue is the blue of the sea. In her right hand is held a globe, the other rests upon a tiller. The pose of the head and the far reaching gaze are as if with swelling heart she were surveying the outstretched ex- panse of a newly-revealed continent. The emblems are sails. Conquest, clad in martial red, with helmet and cuirass of mail, firmly grasps an upright sword, significant of might and war-won supremacy. The look in her face is of exultant mastery, grim consciousness of power, and a purpose mexorable. On the background are daggers. Civilization is clothed in white and wears a crown. In her lap is an open book, the symbol of knowledge. Her face has the repose of dignity and benevolence. The background reveals the repeated figure of the cross, suggesting the civilizing in- fluences of Christianity. Earth is represented as of dark complexion and is clad in robes of russet. She extends a horn of plenty, overflowing with fruits and the bounties of the earth; and by gracefully floating ribbons holds captive two peacocks, the most gorgeous birds of LADIF.s' ENTRANCE HOTEL }'ONCE VE LEON. 40 The Standard Guide, the earth, as distinguished from those of the air. Snails are the devices on the background. Air is an etherial form, with winged heels, fair hair and diaphanous drapery of a very pale blue tint which fades at times almost into absence of color. One hand restrains the flight of two magnificent eagles, and in the other are lightly held dande- lion downs, ready at a breath to spring into the air and float away on the zephyrs This is one of the most charming conceits in the whole scheme of decoration. The emblems on the background are dragon-flies and butterflies. The figure of Fire, auburn-haired and clothed in drapery of glowing red stands amid tongues of flame and holds on high a blazing torch. The arabesques are sal- amanders, embodying the only life fabled to live in fire. The emblems are flames In sharp contrast with these brilliant hues are the marine tints which predominate m the pictured fancy of Water. She is fair-skinned and fair-haired; her robes are of a very pale green and white; and she stands in a shell to which sea-mosses are clinging. With ribbons she controls two prancing sea-horses, emblematic of the ocean's restlessness and might. On the background are starfishes. The decorations in the penetrations are lyres with swans on either side The lyres are surmounted alternately by a masque of the Sun god of the Florida Indians and by the badge of the most illustrious order of Spanish knighthood, the Golden Fleece, depending from its flint-stone surrounded by flames of gold. Where this ap- pears, the design of the border is the Collar of the Golden Fleece, the chain of double steels interlaced with flint-stones. Below in the spandrels of the corridor arches is seen the stag's head, barbaric emblem of sun-worshipping Seloy. Shields bear the arms of the present provinces of Spain, and on cartouches are emblazoned the names of the great discoverers of America. Cornucopias are favorite forms here, as elsewhere throughout the hotel The decorations do not end with this story. The upper dome is modeled in high relief; around its base Cupids join hands in an unbroken chain; between these figures are circular openings; and the vault above is all modeled with delicate tracery of^pure white and gold effects; casques and sails signify the military and maritime achievements of Spain; and the crown of the dome is surrounded with eagles. A broad stairway of marble and African onyx leads from the corridor to a landing from which IS entered the passage leading to the dining hall. In delightfully antique letters set in mosaic in the floor of the landing, is the aptly chosen verse of welcome, taken from Shenstone; Whoe'er has travell'd life's dull round, Where'er his stages may have been, May sigh to think he still has found The warmest welcome at an inn. From this landing, stairways of oak lead to the rotunda and halls above. The wain- scoting of the stairways is of Verona and pink Numidian marble; and above this, set in the walls, in frames of oak, are two paintings, "The Landing of Columbus," and "The Introduction of Christianity to the Huns by Charlemagne." The massive oaken doors of the dining hall open beneath a beautifully chiseled arch of Verona HOTEL PONCli DE LEON— ST. AUGUSTINE. FLORIUA The Standard Guide. 41 marble, of a deep red color; and in the spandrels are mosaic patterns of Numidian, Verona and Sienna marbles, and African and Mexican onyx. A font-shaped bal- cony projects above, supporting a musicians' gallery, which overlooks both the rotunda and the dining room. This balcony is of Verona marble, and the railing is delicately car.ed in oak. Here again note that the effects of elegance and richness are not secured by surface paint, but by the employment of materials in which those qualities are inherent. The dime .sions of the dining hall are magnificent. It has an area of 90 by 150 feet; and there are seats for 800 guests. The main hall, 90 feet square, is divided from two sc-iii-circular alcoves on the east and west ends by rows of oak columns. These columns support a great elliptical barrel-vault, and the clerestory is pierced with stained-glass windows, forming penetrations. The ceilings are 36 feet measured from the floor to .he apex of the vault. The rounded ends of the alcoves have great bay- windows. Two musicians' galleries overhang the hall, one on the north and one on the south. In its wealth of adornment this hall is the pride and masterpiece of the hotel. Beauty of form, which everywhere charms the eye, is supplemented by richness and harmony of color, and these in turn by the good taste shown in the choice of themes for the decoration. Of the work which has here- been lavished, on every side, by loving hands, no just appreciation can be had except after repeated study of the details, and no description of it can be made fully intelligible without the aid of illustrations. The light is mellowed in its passage through the stained- glass windows of the clerestory and through the magnificent masses of stained and clear leaded glass which make up almost the entire ends of the rounded extensions. The prevailing shade is a creamy yellow, variety being secured by the different colors employed in the decorations. On each end, north and south, of the central hall is a high wainscoting in antique oak of choice grains. Above this, on a ground of blue green, is a panel of dancing- Cupids, with roguish faces and outstretched hands, representing the feast; some ex- tend clusters of luscious grapes, and bread and cups of wine in welcome to the guests, while others ladle steaming olla from great Spanish calderons. On the wall above are pictured ships of Spain, with sails full set and gracefully waving streamers and pennants; they are the high-pooped Spanish caravels of the sixteenth century, just such vessels as that in which came Ponce de Leon to Florida in his search for the fountain. In the key of the arch over the musicians' balcony is a shield bearing an heraldic device, and the legend "Pde L — 15 12." Dancing girls support the shield, and outside of these are figures of Fame blowing trumpets. Four mermaids one in each corner, support the border which goes over the ends of the ceiling. On the yellow surface of the vault are delicate arabesques traced in various colors and gold and silver. In the penetrations between the stained-glass windows, allegorical paintings represent the Four Seasons. They are female figures, winged to typify their rapid flight ; and the two different fancies present a dual conception of each subject. In grace of form not less than in their admirable color effects these paint- ings are as worthy of careful study as were those of the rotunda. For his colors the 42 The Standard Guide. artist has gone to nature. The pale draperies of Spring reflect the delicate green shades of the fresh May foliage; in one fancy she is pictured as sowing grain; in the other she holds spring flowers and a branch with bursting buds. The draperies of the figures of Summer are bright with color; in one fancy the accessories are a sheaf of wheat and a sickle; in the other luxuriant summer verdure. Autumn is given russet robes; one figure with bunches of purple grapes represents the vintage; the other dancing, with a tambourine, the merry-making of the harvest home. In the paintings of Winter the colors are rich and warm; the two aspects of the season here depicted are its hardships and its festivities; the first figure, warmly clad, with bright scarf and closely muffled hood, bears an axe and a bundle of fagots; the other partially draped is bringing in the boar's head. In the ceiling, on a becoming ground of gold, are seen Spanish proverbs, pithy saws and admonitions to the guests below. Among them are these: Change of pasture makes fat calves. — The ass that brays most eats least. — Old friends and old wines are the best. — Good wine needs no bush. To these might well have been added that saying current among the Spaniards, in which is expressed their affectionate esteem of St. Augustine — Never an alia without bacon nor a sermon without St. Augustine. The chief decorative design in the flat ceiling of the alcoves gives a concise historical summary in the form of a pictograph. The general scheme is an adapta- tion of the picture-writing of the American Indians — that system of hieroglyphics cut in the wasting bark of trees, or carved on the face of the enduring rock, there to remain long after the tribes whose exploits they recounted should have been swept from the earth. The primitive characters were simple and rude, but to the initiated they were as full of meaning as to us the glowing pages of the printed book. Now, to the deft artist give for a worthy theme the romantic history of Florida and St. Augustine; and let it be required of him to chronicle the story in' picture-writing after the Indian style, but in characters refined and dignified and^ given symmetry and beauty of color — and you have the record as it is written here in letters of brown on a gold background. The theme was deserving of treatment as by one who loves his art, and in such fashion indeed has it been done. Here, sweeping along under full sail, is a Spanish galleon, the ship of Ponce de Leon, the first that came to these shores. May it not have been that in the eventful year of 15 12, some Indian here in the village of Seloy recorded on a palmetto trunk the strange vision of this same ship? Other caravels mark the expeditions of Pamphilo de Narvaez, in 1527, and Hernando de Soto, in 1539. Ships with all sail set signify a successful voyage; dismasted hulks stand for disaster and shipwreck; several ships together a large fleet; forts a permanent settlement; the several nationalities are designated by their distinctive heraldic devices — the Fleur-de-lis of France for the .Huguenots, the Lion and Castle of Spain for Menendez. A sword, skulls and crossbones commemorate the pitiful death of Jean Ribault and his fellows at Matanzas; a hand holding a dagger, and the Fleur-de-lis again, record the vengeance of Dominique de Gourgues. Ships and cannon mark the assaults by Drake and Davis, and the bombardments and sieges by Moore and Oglethorpe. The sue- } 4. The SlaiiJarii Gilhie to St. Auguslim -ORIDA. The Standard Guide. 43 TOWER, DOME AND ROOF TERRACE. (By courtesy of the ''^American Architect.'''') cessive changes of supremacy, Spanish, British, Spanish again, and finally that of the United States, are indicated by the national emblems, the American coat-of-arms closing the record at the cession of Florida to the United States in 1S21. Arabesque designs of sea-horses, ridden by sea-sprites, surmount the cartouche and emphasize the ever-recurring suggestion of the sea as a field of enterprise and endeavor. Among the other decorations of these ceilings are the signs of the Zodiac, painted in antique green on a gold ground. In the penetrations and on the pendentives appear the arms of the ancient provinces of Spain, with candelabra and other designs; and supporting these candelabra are arabesques of mermaids and mermen. Three domes in each alcove, from which chandeliers depend, are filled with Renaissance ornaments. 44 The Standard Guide. The grand parlor is a magnificent room 104X53 feet. The effect of grandeur which attaches to a room of such dimensions, is happily supplemented by the dis- position of piers and arches, which break up the parlor into easy corners. The walls and decorations are in ivory-white and gold, with Cupids and garlands and filmy drapery amid the clouds in the corner ceilings. Note of the rich furnishings of the parlor is foreign to the purpose of this chapter, but the visitor will not fail to notice the carved mantle with its clock of transparent Mexican onyx, and the numerous paintings. There are other paintings in the. upper corridors of the rotunda, whose subjects have been taken from Florida history; among them is an interesting and authentic portrait of the Seminole chief Osceola. There yet remain many features of the hotel deserving of special mention did space permit; and there are others which should have detailed description, were it the intent here to set forth the character of the building as a hotel with relation to the entertainment of guests. The design of these pages is, however, only to hint of the successful way in which the architects and artists have carried out the original plan and spirit of the Ponce de Leon, and to emphasize the justice of the claim that their work in its completion is of a character which appeals to higher than sybaritic tastes. The architects of the Hotel Ponce de Leon were Messrs. Carrere and Hastings, of'New York. The frescos and mural decorations are by Mr. Thomas Hastings and Mr. George W. Maynard, assisted by Mr. H. T. Schladermundt. The balconies of the main tower command a prospect of many miles. Thence one may look to the east where roll the breakers on the bar, to the south where shine in the afternoon sun the walls of the old Spanish fort at Matanzas inlet, and to the west where winds the St. Sebastian. Below and on every side are the variegated shades of green which are the glory of Florida. If, as we have said, the grace of these towers has added a new charm to the town, surely they have been set amid no unworthy surroundings. Long search would have been required to discover for the Ponce de Leon a more fitting site than here in orange-embowered St. Augustine. The cascade shown in the plan on page 31 has not yet been constructed; as pro- jected it is to be "450 feet long, and built up in the manner of the great cascade of St. Cloud — ornamented with fountains, statues, stairs, etc., and lighted by electricity," On the south side of the Alameda opposite the Ponce de Leon is the Alcazar, an adjunct of the hotel, and in architecture a fitting complement of it. The Alcazar, of the Spanish Renaissance style, was designed by Messrs. Carrere and Hastings. The building material is concrete, with terra-cotta ornaments and Spanish roof tiles. These give the rich color combinations already described, and the towers, pavilions, minarets and overhanging roofs also afford the grateful shadow effects noted. At this stage of construction the crescent arcade shown in our illustration has not been added, but without it the Alcazar presents an imposing fapade, and the impression of immense size is strengthened as the eye follows the line of the countless minarets and the broken outline of roofs on Cordova street. The statement has been made '"saiAi^ui HOTEL CciRlMiVA — ON THE AI.\ME1)A— ST. AUGUSTINE, PI.OKIDA ■P. II'. Sm,-//,, Architect The Standard Guide. 45 if-t:/Tu lO. Arcade. 11. Massage Room 12. Russian Bath. n. Smoking Room 14. Office Hall. 15- Baggage Room lb. fountain. 17- Store. i8. Tower. several times in print that the north facade is a repro- duction of that of the famous Alcazar (Al-kasr, the House of Caesar) of Seville; but this is incorrect; the two facades bear no resemblance to each other, and the Alcazar, like the Ponce de Leon, is original throughout. Within is a court of flowers, shrubbery and vines, and an ingenious fountain playing in the center. The court — not unworthy to be compared with the patios of the Alcazars in Spain — is surrounded by an arcade, upon which open shops and offices. Beyond this court are the great swimming pools of sulphur water from the artesian wells and salt water pumped from the bay. South are lawn tennis courts. PLAN OF ALCAZ.^R. Tennis Court. Croquet Court. 3. Vestibule. 4. Dressing Room. 5. Salt Water Swimming 6. Sulphur Bath. Bath. Linen Room. Lounging Room. Turkish Bath. The group of concrete hotels on the Alameda is completed by the Hotel Cordova (formerly known as the Casa Monica). The Cordova was designed by Mr. F. W. Smith. In style it does not follow the Spanish Renaissance architecture; the suggestions for its heavy walls and battlemented towers were found in the strong castles and town defenses of Spain; it re- calls those monuments of the warring ages of the past, which grew with the increments of hundreds of years, amid the conflicts of Roman and Goth and Moor and Christian. Thus the archway on the north facade, formerly a gateway, flanked by massive towers round and square, was an adaptation of the Puerto del Sol, or Gate of the Sun, of Toledo, one of the famous re- mains of the Moorish dominion in Spain. There is something in the strength of the Cordova which recalls to old residents of St. Augustine the coquina defenses which once distinguished this locality; opposite the Cordova was the high-walled garden of the Spanish Governor with its battery facing the west. The balco- nies of the lower range of windows are the "kneeling balconies" of Seville, so called because the protruding base was devised by Michael Angelo to permit the faithful to kneel at the passing of religious festivals. THE CITY GATEWAY. Ai the head of St. George Street. 'ANDMARKS are rapidly disappearing from St. Augustine, but the pillars of the ancient city gateway still remain as notable monu- ments of the past. When first seen these towers are quite likely to be a disappointment, for their proportions are not so grand as they are often pictured. Moreover the gate has been outgrown and dwarfed; and it no longer possesses the advantage of a commanding position on the town's outskirts. Dwellings crowd close upon it, overtopping the towers; a huge hotel looms up beyond. Irreverence might even dub the gateway ridiculous. But it was not always so. Inconsequential as may be these towers now, there was a time when they stood 'out bravely enough, and when in their security St. Augustine rejoiced. In those days they looked out upon an illimitable wilderness; the belated traveler hurried on to their shelter; and the town slept securely when the Barrier Gate was fast shut against the midnight approach of a foe from without. Stoutly their walls gave their strength when it was needed, and defended for the King of Spain his garrison town in Florida. They have witnessed many a narrow escape and many a gallant rescue. More than once have they trembled with the shock of assault, and more than once driven back the foe repulsed. To-day, dis- mantled and useless, out of keeping with the customs of the day and the spirit of the age, long since left behind by the outstretching town, the picturesque old ruins linger as cherished landmarks. Here we are on historic ground. The gateway is the only conspicuous relic of the elaborate system of fortifica- tions which once defended St. Augustine. The town being on a narrow peninsula running south, an enemy could approach by land only from the north. Across this northern boundary, east and west, from water to water, ran lines of fortification, which effectually barred approach. From the Fort a deep ditch ran across to the St. Sebastian; and was defended by a high parapet, with redoubts and batteries. The ditch was flooded at high tide. Entrance to the town was by a drawbridge across the moat and through the gate. Earthworks extended along the St. Sebastian River in the rear (west) of the town, and around to the Matanzas again on the south. The gate was clo'Sed at night. Guards were stationed in the sentry boxes. Just within the gate was a guard house, with a detachment of troops. RUINS OF GATEWAY. 48 The Standard Guide. The line (jf the ditch and parapet may still be traced along Orange street; and the remains of some of the old earthworks are to be seen along the St. Sebastian. Emerging from these solitudes and shades, we espied the distant yet distinct lights of the watch towers of the fortress of St. Augustine, delightful beacons to my weary pilgrimage. The clock was striking ten as I reached the foot of the drawbridge; the sentinels were passing the alerto, as I demanded entrance; havirig answered the preliminary questions, the drawbridge was slowly lowered. The officer of the guard, having received my name and wishes, sent a communication to the governor, who issued orders for my immediate admission. On opening the gate, the guard was ready to receive me, and a file of men, with their officer, escorted me to his Excellency, who expressed his satisfaction at my revisit to Florida. — Voyage to the Spanish Main, 1817. The towers are very old. They had fallen into partial ruin so early as the be- ginning of the present century. In 1810, at the Governor's command, all the town's male inhabitants between 12 and 60 years of age were compelled to labor at the restoration of the gate and the other fortifications. At a later date the west tower was partially demolished and clumsily rebuilt. The stone causeway leading out from the gate is modern. The sentry boxes have recently been repaired and are now furnished with iron gratings to protect them from vandals who know no better than to chip off pieces of stone as relics. The material is coquina. The pillars are 20 feet in height, to the mouldings; and 10 feet deep; the flanking walls are 30 feet in length; roadway between the pillars, 12 feet. The walls were formerly provided with ban- quettes, or raised platforms on the interior, upon which the guard stepped tO' discharge his fire over the wall, with a single step regaining shelter. Even the pillars of the city gate, which next to the fort are the chief memorials of Old St. Augustine, have barely escaped demolition at the hand of the vandal; for once upon a time, aeon- tractor was assigned the work of building a stone causeway from the gate, in the place of the old draw- bridge, which formerly crossed the ditch at that point; and being in need of coquina, this unworthy workman, laying violent hands on what was nearest, began to tear away the gateway pillars. Com- pelled to restore the plundered stone to its place, he botched- the work, and in the clumsy restoratioa has left an enduring monument of his lazy shiftlessness. — Old St. Augustine. RUINS OF GATKWAY — FROM THE NORTHWFIST. THE PLAZA. PLEASING bit of greensward in tlie center of the town is the Plaza. It is a public park of shrubbery and shade trees, with monuments and fountains, an antiquated market place invit- ing one to loiter, and an outlook to the east over the bay and Anastasia Island to the sails of ships at sea. All this is the more charming to those who remember the Plaza — not so many years ago — when it was an unshaded, unkempt, un- inviting waste of scanty turf and blowing sand. Long before those' days it had been beautiful with orange trees, whose wonderful size and fruitfulness are yet among the town's tradi- tions. The square is diminutive, but it is unconsciously mag- nified because of the contrast to the narrow streets whence one emerges upon its stretch of greensward. The open structure on the east end of the Plaza is commonly pointed out as the "old slave pen," or "slave market," and it is sometimes alleged to have been of Spanish origin. It never was used as a "slave pen," nor as a "slave market," nor had the Spaniards anything to do with it, for they had left the country twenty years before it was built. The market (burned in 1887 and restored) was built in 1840; it was intended for a very prosaic and commonplace use, the sale of meat and other food supplies, and it was devoted to that use. A print of the town in 1848 shows the market thronged with men and women with baskets; and it is hardly worth while to point out that in those days purchasers did not carry home human chattels in baskets. The requirements of St. Augustine long since outgrew this primitive style of mart, and the Plaza market has become a lounging place where idlers bask in the sun and exchange gossip. It was not until the influx of curiosity seeking tourists, after the Civil War that any one thought of dubbing the Plaza market a " slave pen " or " slave market." The ingenious photographer who labeled his views of the old meat market " slave pen " sold so many of them to sensation hungry strangers that he has since retired with a competence; and when he sets up a crest he will no doubt take for his arms a negro in chains, after the fashion of old John Hawkins, father of the British slave ;o The Standard Guide. trade. The "slave market," " Huguenot Cemetery " and " oldest house " yarns have been told so often to credulous visitors that there are now some residents of St. Augustine who actually almost believe the stories themselves. There have been never wanting strangers to give implicit belief to the tales, and forgetting all the romantic conflicts of the past waged here in St. Augustine, to stand and gape in THE OLD PLAZA MARKET. foolish wonder at the old market; just as in like manner, perhaps, if brought into the presence of a hero of a hundred fateful conflicts, they would ignore the record of his valor and stand lost in vulgar contemplation of a wart on his nose. There is the " Plaza de la Constitution" \sic\, where the good Christians burnt their brethren a century ago. * * * In the center stands the curious old market place, * * * this was the ancient slave mart, where God's image, carved in ebony, was bought and sold in most ungodly fashion; there is the place where they stood ranged in rows like cattle in a pen, so that the purchasers might walk to and fro examining them from all points to see that they had their money's worth. — Lady D tiff us Hardy, " Doiun South." All of which is interesting chiefly because it shows us that in writing grotesque accounts of what he thinks he sees in this country the traveling Englishman can be outdone by his countrywomen. Nero is credited with having burned Christians in oil to light up his orgies. Lady Hardy appears ruthlessly to have made the St. Augustine ** Christians burn their brethren," for no other reason than to light her page with a The Standard Gttide. 5? dime novel glow. The list is long of writers on St. Augustine of whom it might be said that they would do better " not to know so much than to know so many things that aint so." Even Henry W. Longfellow wrote, in Poems of Places, that St. Augus- tine had "been many times ravaged by the French, Indians and Spanish;" but of not a one of these ravagings does history give us any account, unless we reckon as "French" the Boucaniers from Hispaniola, who came here in 1665 under the leader- ship of Admiral Davis, fell upon the town, drove out the inhabitants, sacked and burned the dwellings, and sailed away with little booty for their pains. The park takes its name of Plaza de la Constitucion from the monument erected here by the Spaniards in 1813. This is a pyramid of coquina, stuccoed and white- washed, rising from a stone pedestal, and surmounted by a cannon ball. It is not a work of high artistic pretension, nor of very imposing proportions, but its history is curious. The existence of such a memorial here in the United States is incongruous, for it commemorates a minor event of European history. In 18 12, the Spanish Cortes completed the formation of a new and liberal constitution. In commemoration of this, monuments were erected in Spain and the Spanish provinces. Among others was this one in the province of Florida, the (PXaTsx deja Constitucion. square then taking the name Plaza de la Consti- tiicion. Finally, in 1814, the war for independ- ^JPromul^aaa en esla Ciudod de San ^^^^^ ^^,^^ brought to a successful termination; ,.y^oustin:clelat7lorida,Or\eniQl en and Ferdinand VII., having pledged himself 17 de^OctuljrcclelSll siendo iobcrna; to support the new constitution, was recalled .dor^cl.JjrvoQdicr<^orv 5cl)a.st\anKin, to the throne. Once in power, almost his first dQlfm-Caballcrodd Ordfnde SanlvaoO' act was to repudiate the new constitution and (T^ ■ , . declare it null and void. Throughout Spain and <_/;Ciru CLCi TlQ,rriclTl.OrlCL. her American dependencies it was commanded LI sA i-j o r»( am ienlo Consliiucvonal Crv^io. that the monuments erected two years previously cstc 6 bedsco'diri^idof porU)or\.'0'trr\ando< in commemoration of the constitution, should be df lo y^iaJ^rrcdorvdo eljOkC»v"J\cpidor destroyed. Notwithstanding the royal decree, SDacano y.t^oT\:irrar\c\sco,J\o\nY_(X, this one in Florida was not torn down. The a8l5 52 The Standard Guide. Originally, no doubt, the square was designed as a parade for the maneuvering of troops. On a map of the town in British times, given in Old St. Augustine, it is designated as "The Parade Ground." For this purpose it was employed so late as 1865, when the sunset dress-parade of the United States troops on the Plaza was — next to the daily arrival of the mail stage — the great event of the day. Always a place of public assemblage, the Plaza has been the scene of two inci- dents which strikingly illustrate the curious vicissitudes of the town's history. The first of these was on that historic night in the year 1776 when the loyal British sub- jects of King George III. came together here and burned in effigy two of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. The second one, nearly a hun- dred years later, was the Fourth of July gathering of the citizens of St. Augustine in mass meeting on the Plaza to applaud the read- ing of that Declaration, which had now a new meaning because cemented and made good by the tremendous conflicts, the price- less sacrifices of the Civil War. A person of antiquarian tastes might find much of interest in the alterations which have been made during the last fifty years in the Plaza surroundings. The Alameda was originally a high- walled alley ten feet wide; an- other wall shut in the lot where the Post Office stands on the site of the old Governor's house, and another extended from St. George street south to the Cathedral, and then to Charlotte, street, where in Spanish times stood the guard house. Facing the Plaza on the west (St. George street) is the Post Office; the east end is open to the bay. On the south rises the spire of Trinity Church; and on the north St. Joseph's Cathedral. The edifice was completed in 1791, burned in 1887 and rebuilt and enlarged in 1887-88. One of the original bells bears the inscription, " Sancte • Joseph • Ora • Pro • Nobis • D • 1682." It has been claimed that this bell is the oldest on the continent; it may be the most ancient within the limits of the United States; it antedates by three years the famous bell in the Dutch church at Tarrytown, N. Y., which bears the date 1685. The Cathedral is not old when compared with numerous other church edifices in this country; it is, for example, nearly a hundred years more modern than the Tarrytown church referred to. THE PLAZA. ^ ■^i. < % FORT MARION. ORT MARION is at the north end of the sea-wall and commands the harbor. It is not occupied by troops. Open daily (admission free) from 8 A. M. to 4 P. M. Afternoon is the most pleasant time for visiting the fort. Sergeant George M. Brown, who ■""*■'' is in charge, will conduct visitors through the case- mates. For this service, which is entirely voluntary, a fee 'vj is usually given. The fort, which is the only example of mediaeval fortification on this continent, is a magniiicent specimen of the art of military engineering as developed at the time of its construc- tion. It is a massive structure of coquina stone, with curtains, bastions, moat and outworks, covering, with the reservation, more than twenty-two acres. Surrounding the fort on the three land sides is an immense artificial hill of earth, called the glacis. From the crest of the glacis on the southeast, a bridge (i), formerly a drawbridge, leads across part of the moat to the barbacan. The bar.bacan is a for- tification, surrounded by the moat, directly in front of the fort entrance, which it was designed to protect. In the barbacan at the stairway (2) are the Arms of Spain. A second bridge (3), originally a drawbridge, leads from the barbacan across the wide vioat to the sally-port (4), which is the only entrance to the fort. This was provided with a heavy door called Vat portcullis. On the outer wall, above the sally-port is the escutcheon, bearing the Arms of Spain; and the Spanish legend, which read: REYNANDO EN ESPANA EL SENr DON FERNANDO SEXTO Y SIENDO GOYoR Y CAPn DE ESa Cd San AUQn DE LA FLORIDA E SUS PROYa EL MARESCAL DE Cx\MPO DnALONZO FERNdo HEREDA ASI CONCLUIO ESTE CASTILLO EL AN OD 1756 DIRI^ENDO LAS OBRAS EL CAP INGNro dN PEDRO DE BROZAS Y GARAY Translation: "Don Ferdinand VI., being King of Spain, and the Field Marshal Don Alonzo Fernando Hereda being Governor and Captain-General of this place, San Augustin of Florida, and its province, this fort was finished in the year 1756. The works were directed by the Captain-Engineer, Don Pedro de Brozas of Garay. " •56 The Standard Gtnde. The inscription has been almost obhterated by the elements. Its present condi- tion is admirably shown in the illustration on the opposite page. At the second drawbridge we come face to face with the main entrance, surmounted by a tablet bearing an inscription and the Spanish Coat of Arms. ' It seems to be two dragons, two houses for the dragons, and a supply of mutton hung up below,' said Sara irreverently making game of the royal insignia of Spain. — Constance Fenimoj-e Woolson. Within the fort on the right of the entrance hall (5) is the old bake room (6), and beyond this are two dark chambers (7 and 8), which were probably used for storage. On the \tiX.\%\h^ guards room (7 left). The hall opens upon a large square court (103 by 109 feet). Around this court are casemates (10), or rooms which were used for barracks, rnessrooms, store- rooms, etc. Some of these casemates were divided into lower and upper apartments. To each casemate on the west side a beam of light is admitted through a narrow window or embrasure^ high up near the arched ceiling. From the first east casemate a door leads back into an in- terior dark room (9). From the furthest casemate (11) on the same side an entrance leads back into a dark cham- ber (12), off from which a narrow passage leads through a wall 5 feet deep into a space 6 feet wide; and from this a low aperture 2 feet square gives access through another wall 5 feet deep, into an innermost vault or cham- ber (14), which is 19^ feet long, 132/3 feet broad, and 8 feet high. The arched roof is of solid masonry. There is no other outlet than the single aperture. This is the far famed " dungeon " of Fort Marion. It was designed for a powder magazine or a bomb- proof. When the fort was in repair the chamber was dry and fit for use as a safe deposit for explosives; but when the water from above percolated through the coquina, this bomb-proof or powder magazine became damp and unwholesome. For this reason it was no longer used except as a place to throw rubbish into. Then it bred PLAN OF FORT MARION. From Old St. A ugusiine. 1, bridge from barbacan to glacis. 2, stairway to barbacan. moat. 4, sally-port. 5, hall 3, bridge over 7 (left) guards' 6, bake room. 7, 8, dark rooms room. 9, interior dark room. 10, 10. casemates. 11, casemate. 12, interior dark room. 14, bomb proof. 15, chapel. 16, dark room. loa, treasurer's room. lOiT, casemate from which Coacoochee escaped. B, bastion. W, water-tower. r The Standard Guide. 57 FORT MARION — SPANISH COAT OF ARMS. 58 The Standard Guide. fevers; and finally, as a sanitary measure, the Spaniards walled it up, and the middle room (12) as well. They did this in the readiest way by closing the entrance with coquina masonry. When the United States came into possession of the fort the officers stationed here did not suspect the existence of these disused chambers, although among the residents of the town were men who had knowledge of them, and of their prosaic use as a deposit for rubbish. One of these residents is still living (1888), and has related to the writer his recollection of the disused powder magazine, as he was familiar with it when he was a boy employed at the fort. In 1839 the FORT MARION — INCLINED PLANE. masonry above the middle chamber caved in, and while the engineers were making repairs, the closed entrance to the innermost chamber was noticed, and investigation led to its discovery. Refuse and rubbish were found there. The report was given out — whether at the time or later — that in this rubbish were some bones. From this insignificant beginning the myth-makers evolved first the tale that the bones were human; then they added a rusty chain and a staple in^he wall — a gold ring on one skeleton's finger — instruments of torture — iron cages — a pair of boots — and a Spanish Inquisition tale of horror. Writers from St. Augustine have rung the changes on it: The Standard Guide. 59 In one of them [the two chambers] a wooden machine was found, which some supposed might have been a rack, and in the other a quantity of human bones. — Williaiu Cullen Bryant (1842). A human skeleton, with the fragments of a pair of boots and an empty mug- for water, it is alleged were discovered within. * '^ * As to the name, character, standing, guilt or innocence, pleasures or pain, of the poor unfortunate to whom the boots and bones belonged, there is silence. — Rev. R. A'. There was found in one corner of it a human skeleton, the soles of a pair of shoes, and an earthen jug and cup. Not a single other object did its naked, shiny, arched walls cover. — Chas. Laninan (1S54). Legends connected with the dark chambers and prison vaults, the chains, the instruments of tor- ture, the skeletons walled in, its closed and hidden recesses. — Geo. A. Fairbanks (1S5S). The dungeon which was discovered in eighteen something, where the rock fell in and revealed the skeletons of human creatures hung to the walls in iron cages, starved in sight of food and water, barred from the breath of heaven by solid masonry. — Elizabeth Stuart Phelps (1S76). Chill, black, and dismal as the grave, is this partly underground dungeon, where in 1S35 two skeletons were found chained to the wall — victims, no doubt, to some cruel Spanish inquisition. — Lady Duffus Hardy (1880). Near the entrance were the remains of a fire, the ashes and bits of pine wood burned off toward the center of the pile, in which they had been consumed. Upon the side of the cell was a rusty staple, with about three links of chain attached thereto. Near the wall, on the west side of the cell, were a few bones. Finding these very rotten, and crumbling to pieces under his touch, the engineer spread his handkerchief upon the floor and brushed very gently the few fragments of bone into it. These were shown to the surgeon then stationed at the post, who said they might be human bones, but were so badly crumbled and decayed, he could not determine definitely. Nothing else was found in the cell. — W. 1J\ Dewhtd'st (iSSi). This tale of the bones in the dungeon was formerly received with the eager credence that the early explorers gave to the rumors of gold mines in Florida; but in later years, although the makers of sensa- tional guide books cling tenaciously to the dungeon relics, skeptics have arisen, who deny the truth of the story. They probably are right. It is of no moment. The fault lies not in the story of St. Augus- tine's three centuries, but in its telling, if the chapters of this book have not shown that the romance investing Fort Marion does not center about the alleged discovery of human bones in its walled-up chambers, and needs not to be groped for with a torch in subterranean passages. The incident even if true might well be spared. Who thinks otherwise, has strangely misread the historj^ of the changing fortunes which transformed the Indian council house into the fort of logs, and have converted Spain's proudly equipped fortress into this massive pile of crumbhng masonry. Recall the days when San Juan de Finos was the defense of the half -starved Spanish garrison; and when of those huddled within the stockades, one and other braver than the rest, ventured out beyond the lines for fish or game, and falling before the blow of the lurking savage, came never again. Remember those long years of miser)-, when Indian slave, English prisoner and Spanish convict labored beneath the lash of the driver, and with burdensome toil and suffering unspeakable builded their very lives into these coquina bastions. Replace the heavy iron gratings of casemate and cell; send home the clanging bolt and bar; listen to the piteous pleading of husband for imprisoned wife and of wife for imprisoned husband, and hear the shutting to of doors upon manacled wretches, who from the gloom of that inner darkness shall never emerge to look upon the sun. Light again in the dim chapel the ever- burning lamp before the tabernacle; restore to the niches their images, its cloth to the altar, the water to the font; and bring back the pageantry of ceremonial rites, chant of mass and murmur of confes- sional. Remember those momentous days, when Castle San Marco — standing here for the very main- tenance of Spain in North America — bore the brunt of well concerted assault. Build anew the shattered defenses; flood the moat; raise the draw-bridge; let fall the portcullis; mount the guard; fling bravely out from the rampart the banner of Castile; and let the artiller}- belch angry defiance of the hosts under the Red Cross. Hear the sharp word of command, the tread of battalions, the rattle of volley and the 6o The Standard Guide. screech of cannon ball. Look out, with the famishing women and children, over the bay and beyond the camps of the besiegers on Anastatia, and scan the sea in vain for the coming of a friendly fleet; after the weeks of famine, hear at last, in the night, the shouts of rescuers, and then, the lessening drum beat of the departing British. Or, since you are an American, recall again those later years, when the soldiers of George the Third guarded Fort St. Marks and imprisoned Patriots languished in its cells; and keeping weary vigil with the white-haired Gadsden, let your patriotism kindle and in the damp-walled dungeon take on a brighter glow. So review all the stirring chronicle — ■ Of sallies and retires, of trenches, tents, Of palisadoes, frontiers, parapets ; Of basilisks, of cannon, culverin, Of prisoners ransom'd, and of soldiers slain. And all the 'currents of a heady fight — and then may be known something of that story — which in truth is worthy to be known — of Fort Marion in St. Augustine. — " Old St. Augustine " Fort Marion. But however commonplace and practical may have been the real purpose and use of these underground chambers in old times, they are certainly uncanny and mysterious enough now, and when one follows the guide's torch from the dark rooms, through the "dungeon crawl," into the last gloomy pent recess, some weird tale of hapless victims entombed alive harmo- <| • nizes with the flickering torch, the damp -jteJHsfe^ earthy odor, and the dimly seen smoke- ^^:'&t J^ begrimed encompassing walls. Facing the court on the north was the chapel (15). Its walls and ceiling and altar and niches are bright with mould and moss and lichen; strange mutations have come to town and fort since the room was dismantled of its ornaments. The chapel was used for religious ser- vices as late as the civil war. In 1875 it was converted into a school-room for the Western Indians who were confined here. The elaborate portico of the ehapel was the most pretentious bit of architecture of the fort; but has so crumbled away that its form can no longer be traced. In the wall outside, above the chapel door, the French as- tronomers, who came here in 1879 to observe the transit of Venus, have left a marble tablet in commemoration of the visit. The inscription reads: "Plaque commemorative du passage de Venus observe au Fort Marion le 9 D^cembre, 1882, par MM. le Colonel Perrier, le Commandant Bassat, le Capitaine Def- NiCHE IN CHAPEL. fogcs, dc I'Armcc Frangaise." The Standard Guide. 6i '■:mmmmm KKSi >- ^J??S: l^|:;>;vv.if.;-:;.?v-;ip| Sfi ^'i'.s fi S vJ^4i>-Ai"-v;''v:-,: -:, 5?Sfe&*S;-.,;-,-^|||| -^ ^ £ '?^^^^"«|5^J^t:;J:7;'£8f °"'^:'lMmif^Mm ill SiteSi I te iSilil ^ -SS'.^^ fORT MARION — A CASEMATE DOOR. 62 The Standard Guide. In the northwest bastion is another darl< room (i6). Some of these dark dungeons of the fort have been used at different times for the confinement of Jiool^out- fro^ >Ni\c\\X4 at top, and 25 feet high, above the present moat level. Battlements similar to those on the other sides formerly defended the east (water) side of the ramparts. The bastions are filled with earth, and there is no foundation * Disputes over the boundaries of the Indian reservations and quarrels over fugitive slaves, which the Seminoles were accused of harbormg, led to the Seminole War-the most costly and disastrous of the minor wars of the United States At the end of seven years, in .842, the Indians were subdued, captured and transported to the reservation assigned them, where the remnant of their tribe yet remains in the Indian Territory. The Standard Guide. 65 for the romantic tale of a subterranean passageway which formerly led from the southwest bastion to a neighboring convent. The fort is surrounded by a moat, 40 BASTIONS — BRIDGE TO KARBACAN — ANCIENT CHIMNEY. feet wide. It was formerly deeper than at present, had a perfectly cemented concrete floor, and was flooded from the bay at high tide. Running along the outer edge of the 66 The Standard Guide. moat are narrow level spaces called covered-ways; and wider levels called places-of- arms, where artillery was mounted and the troops gathered, protected by the outer wall or parapet^ from which slopes the glacis. The for- tification of stone (water battery) in front is of modern construction, hav- ing been built by the United States in 1842; and the small brick build- ing {hot shot fur- nace) in the moat between the east curtain and the water battery dates from 1844. In dif- ferent forms and bearing different names, St. Augus- tine's fort has been established more than three centu- ries; for two hun- dred years the fort was St. Augustine, and St. Augustine ■ was Florida. First a rude and tempo- rary fortification of logs, it expanded in plan and magni- tude until devel- oped into the great stone fortress of 1756. Menendez, the founder of St. Augustine, in 1565, utilized the Indian council-house as a defense against the threatened attack by the Huguenots from Fort Caroline on the St. John's River. After his heartless massacre of the French at Matanzas Inlet, the NORTHEAST TOWER. The Standard Guide. 67 Spaniard stood in just fear of a hostile fleet from France; and he set about building a regular fort of logs. This was the San Juan de Pinos, taken by Francis Drake. When the Span- iards discovered the coquina quar- ries on Anastasia Island, they under- took the construc- tion of a fort of stone. In those days the progress of such a work was slow; and when the Boucaniers came to St. Augustine in 1665, the fort, al- though well under way, was not in a condition to offer resistance. Con- victs from Spain and Mexico, with Indians and slaves, toiled at the walls; and when Jonathan Dickinson, the ship- wrecked Quaker from Philadelphia, came to St. Augus- tine in 1695, he found the walls 30 feet high. This was the Fort San Marco, which Moore, the British Governor of Carolina, fruitlessly "besieged in 1702, and Governor Og- lethorpe of Georgia cannonaded with- out effect for forty days in 1740. Fort San Marco, was one of a series of fortifications which defended St. Augustine; other forts were just north of the town, west on the St. John's, and south at Matanzas Inlet. SOLfTHKAS'l' 'lOWKR. 68 The Standard Guide. The walls are built of coquina, which in its day was considered a very excellent material for this purpose, since cannon balls would sink into the wall without shatter- ing it as they would harder stone. On the sea front of the southwest bastion are a number of crevices, which, according to local tradition, were caused by British cannon balls from the opposite shore when the fort was besieged by Oglethorpe. When the colony of Carolina was established the English grant extended so far south that it actual! t k in St. Augustine. The Spaniards, on the other hand, dis- puted England's right to any part of the continent whatever, and for the half century succeeding, Spanish expeditions sailed against the English colonies, and British expeditions came against St. Augustine. Governor Moore of Caro- lina led his forces against the town in 1702, but was repulsed and driven back. When Oglethorpe brought out his Georgia colony, the Spaniards resented the new encroachments upon their ter- ritory, and the two colonies were at constant war. In 1740 Oglethorpe cap- tured the Spanish forts on the St. John's, and then, while his land forces besieged the town on the north, his naval contingent landed on Anastasia Island, and for forty days bombarded Fort San Marco. The townspeople took refuge in the fort, where they nearlv starved before the siege was finally lifted. The Georgia general at length became discouraged and withdrew. In those days of crude weapons, the coquina bastions were capable of withstand- ing a much more serious attack than that of Oglethorpe's batteries; but the art of war has changed since then and Fort Marion's coquina would quickly be shattered by the artillery of the present. Shortly after commg into the possession of the United States, the fort was named Fort Marion, in honor of the famous Revolutionary hero. General Francis Marion. GENERAL MARION. Writing from St. Augustine, William Cullen Bryant criticised this as "a foolish change of name." But why foolish? If Moultrie is thus honored, and Sumter the " Game Cock," why not Marion the "Swamp Fox?" Is it not the veriest romance of history that the Spanish fortress planted here by Menendez, the hunter of French Huguenots, should at last yield up its saintly name for that of a hera in whose veins flowed the blood of other Huguenot exiles? And is it not the final justice of time that the British stronghold, within whose dungeons rebellious Patriots were immured, should receive from the nation which those prisoners helped to establish, the honored name of one who endured with them the perils and privations of its cause, and'won with them the final glorious triumph? — " Old St. Augus- tine" Fort Alarion. The Standard Guide. 69 Fort Marion has been dismantled. A few antiquated and long-silent cannon are preserved as suggestions of the warlike character of the surroundings, and here and there the rusted throat of a half buried gun breaks the surface of the moat; while on the northwest crest of the glacis reposes a great cannon, about which cattle peacefully browse and children innocently play. I like to be alone upon the fort. Beautiful, dreadful, massive thing ! I like to play with it as ignorantly as a baby with an encycloptedia. I am grieved when "the season " sets in, and the tourist who knows things stands in groups with his wife and daughters, discoursing of the bastion and the demi- lune, of the ramparts and the dungeons, of the exact inscription upon the old, old coat of arms above the door (though I don't think he called it the door), which seemed so pretty till I heard him talk about it. I don't want to be instructed about that fort. It spoils it all to know everything about it. It is enough for me to know that I was never in a fort before, and that this (unless it be the ruin at Matanzas) is the oldest in the country, and that from its summit I can see the magnificent line of breakers over the bar, which shelters St. Augustine so tenderly that she sits almost like an inland city, widowed alike from the traffic and the terror of the sea. — Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Atlantic Monthly. CANNON ON NORTHWEST GLACIS. THE SEA-WALL. .^XTENDING from the water-battery of Fort Marion south along the water front of the town to the United States barracks, stands a sea-wall of coquina capped with New England granite. It affords a necessary protection against the encroachment of the sea, The site of St. Augustine is so low that under cer- tain conditions of wind and tide the waves would inundate much of the town. In heavy east storms the water dashes over the top of the walL The need of such a barrier against the sea was recognized at an early time. There is a touch of the humorous side of history in the spectacle of Spain, having chosen this bit of Florida soil for a town, building first a huge fort to defend it from invaders, and then a great wall to protect it from the inroads of the sea. The records tell us that the soldiers volunteered their labor and contributed part of their pay toward the construction of the first sea-wall. They were wise enough in their day and generation to understand that if the town were swept away their lazy occupation of garrisoning it would tumble into the sea along with it. The first wall extended only to the center of the town; a plan of the town at the time of the British occupa- tion, given in Old St. Augustine, shows that the wall then terminated at the Plaza. The present wall was built by the United States, in 1835-42, as a complement to the repairs of Fort Marion, at an expense of $100,000. Length, % mile; height, 10 feet; width of granite coping, 3 feet. At different points stairways descend to the boat landings at water level; and near the Plaza and the Barracks are recesses or basins where boats unload their freight and find shelter from storms. From the wall a charming prospect is afforded of the sail-dotted harbor, the shin- ing sand dunes of the beach, the green stretch of Anastasia with the lighthouse rising against the eastern sky, and the quivering mirage north and south. The wall itself harmonizes admirably with the fort, and its sweeping curves add not a little to the beauty of St. Augustine's water front, although the effect has been marred by inter- position of numerous wharves Writers of the Sidney Lanier school have not failed to extol the sea-wall as a promenade for the moonlight strolls of lovers; there is also revealed at every low tide abundant ocular evidence that from time immemorial prosaic souls (possibly the same lovers grown old) have found "over the sea-wall" a convenient dumping ground for old bottles, tin cans and other household refuse. ST. FRANCIS BARRACKS. OMPLEMENTING the battlements and watch-towers of Fort Marion on the north, the St. Francis Barracks stand out con- spicuously at the south end of the sea-wall facing the Matanzas. They are occupied by United States troops. The out-door concerts given by the military band, the dress-parades and the guard-mount at sunset on the parade in front of the barracks are among the attractions of St. Augustine. Almost continuously since it was founded by the mailed soldiers of Menendez, St. Augustine has been a military sta- tion. Under Spanish rule it was little else than a garri- son post. When the British came, they emulated the martial spirit of their predecessors, and on the plain south of the town, with bricks brought from the banks of the Hudson River, erected a huge barrack, which cost a tremendous sum, and shortly after completion went up in smoke. St. Francis Barracks take their name from the Franciscan convent, whose former site they occupy. The convent was abandoned when Florida was ceded to Great Britain in 1763; and when Spain resumed possession of the town, in 1783, it was utilized by the Spanish Governor as barracks for his troops. The old building has been greatly modified by the United States Government, although not entirely rebuilt; and some of the original coquina walls of the convent remain. To Florida with the adventurer had come the missionary; one to win treasure, the other to win souls. The gold-seeker returned from his quest chagrined; not so the Franciscan. He found here a field vast beyond reckoning; and, waiting to be gathered, a harvest more precious than had been pictured in the fondest dream of his pious enthusiasm. The military prestige of Florida soon faded away, but year by year its religious importance increased; and ever, with the expansion of his work, the Francis- can's zeal grew more intense and his labors more devoted. The country was in time erected into a religious province, with a chapter house of the Order of San Francisco at San Augustin; and thence the members went forth to plant the standard of their faith in the remotest wilderness. Far out on the border of savanna, in the depth of forest, and on the banks of river and lake, by the side of the Indian trail? westward to the Gulf, north among the villages of Alachua, and south to everglade fastnesses; here and there, and everywhere that lost souls were worshipping strange gods, the Franciscan built his chapel, intrenched it round about with earthwork and palisade, and gathered the erring children of the forest to hear the wondrous story of the Cross. — " Old St. Augustine," The Franciscans. A short distance south of the Barracks is the Military Cemetery. An admission 72 The Standard Guide. ST. FRANCIS BARRACKS. pass is required and may be had on application to tlie adjutant of the post, whose office is opposite the Barracks. In the cemetery are the three low pyramids of masonry forming the tombs of officers and men who lost their lives in the Seminole War. The memorial shaft is commonly spoken of as " Dade's Monument," because more than one hundred of the soldiers interred here were those who perished in the " Dade Massacre." This was one of the most tragic incidents of the Seminole War. In August, 1835, Major Dade and a command of troops, no all told, were on their way from Fort Brooke to Fort King. At half past nine o'clock, Tuesday morning, August 28, they were marching- through an open pine barren, four miles from the Great Wahoo Swamp. The bright sun was shining; flowers bloomed along the path; gay butterflies flitted about them; the silence was broken only by the .iEolian melody of the pines. The men were marching carelessly, with no suspicion of danger, where surely no foe could lurk. Suddenly, without an instant's warning — from pine, from palmetto scrub, ,j, from the very grass at their feet — burst upon them the shrill war-whoop, the flashing and crackling of rifles, and the whist- ling, deadly rain of bullets. Sixty of the troops- fell mortally wounded. The rest rallied: trained the cannon, and attempted to form breastworks of logs; but in vain. In quick succession, one after another, they fell. Had the earth yawned to swallow them like the army of Korah, the obliteration could have been little more complete. Of the no, three, miserably wounded, dragged themselves away, two soon after to die of their wounds. — " Old St. Augtistine," The Seminole. The pyramids are stuccoed and devoid of ornamentation. '-^iz_: _—-!::---■-■"■ The inscriptions read: " Sacred to the memory of the Officers and Soldiers killed in battle and died on service during the Florida War." "This monument has been erected in token of respectful and affectionate remem- brance by their comrades of all grades, and is committed to the care and preservation of the garrison of St. Augustine." HARBOR AND BEACH. ■V^9- ■■'■- HELTERED by the spit of land called the North Beach, and by ^:|^^^^fifl.-" Anastasia Island, St. Augustine's harbor is a sheet of water fi^^^^^^^gM^. admirably adapted for pleasure sailing and rowing. These are ;'^^5^^^^^h^S' among the staple winter amusements. At the wharves will be '"i^li^^^i|i,;"'^li found a large fleet of sail boats, which are safe and commodious; '/- ' |Nit'',;n!;,%^ and they are manned by capable and trustworthy skippers, who display a high degree of skill in the handling of their boats. Most of the craft are of local production, and built on a model peculiar to the harbor. Usual rates of hire, 50 cents to $1.00 per hour. In addition to these boats for charter, there are usually here in winter sail and steam yachts from the North; and the pri- vate craft range all the way from the Minorcan fisherman's dugout (a survival of the ancient Florida Indian's rude log boat) and the clumsy wood-scows to the light and speedy naphtha launches, now coming into such common use as yacht tenders, which dart about the bay with the swiftness of a bird, the grace of a canoe, and the import- ance and business air of a steam tug towing a Cunarder. An afternoon afloat is likely to prove one of the most pleasant memories of a visit to St. Augustine. What with the changing landscape — a shifting panorama of water and land and sky^-charming views of the town as seen from the bay, bright sails in the harbor, and multitudinous forms of marine life, there is always enough to interest and amuse. Fort Marion is well worth seeing from the water; the propor- tions of the fortification are hardly appreciated until one has approached it from the harbor which its artillery once defended. Extended excursions may be made to Matanzas; up the North River; and to Anastasia Island, Bird Island and the Beaches, called North and South with reference to the harbor entrance. North Beach is a term applied to the shores of both ocean and harbor and the long narrow spit of land formed by them. Along the shores extend irregular lines of sand dunes, which are ever shifting in the wind and chang- ing their shape, like the northern snowdrifts they so closely resemble. From the bay or from the opposite shore the North Beach presents a scene of rare beauty, with its narrow strip of shining silver sand between the blue of the water and the deeper blue of the sky. Arrived at the shore, one finds half-buried wrecks and sea-wrack to dream over, shells to gather, innumerable forms of curious marine life to investigate, and the never ending, always new study of wave motion and color. 74 The Standard Guide. FORT MARION FROM THE NORTH. Oh, what shells ! Incredible that they should be selling for large prices by the quart, like candy in the Boston shops. They lie brilliant, vital, it seems sentient, beneath our touch, like flowers. We beach the Elizabeth upon the silver bar, and wander like children among them. At first I object to gathering them, as I do to rifling a garden; and to the last I find myself turning out of my way to avoid stepping upon the perfect and rich-tinted things; as if they had blood and could be hurt. — Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. At sunset the Florida seashore takes on a peculiar beauty. Surf and beach are transplendent with the soft shades and delicate tints of the sky; the atmosphere is aglow with color, and there comes to one the novel experience of not alone beholding- the distant glories of the west, but of actually standing in and being surrounded by the effulgence of the dying day. But the average St. Augustine skipper is not inclined to linger for sunset effects on the North Beach; the one practical consideration with him is that when the sun goes down the sea breeze will go down too, and his boat and party will be becalmed; experience has taught him the wisdom of an early return to town. The porpoises which frequent the harbor in great numbers have always been a conspicuous feature of these waters. Away back in 1563, before the Spaniards had founded St. Augustine, the French explorers who came here found the porpoises (or dolphins) so numerous that they gave to the river the name Rivih-e des Daup/ii)ies, HI O ^ > Co 2 M L 76 The Standard Gtiide. the River of Dolphins, and by this name it is set down on the old maps. ■ Among the Florida pictures drawn by the French artist, Jacques Le Moyne, who accompanied that expedition, is one which represents the French ships here at the River of Dol- phins. Thi,-^, drawing is one of the five De Bry plates reproduced in Old St. Augus- tine, from which volume we borrow the copy on the preceding page. A TL ANTIC PLAN OF HARBOR AND BEACHES. ST. ANASTASIA ISLAND. FRONT of the town, between bay and ocean, lies the Island of St. Anastasia. It is a favorite resort for excur- sion parties, and has many attractions for the tourist. The most pleasant time for a visit is the afternoon. The route is by ferryboat from Central Wharf and then by railway from the opposite shore across to the beach. The light-house is usually open to visitors; and when convenient to do so, the keeper, Mr. W. A. Harn, or assist- ant, will accompany parties to the tower, whence a magni- ficent and far-extending view is afforded over sea and land. The light-house is 150 feet in height from base to light tower, the lamp being 165 feet above sea level. Eight flights of spiral staircases lead to the tower. The light technically classed as of the first-order, is a fixed white and revolving or flash light, flashing once every 3 minutes, visible 19 miles. The lamp itself is stationary, and the actual intensity of its flame does not change. The variability of the light is secured by the revolution of a glass lantern provided with a series of powerful lenses or gigantic bull's-eyes, each one sending out a great beam of light. The constant and steady beam from each lense revolves with the lantern. From St. Augustine at night this beam may distinctly be seen stretching out into the darkness, as it wheels in mighty revolutions about the tower. The purpose of the variability of the light is to render if distinguishable from other lights on the coast. Thus, while the St. Augustine light is a fixed white light varied by a flash every 3 mmutes, the St. John's River light, the next one north, is a fixed white light; and the Cape Canaveral light, the next one south, flashes every minute. The black and white spiral stripes, which make the tower look like a gro- tesque Brobdingnagian barber's pole, serve to distinguish it from others by daylight; the tower of the St. John's River light is red, that of the Cape Canaveral light has black and white horizontal bands. The present light-house was built in 1872-3, to take the place of an older coquina structure, whose ruins may be seen on the shore a short distance northwest. The latter has commonly, though incorrectly, been called the "old Spanish light- house." 78 The Standard Guide. Its original purpose and use were not for a light-iiouse, but a lookout or watch-tower, " where is always watch kept to see if any Ships are coming from Sea, and as many Ships as many Flaggs are hung out that ye Citty may know it." The history of the Old time lookout on Anastasia is intimately con- nected with the history of St. Augustine. It was one of a series of watch-towers and sentry- boxes established by the Spaniards along the coast, whence the watchmen signaled to the town the welcome coming of ships from Old Spain, or the dreaded approach of a hostile fleet. A token of weal or woe, in those days the signal flag on Anastasia Island was as eagerly watched by the Spaniards on shore as ever in these times the light is looked for by ships at sea. Away back in 1586, thirty years after the town was established, the rude wooden scaffolding which then stood here, attracted the notice of the Eng- lish sea-king, Francis Drake, sailing along this coast with his fleet of high-pooped ships, on his way home from pillaging the cities of the Spanish Main; and he tarried long enough to ransack St. Augustine, and destroy by fire what he could not bear off. After three days spent in watering our Ships, wee departed now the second time from this Cape of S. An- thony, the thirteenth of May, and proceeding about the Cape of Florida, wee never touched anywhere; but coasting alongst Florida and keeping the shore still in sight, the 28 of May, early in the morning, wee descried on the shore a place built like a Beacon, which was indeede a scaffold upon foure long mastes raised on ende, for men to discover to the seaward, being in the latitude of thirtie degrees, or very neere thereunto. Our Pinnesses manned and com- ming to the shore wee marched up alongst the river side to see what place the enemie held there, for none amongst us had any knowledge thereof at all. — Thomas Gates s iVarrative of Drake s Expedition, " Old St. Angus tine." On numerous subsequent occasions the town was thrown into consternation by the signal flag telling of an enemy's coming. And so it came to pass that, one line morning in the year 1665, the sentinel in the watch-tower opposite San Auo-ustin having descried to the south a Boucanier sail, TOMB ON FISH'S ISLAND. ^ alarm-gun and hoisted the signal flag. Hearing THE OLD LIGHT-HOUSE. '"^^ '' '^"^"" t." . , , • A BIT OF SHORE. and seeing which, the distracted inhabitants took to their The Standard Guide. 79 heels — the garrison after them; and all together fled into the interior. — ''Old St. Augustine" The Boucaniers . In 1742 when the Georgia forces were led against St. Augustine by Oglethorpe, they captured the lookout — then built of coquina — and established their batteries on the Island here, on the western shore opposite the fort, and across on the ■ North Beach. Shortly after Florida came into the possession of the United States, the Government remodeled and practically rebuilt the old Spanish look- out, and converted it into a light-house. Its situation was then at some distance back from the shore (at the beginning of this century the distance to the look- out from the beach had been a half- mile); but with the gradual encroach- ment of the waves the shore was eaten away, and the distance from light to beach grew less and less, until the im- pending fate of the building was so clearly foreseen that the new light- house was built, and the old one, no longer tenable, was deserted. The sea at length reached the coquina founda- tion ledge of the ancient tower, and one June night in 1880, in the height of a furious tempest, the walls swayed, tottered and fell with a crash into the sea. The coquina blocks of the tower and the keeper's house lie in a mass of ruins where they fell; and the site, above which in times past the welcome beacon flamed for ships off the Florida coast, is now submerged by the incom- ing tide. We landed and walked to the light-house to wait until the rain was over. Here a Sp-n- iard, whose name was Andro, with his family, the eldest of whom was a beautiful, modest, dark-eyed little muchacha (young girl), just budding into her fourteenth year, held his deso- late abode, defying alike the tempests and the Indians in his fortified castle. Having spent an hour or two beneath the hospitable tower of ST. AUGUSTINE LIGHT. 8o The Standard Guide, Signer Andro and made a delicious repast on dried fish, which garnished his hall from one end to the other, eked out with cheese and crackers, brandy, fruits, and a bottle or two of Frontignac, and, after exchanging soft words and glances for rosy blushes and magnolia flowers with the pretty Isabel, we left the light-house for a tour on the island to go drumming. — ''Sketch of Seminole War." (1836). The sea shore of the Island is known as the South Beach. Opposite is North Beach; and to the right, seaward, are the great stretches of sand which form Bird Island. This island is of recent formation; twenty years ago it was at low tide an insignificant tract of barren sand, much frequented by waterfowl, and at high tide almost covered by the sea. The St. Aug- ustine bar is constantly shifting. Many vessels have been lost here; and the rem- nants of the wreck of some unfortunate craft may often be seen from the shore. Among the records of such disasters is that of a Spanish ship with its passengers, a company of Franciscans, who were " swal- lowed up by the sea in sight of the convent at St. Augustine " {Old St. Augustine, p. 67). Latrobe, who was here in 1833, records that one of the sand dunes of the beach was surmounted by a cross set up in mem- ory of certain nuns who had met a similar fate here. An incident of less sombre hue is that which is related of Roy Mcintosh, an ofiticer of the British Army, who was active here in Revolutionary times. Mcintosh was in command of a vessel which was bringing supplies to the British in St. Augus- tine. When crossing the bar the ship struck once, and again, when, apprehending that the pilot was a Patriot in disguise and intended to wreck the craft, the impetuous Scotchman drew his dirk, and, holding it aloft above the man at the helm, swore with a mighty oath that he would drive it to the hilt if the ship touched bottom again. The coquina formation of Anastasia Island is well shown in the ledges at the ruins of the old light-house. The stratafication may be studied here, but is seen better at the quarries, southwest of the light-house (x)4m.). Coquina (Spanish, coquina, signifying a shellfish) is a conglomeration of shells and shell fragments of great variety of form, color and size. Ages ago these were washed up in enormous quantities by the waves, just as other masses of similar material are now left on the beach, where one may walk for miles through the loose fragments which, under favorable conditions, would in time form coquina stone. When these shell deposits were cut off from the sea by intervening sand bars, like Bird Island, they were in course of time partially dissolved by rain water, and firmly cemented together in a compact mass of shell-stone. FRANCIS DRAKE. The Standard Guide. The coquina stone is soft, and very easily quarried. It is cut out in blocks to suit the needs of the builder. It hardens upon exposure to the atmosphere; and was '^^^^jM:ii^Jiiii^i'&iii:^i&'ifli^i'yy^^/i6i^-'< ^tp>. .-^-^ "'. 'i ^Slf]^ "^ SHORE OF ST. ANASTASIA ISLAND. once extensively used as a building material. The city gateway, the sea-wall and Fort Marion are of coquina. 82 The Standard Guide. From Old Spain and the Havannah the cartel-ships brought fresh bands of convicts, to join the cap- tive Indians in their toil at the fortifications; year after year the chain-gangs hewed the blocks of coquina shell-stone from the quarries of St. Anastasia Island; the galley-slaves ferried their burdens over the Matanzas; and tier upon tier rose the curtains and bastions, and above them the ramparts and battle- ments, of Fort San Marco. — " Old St. Augustine," Bfitish Cannon Balls. At the southern extremity of St. Anastasia Island is the inlet of Matanzas, often visited because of its historical associations, its ruined Spanish fo^rt and its fishing^ grounds. A hotel is maintained there. The inlet and adjacent waters are favorite resorts for fishing parties. The trip to Matanzas is not without interest. As the boat leaves the barracks on the right, shortly beyond on the left bank of the river, a beautiful site is pointed out as Fish's Island, an estate which has been in the possession of one family for more than a hundred years. The original proprietor was Jesse Fish, who came here from Flatbush, N. Y., near the close of the first Spanish supremacy {ante 1763), lived here during the English occupation, and remained when the Spanish returned again. His tomb is still shown, surrounded by a bower of orange trees. "Fish's Island" is actu- ally a part of Anastasia Island. The evening proving squally, we were unable to recross the Matanza River, and took up our abode for the night in the ancient and venerable fabric erected by the old Fish, who was the original proprietor of the island, * * * and made improvements which have hardly been exceeded in any part of the Province. Here are the remains of perhaps the most celebrated orange grove in the world. Some trees still remain that are 30 feet in height and still retain a portion of their golden fruit. But all is now in ruins. Two generations have passed away. We were very politely entertained by two hand- some young ladies, the grandchildren of the above mentioned Fish. — William Baldwin (1817). Five miles below St. Augustine, on the right bank, is Moultrie. In British times this was the site of Lieut.-Gov. John Moultrie's plantation, Buena Vista. Moultrie was one of the planters who came here from South Carolina when Florida was ceded by Spain to Great Britain. At the time of the Revolu- tionary War he sided with the British, but his brother, William Moultrie, of Charleston, was equally active on the other side, and was one of the American prisoners brought to St. Augustine in 1780. A strange meeting it must have been, this of Patriot brother and Loyalist brother. When Florida was ceded to Spain once more, John Moultrie refused to live under the Spanish flag, but abandoned his beautiful plantation and left the province. Like other Florida plantations in those days, this was forti- fied. Later there was a regular work of defense called Fort Moultrie. One of the famous treaties made by the United States with the Seminole Indians was signed here in 1823; and the Government's alleged violations of the Fort Moultrie agreement was one of the prime causes of dissatisfaction that led to the disastrous Seminole War- The remains of the Spanish fort are seen on the right bank as the boat approaches Matanzas. Its ruins are among the most picturesque in Florida. In the early morn- ing and at sunset the fort and its surroundings present a scene of beauty well worth the journey to behold. The fort is of coquina, and was built to defend St. Augustine from the approach of an enemy by way of Matanzas Inlet. It was among the Spanish fortifications enumerated by Oglethorpe when he wrote to the King of England for instructions to proceed against and destroy St, Augustine. During the second Spanish supremacy, Matanzas fort was occupied by a garrison of negro troops. The Standard Guide. 83 On the morning of the 6th, we decamped from St. Augustine, and, embarking in a snug canoe boat, ascended Matanza River south, between Fish's Island and the Main. At a few miles distance, on the western shore, we passed an elevated spot which once contained the habitation of Governor Moultrie. A small cabin and a few date trees are all that appear to mark the place where the hand of high cultivation and improvement once extended. At the southern extremity of Fish's Island, and near Matanza bar, stands a vSpanish tower, where a corporal's guard is stationed to look at folks as they pass by. — William Baldwin (1817). The inlet of Matanzas takes its name from the Spanish word matanza, signifying slaughter, in commemoration of the massacre of the Huguenots which occurred here in 1565. No event in American history possesses more of tragedy and pathos than the martyrdom of those Frenchmen, who had left their homes in France to establish in the new world a refuge from the religious persecutions of their native land, but found in Florida the intolerance from which they had fled, and perished at last by the hand of a bigot. The French, stationed at their Fort Caroline, on the River May (St. John's), having left a few of their number to garrison the fort, set sail against the Spaniards, arrived off the bar of St. Augustine, and were driven to the south by a storm. The Spanish leader Menendez then led a force overland to the St. John's, surprised Fort Caroline and killed most of the garrison — a few of the French escaping to their ships. Upon his return to St. Augustine Menendez learned that the French fleet had been wrecked. He proceeded south to this inlet, discovered the shipwrecked Frenchmen on the other side, and by false promises induced them to surrender and deliver up their arms. Then he sent them boats, brought them over, in small bands at a time, bound them, blindfolded them, led them behind the sand hills, and in the name of religion put them to death. The shores of the inlet have been greatly modified by the action of the sea in the three hundred years which have elapsed since that occurrence; it is useless to speculate as to the exact locality where the tragedy took place. RUINS OF THE MATANZAS FORT. m 1 ^ m li 1 AS A HEALTH RESORT. I^rom a paper by Dr. Horace Caruthers, in the ^'Forest and Streamy PRACTICAL experience of many winters enables me to say there is no place better adapted to health or pleasure than St. Augustine. It is easily reached by steamers or by elegant vestibule cars in little over one day from New York. The city is situated on a peninsula, almost surrounded by salt water; indeed it is, at very high tides, almost an island. The fact that the place is washed on all sides by the ocean tides guarantees the sanitary condition to be as perfect as any natural locality can be; and it absolutely precludes the possibility of malaria — a case of which disease I have never met, originating in the city. In addition to its possessing these natural advantages, those in authority spare no efforts nor expense in adopting all artificial means known to sanitarians to add to the health of the favorable locality. The elements so essential to perfect health are abundant, in bright sunshine, pure bracing sea air and abundance of water, while the most cheerful and choicest society makes the ancient city the most desirable winter resort in this country. I have known many men, women and children who have renewed their seriously damaged constitutions in Florida; and for those suffering from overwork, insomnia, nervous prostration and all its sad train, of symptoms, I know of no more desirable place than St. x\ugustine. Children recovering from pneumonia, diphtheria, scarlet fever and whooping cough find a perfect climate for outdoor life and rapid con- valescence, without the danger of relapse, so common in a variable Northern climate. For nearly forty years I have recommended the climate of Florida to my patients, and I am happy to say many of these still thank me for sending them away from this Northern climate, which is as trying as any known to the professien. Scarlet fever and measles are not dreaded by the parents and physicians of St. Augustine; and diphtheria is almost unknown. A few )^ears ago I was asked to see a child recently arrived, supposed to be suffering from that dread disease. The physician long resi- dent had never seen a case. The child was removed a few miles out of town, and but one other took the disease, a playmate of the first. An honored and lamented physician of St. Augustine, the late Dr. Peck, told me some years ago, when I was expressing anxiety about some cases of scarlet fever, not to be alarmed; that the disease never assumed a dangerous type in that climate, and that it very seldom resulted in death; it responded quickly to treatment, and was seldom followed by those dangerous sequels so dreaded in a Northern climate. He stated the remark- able fact that years earlier they were visited by an epidemic of scarlet fever, when he attended one hundred and twenty children, without losing more than a single patient; and this one death was owing to other complications. There is no other way of accounting for such a history of such a disease, except the perfect climate. Some winters ago I received a little patient from New York with chronic pneumonia follow- The Standard Guide. 85 ing an unusually severe whooping cough; and in a very short time the little girl recovered completely, renewing the roses in her cheeln and her buoyant, childlike spirits. She returned with her mother, who was summoned to attend her husband suffering with pneumonia, in the month of March — much again'5t my advice, but for- tunately without serious consequences. Pneumonia is seldom seen in St. Augustine, and the resident physicians are almost unacquainted with the disease and have no desire to attend it. The absence and the mild form of the diseases mentioned can be accounted for on no other grounds than the salubrity of the climate. If there is the slightest possibility of any one laboring with the first symptoms of consumption being benefited by climate it will be accomplished in Florida. A gentle- man who was a martyr to asthma all his life, possessing a beautiful home near Phila- delphia, told me he could find no comfort in life but in two localities, Newport in summer and St. Augustine in winter. My own personal experience in the beneficial effects of the climate of St. Augus- tine makes me the more earnest in recommending it to all who may be suffering from overwork. After a laborious life of more than thirty years in the climate of New York, on the Hudson River, I broke down completely, and had insomnia to a fearful degree, bordering on insanity. Old professional friends advised me to visit Florida. When I arrived in the quaint old city one Christmas Eve I was nearly exhausted. I could not walk a mile, and only with great fatigue at all. Appetite was fitful, energy gone, and though I was longing for rest, yet I dreaded the experience of a night of sleeplessness. One who has never had the misery of such a state of health, can form no conception of such a deplorable condition. I began improving the first week, walking with less fatigue daily, and improved in appetite and spirits, and in six weeks I could tramp with dog and gun twenty miles. It was truly a renewal of life, instead of my life work being abandoned, I put on harness again and began to offer aid and encouragement to all who, like myself, had become discouraged and almost sick of life. The limits of this paper forbid my enumerating many interesting facts experi- enced from year to year. I am sure that I know of a number who, by going to St. Augustine, ward off from winter to winter hereditary disease which a severe climate would awaken and develop. With the continued improvement in drainage, which is daily progressing, with an inexhaustible supply of water from many artesian wells, there is no reason why St. Augustine should not be one of the healthiest cities in the world. The water used in the hotels is from artesian wells, and its supply is absolutely beyond the reach of any pollution. If those who have used the sulphur water of the artesian wells, both for drinking and for bathing, have received the same benefit from its use that I and many of my patients have experienced, it will not be long before St. Augustine will be resorted to for the use of these waters alone. When it is generally known that Mr. Flagler has instituted a most elaborate and costly system of baths, not only of the sulphur waters but also of salt water, this surely will be sufficient to draw people from all parts of the Union for their use; add to all the other advantages which surround the ancient city, the attractions of the most unique and beautiful oriental structures, and there is little else to be desired to make an elysium. 86 The Standard Gtiide. From a Report bv Surgeon-General Lawson, United States Army. As respects health, the climate of Florida stands pre-eminent That the penin- sular climate of Florida is much more salubrious than that of any other State in the Union is clearly established by'the medical statistics of the army. Indeed, the statis- tics in this bureau demonstrate the fact that diseases which resuh from malaria are of a much milder type in the peninsula of Florida than in any other State in the Union. These records show that the ratio of deaths to the number of cases of remittent fever has been much less than among the troops serving in any portion of the United States. In the Middle Division of the United States the proportion is one death to thirty-six cases of remittent fever; in the Northern Division, one to fifty-two; in the Southern Division, one to fifty-four; in Texas, one to seventy-eight; in California, one to one hundred and forty-eight; while in Florida it is but one to two hundred and eighty-seven. In short, it may be asserted, without fear of refutation, that Florida possesses a much more agreeable and salubrious climate than any other State or Ter- ritory in the Union. ST. AUGUSTINE WEATHER RECORD FROM NOVEMBER TO APRIL (SIX MONTHS). From a paper read before ttie American Climatological Association, ^ji' Dr. Frank F. Smith. 1877-78 1878-79 1879-80 1880-81 1881-82 1882-83 1883-84 1884-85 1885-86 1886-87 Mean. Mean degree of tern- \ perature at 7 A. M . . \ 57-55 54.01 61.69 53-59 59-75 56.66 56.18 56.67 52.63 54.58 56.336 Mean degree of tern- ) perature at 2 P. M . . ) 66.58 66.22 72.61 64.99 70.29 65.60 68.23 65.92 62.77 69.97 67.318 Mean degree of tern- ] perature at 9 P. M . . \ 60.66 57-95 63.30 57-19 63.71 58.83 59.61 59-59 55-67 56.23 59-274 Total number of days ) with temperature - Si 93 127 73 127 77 104 • 73 58 90 90-3 above 70 ) Total number of days ) with temperature - 15S 148 176 146 170 143 156 146 128 156 152.7 above 60 ) Total number of days ) with easterly winds - 102 73 99 77 123 82 89 84 92 85 90. S from Gulf Stream. . . ) Total number of days ] with southerly winds. S 62 35 38 36 68 31 44 27 30 10 38.1 Total number of days / with rainfall \ 33(23) 24(16) 29(20) 34(17)39(17) 35(18) 27(18) 39(24) 51(25) 24(13) 33-5(19-1) The numbers in parenthesis are of rains at night. Yearly winter mean of 33.5 days on which rain fell, of which 19. i were at night, leaving 14.4 days in the 181 days of each winter upon which rain fell during daylight. Appreciating the universal interest in the weather the publisher of the Standard Guide has provided a number of accurate thermometers for public reference. FLORAL CALENDAR. ECAUSE of the pretty fable that the name Florida was given to a " Land of Flowers," and because the tropical features of the northern portion of the State have been grossly ^^ exaggerated, most persons who come to Florida in winter ^^^^ are apt to be disappointed when they find the floral dis- "^ play less profuse and brilliant than they anticipated. They forget that like the North, the South also has its seasons, which are marked in the same manner if in less degree. Spring is the time of burst- ing bud and blossoms; summer of luxuriant and maturing vegetation; autumn of the falling leaf; while in winter much of the Florida verdure is sere and brown, the deciduous trees are bare of leaves, and beneath the sombre drapings of tillandsia — as in the North beneath the sheet of snow — the earth rests and recuperates. There is yet an abundance of foliage and color. Lemon, orange and lime, oleander, olive and magnolia, date palm, palmetto and bay are evergreen; rose gar- dens are in perennial bloom; and if one have an eye for wild flowers, their number and variety will be found surprisingly rich and varied, even in the winter months. Of the three hundred and seventy-five species to be collected within a radius of twenty-five miles, more than one hundred may be gathered .in the winter season. The climate is hardly tropical enough for successful culture of the banana. The orange blossoms in the last of February or the first of March; the fruit ripens from November 15 to December i, and will hang on the trees until the middle of the following May; there are thus at the same time on the orange tree, amid the glossy green of the foliage, white blossoms and ripe golden fruit. Among the different roses, as noted in one rose garden on Cedar street, are the following: Constant bloomers and most hardy — Pink daily, Glorie de Rosamond, climbing daily and blush roses. Constant bloomers (except in frosty weather) — America, Arch Duke Charles, Aline Sisley, Baron Alexander de Vrints, Agrippina, Comtesse Riza du Pare, Cloth of Gold, Duchesse de Brabant, Bougere, Isabella Sprunt, La Princess Vera, James Sprunt, Lamarque, Lucullus, Mad. Lawrence, Mad. Camille, Malmaison, Rubens, Marechal Neil, Perle de Lyon, Reine Marie Henriette, Sofrano, Beau Carmine, Solfaterre, Cels Multiflora, Doctor Berthet, Laurette, Louis Richard, Estella Pradel, La Grandeur, La Sylphide, Cornelia Cook, La France, Queen of Lombardy, Catherine Mermet, Perle des Jardins, Mad. Cecile Bruner, 88 The Standard Guide. DATE PALM, The Standard Guide. 89 making pompons), Sundews; and the Triumph d'Angers, Mad. Joseph Schwartz, Letty Coles, Amazone, Duchesse of Or- leans, Queen of France. Among other garden flowers the bignonia and opoponax are in constant bloom. The following list, which is not intended to be complete, gives the flowering of only some of the more conspicuous of Florida flowers: Wild Flowers. January. — Blue and white Violets, creeping- Houstonia, late Asters and early yellow Jessamine. February. — In wet pine barrens: Utricularia, Violets, daisy-like Chaptalia and Pinguicula. In low woods: Yellow Jessamine, Florida Hawthorn (Crataegus glandulosa), and Wild Plum. March. — In wet pine barrens: Huge Thistles (used for Pinguiculas, Andromedas, Violets and two orchids, Calapogon and Pogonia. Beside streams: Azalea, Dogwood and Viburnum. In dry barrens: Lupines, Baptisia, Andromedas, Huckleberries, late Yellow Jessamine and Ascyrum (" St. Peter's-Wort "). April. — In wet barrens: Sarracenia ("Pitcher plant"), Sundew, Iris and Pogonia. In dry barrens: Milkweeds, Polygalas, Vaccinium Arboreum ("Sparkle berry"), Coral Plant or "Cherokee Bean" (Erythrina), and "Horse Nettle." May. — Spanish Bayonet (Yucca), Magnolia, "Loblolly" or Sweet Bay Magnolia, Wild Calla, Rhexia (" Deer Grass"), and Tillandsia, or " Spanish Moss," (which is not a moss but an air-plant). Summer. — Three kinds of Palmetto, Prickly Ash, Prickly Pear, "Spider Lilies," "Matrimony," Wild Rose, Wild Canna, Coreopsis, Lobelias, Passion Flower, six Polygalas, Lily, "Beach Grass" or "Sea Oats," etc.; among the orchids three Gymnadenias, four Platantheras, and an Epi- dendrum. Autumn. — Four or five Liatris, several Golden Rods, Bac- charis, Asters, Sabbatias, Eupatorium. December. — Asters, Baccharis, scarlet berries of the Ilex cassine (" Cassine," " Christmas-berry"), Ilex opaca or Holly, and red and black berries of the Wild Smilax. BLOSSOM OF the BANANA. Rose In Cultivated Grounds. February. — "Cherry-Laurel," wrongly called "Wild Olive," Orange, Opoponax and Cherokee March. -^Vetch, Mexican Poppy or Argemone, Amaryllis Atamasco, Linaria, Sorrel, Cherokee Rose, Opoponax and Yellow Pyrropappus. April. — White and pink Oleanders, Pomegranate, Woodbine, Honeysuckle, Sweet Olive, Chero- kee Rose. Summer.— Century Plant and Date Trees, Crepe Myrtle and Pride of India, Yellow Elder and Parkinsonia, wrongly called " Mexican Chapparal." The Japan Plum (Eryobotria japonica) blossoms from October to December. M. C. R. GUN AND ROD. AME and fish have always been among the attractions of St. Augustine; and, although the supply has been diminished of late years, there is still abundant reward for the pur- suit. Sportsmen and anglers who visit the Rangeleys, the Adirondacks and the St. Lawrence in summer, repair to Florida in the winter. There are men, who when fish are to be caught in Florida waters would no more stay in the North than the robins and bluebirds. Dr. C. J. Kenworthy, of Jacksonville, himself an ardent angler, tells a good story of a New York physician who, some winters ago, when there was yellow fever in one of the Gulf Coast towns, deliberately set out to run the quarantine and make his way into the fever district because it was time for fish to rise to his fly. Rod and reel, gun and field dogs are familiar objects in St. Augustine. Among the sporting dogs remembered by many quail hunters was the well known Bran. This dog was once, while hunting quail, struck by a rattlesnake. He was saved by the skillful treatment of Dr. H. Caruthers, but only to meet a fate as harsh, for Bran perished in the flames where he was chained in the great St. Augustine Hotel fire of 1887. The smoking room of the Ponce de Leon Hotel counts among its ornaments a magnificent set of antlers, which bear testimony to the luck of a Tarrytown, New York, physician, to whom is credited the unusual experience of having brought down his deer, on an Adirondack runway, with a shotgun, loaded with No. 4 shot for grouse. Florida deer are of smaller size than the northern deer, but they are built to go just as fast. Yesterday morning (reports a Jacksonville paper) as the first train out from the ancient city on the Jacksonville, St. Augustine & Halifax River Railway was passing the hammock known as Twelve-Mile Swamp, a fine buck leaped upon the track about a hundred yards ahead of the engine and started down the track. Engineer Peoples saw him and gave the salute. Then he opened the valves and the race began. He sent a man through the train to borrow a pistol with which to shoot the animal as soon as the engine should have come close enough for that purpose, but no pistol was found, and the engineer had to content himself with a dead run, and if the deer refused to clear the track to treat him like a cow and run him down. For several miles the race was an interesting one, the train going at the rate of twenty-five an hour and slowly gaining on his buckship. As the train approached Sampson, about twenty miles from this city, when it was within a few feet of the deer, he leaped from the track and made off into the dense forest. , The Standard Guide. ■ ' 91 No one ever thinks of setting out from St. Augustine on a deer hunt without the pilotage of the veteran James Ponce, a local hunter, who knows every foot of game ground within forty miles around. Ponce killed four bears in one day in July, 1888. The records of St. John's county for 1887 show that in that year bounties were paid on seventy wildcats and four bears — a formidable showing of " varmints " for the oldest settled county in the United States. Rabbits (hares) and squirrels are numer- ous. Anastasia Island was once noted for its supply of rabbits; and the old joke was current, of the man who failed to kill any rabbits because there were so many they confused his aim and he could not decide which one to shoot first. Quail are found in fair supply within short distances north, west and south; and wild turkeys are brought into town by the market hunters. The water and shore birds, ducks of many varieties, snipe, plover, curlew and others, have been practically exterminated by relentless shooting; and with them have gone the birds of plume. The feathered life, once a charming feature of St. Augustine, has almost disappeared. A few years ago great numbers of beautiful fowl frequented marsh, bay, beach and sand bar; but the monomaniacs, who conceive that all feathered creatures were made expressly as targets for bullet and shot, have pursued the birds with such scandalous industry that practical extermination is the result. Buzzards, carrion crows, ospreys and gulls remain, but even these are harried by the harbor gunners possessed by an indecent mania to kill something. The naturalist Audubon visited St. Augustine in 1831-32. Among the plates of his great work the portrait of the Caracara eagle was figured from a specimen which he discovered on the marshes north of the city in company with a flock of buzzards feeding on a carcass. After several futile endeavors to secure the much coveted prize, the chagrined ornithologist had to abandon the pursuit, but a native gunner was more successful. Audubon's plate of the greenshank sandpiper represents the bird standing on the glacis of Fort Marion; and the old fort, the bay and the town make up a charming picture. Because of their services as scavengers the buzzards are protected by a city ordinance; and another ordinance forbids all shooting on land or water within city limits. The unlovely alligator is represented at St. Augustine chiefly in infantile stages of discouraged development in the curiosity shops, waiting to be done up in segar boxes and mailed to the north. Wilder and more ferocious specimens are occasion- ally encountered in adjacent waters. The alligator holds on with most commendable tenacity, despite the fact that every man's hand is against him, and always has been against him, if we are to credit Le Moyne, who came here with the French in 1563. In the Brevis Nan-atio is given a drawing of the native Florida mode of hunting, and it is de- scribed as fcfUows: They wage war on the crocodiles in this manner: By the bank of the river they build a little hut full of chinks and holes, in which is stationed a sentinel who can hear and see the crocodiles a great way of. Pressed by hunger they come up out of the water in search of prey, failing to find which they give forth a horrible roar that may be heard for half a mile. Then the sentinel calls the others who are ready; and ten or twelve of them, bearing a huge pole, hurry to intercept the gigantic monster (his jaws expanded to seize and swallow some one of them), and with great agility, holding the sharp end of the pole as high as possible, they plunge it into his maw, whence because of its roughness and the scaly bark he cannot eject it. Then turning the crocodile over on his back, they belabor his belly, which is softer, with clubs, and shoot arrows into it and open it; the back is impen- 92 The Standard Guide, etrable because of the hard scales, the more so if it be an old one. This is the Indians' way of hunt- ino- crocodiles, to whom they are such inveterate foes that night and day they are on the watch for them, not less than we for our most hostile enemies. According to the artist's delineations of the mammoth specimens found here in those good old times, three hundred years ago, their descendants are certainly a sorry and degenerate race. But no one was ever heard to complain of the small propor- tions of an alligator he had killed; they are all huge and savage in the telling; it takes a very small saurian to make a big story; and men are living to-day who could give T.e Moyne points on Florida alligators. INDIAN MODE OF HUNTING ALLIGATORS IN FLORIDA. From Le Moyne's Narrative of the French Expedition in 1563. The list of fishes taken in the vicinity is a generous one. Sheepshead are caught off the St. Sebastian bridge, from the docks, and wherever there are submerged timbers or rocks. Favorite fishing grounds are at Matanzas. Baits used: clam, crab, fiddler, conch; the best time for fishing is from half- flood to high water. The whit- ing is baited for with clam, crab or pieces of mullet or other fish. Sea bass, or channel bass (also called redfish), are in great abundance in summer, and in fair supply in spring, when they are caught in the surf with rod or hand-line. The rods are employed chiefly by anglers from abroad. The local method is for the fisherman to wade out into the surf, having his line coiled to run freely from his left hand, then, swinging bait and sinker around his head, he hurls it out into the surf, and, when he hooks a fish, puts the Une over his shoulder and runs at full speed up the beach, hauling his The Standard Guide. 93 fish high and dry after him. This mode may not partake of the high art of anghng, but it is pursued with enthusiasm, and the worst that can be said about it is that to stand for hours up to one's hips in the ocean in March or April is conducive to rheu- matism. The bait for bass is shrimp, crab or mullet. Salt-water trout are caught in great abundance in the Matanzas and its tributary waters north of town; and in the St. Sebastian from the bridge and the wharves. They take the fly; baits used are shrimps and mullet. Drum fishing grounds are at Moultrie, five miles below town, and at certain localities known to the market fisherman in the North River. The drum fish is distinguished as a fish that can be fished for longer without a bite than any other game fish that swims. A writer in the Forest and Stream says that in view of the success of humbler fishermen than themselves the anglers of Beaufort, S. C, have adopted the comforting aphorism that " no gentleman can catch a drum." It was time for drumming, the magic hiour between the fall of the ebb and the rise of the flood, for this delightful sport, whose praises and superior enchantments over all others in the Walton line I had so often heard spoken with such rapture by the mouth of a North Island and Beaufort man; the noble nature of the fish, his size and strength — the slow approach which he makes at first to the hook, like a crab, then the sudden overwhelming, transport that comes over you when you feel him dashing boldly off with the line, threatening to drag you after him and upset your frail boat. How charming his resisting wait, comparable only to the intoxication and gentle rapture one experiences when pulling along a lass through a Virginia reel. — " Sketch of Seminole IVar" (1836). Other varieties found here comprise blackfish, flounder, red snapper, black grouper, cavalli or crevalle, sailor's choice or hogfish, croaker, black grunt, skipjack or young bluefish, and jewfish which attain a weight of 200 and 300 lbs. The water vermin include sharks, catfish, garfish, angelfish, rays, or skates, toadfish and like horrible forms of creation. Some one or the other of them is sure to turn up on the end of a line cast for nobler fish; and the "patient angler" who manifests his patience in waiting for a bite is a very ordinary individual in comparison with the angelic being who can preserve his equanimity when a shark makes way with his tackle or his expectant gaze is greeted by the open countenance of a skate or a toadfish. THE SEA BASS OR CHANNEL BASS. From "■ The Fishery Industries 0/ the United States " THE ST. AUGUSTINE TENNIS TOURNAMENT. TROPICAL CHAMPIONSHIP OF THE UNITED STATES. THE St. Augustine tennis tournament claims precedence as the first annual outdoor event of the tennis year. It is held under the summer sky of St. Augustine on the second Tuesday in each March while the North is still buried in winter. The event is for the St. Augustine Club's ' 'Championship Trophy" representing the Tropical Championship of the United States, won in 1888 by H. G. Trevor, of New York. This title has been lodged with the Secretary of the National Association (of which the St. Augustine Club is a member) and is officially acknowledged by him. The Trophy is a massive sterling silver model of the ancient city gates, reproduced with every detail of the original, from the sentry boxes in the walls to the remains of the hinges whereon the iron-bound doors swung two hundred years ago. With pedestal, it is about twenty inches high by twenty-four long, and is, perhaps, the hand- somest tennis prize in the country. "Valuable enough for the National championship," says Mr. Dit- son. While not less useful than cups usually are, it is a work of highest art, and a model of one of the country's most interesting historical monuments. It is winner's property after four victories, not neces- sarily consecutive. The All-comer's first prize is a silver pitcher of new and beautiful shape, with a rich band of scroll work around the top. It is winner's property after one victory. He then competes with the last year's champion for the Trophy. The first formal tournament held at St. Augustine was in March, 1886, on the private court of the Moorish "Villa Zorayda." It was an impromptu affair, and only players happening in the town par- ticipated. It was won easily by T. Sterling Beckwith, of Cleveland. A second tournament was held on the same court in March, 1887, the entries including the Hon. Maxwell Scott of Abbottsford, Scot- land; Holland of New York; Peters of Philadelphia; York of Cleveland, and Beckwith, who also won the second tournament. With the completion of the new palatial hotels in 1888, the occasion took on a new importance, and drew a more expert gathering than the first two. Entries included Garratt, Sellar, and Block, of England; Lord Hope, brother of the Duke of Newcastle; L. Stewart, H. G. Tre- vor, C. Munn, Louis Webb, of New York; Burden, of Troy; Worthington and Beckwith, of Cleveland. Mr. Sears, then national champion, expected to play an exhibition game, but was prevented by illness. Many prominent people witnessed the event, including Miss Langdon, Miss Chamberlain, Miss Grant, Pierre Lorillard, Admirals Upshur and LeRoy. Trevor, of New York, won both the Trophy and All- comer's cup the first year, although Beckwith, who rose from his sick bed, gave him a good game. The latter was worthy of second prize, but was suddenly called North, and defaulted to Garratt of England, who easily won second prize. Webb was eligible, but through misunderstanding defaulted. Trevor and Webb won the doubles. A grand ball followed in the superb dining hall of the Ponce de Leon, and was repeated afterward on the wooden tennis courts to the accompaniment of an orchestra of twenty-five men. The courts were gorgeously decorated and illuminated for the occasion, and the gay dancers, under warm summer sky and amid semi-tropical foliage, formed an outdoor scene of rare interest and beauty. It was about this time the North was buried under the snow of the famous blizzard. Dur- ing the tournament it was decided to offer the new and costly Trophy, which has raised the occasion to one of the most important events of the tennis world. Entries are received by the committee, R. D. Sears, Boston; Van Renssellaer Stuyvesant, New York; L. Harrison Dulles, Philadelphia; Geo. Stuart Smith; 336 Beacon street, Boston, Secretary, who should, however, be addressed at St. Augustine dur- ing February and March. At this writing, it is expected to send a finely equipped vestibuled Pullman car, with a tennis party from New York, Boston, and other Northern cities, to the tournament, where special accommodations will be arranged for contestants. FOR READY REFERENCE. RAILWAYS. Jacksonville, St. Augustine & Halifax River Railway, to Jacksonville; St. John's Division, to Tocoi and river steamboats ; Palatka Division, to Palatka. Union Depot on Malaga street ; see map. Conveyance from depot to any part of town, 25 cents ; baggage, 25 cents per piece. St. Augustine & South Beach Railway, ferry from Central Wharf; hourly trains to South Beach. HOTELS. Alcazar^ on the Alameda. Cordova^ on the Alameda. Florida House, Treasury and St. George streets. Magnolia, St. George street. Ponce de Leon, on the Alameda. San Marco^ Shell Road, Plaza Hotel, facing Plaza. Hernandez Hotel, ChsLrlotte street. Boarding house — The Ingleside. MAILS. Post office on St. George street, facing Plaza. Hours: Lock boxes, 6:30 A. M. to 8 P. M.; general delivery, 8 A. M. to 5:30 P. M. Money orders and registered letters, 8:30 to 12:30 and 1:30 to 3:30. J. D. Lopez, postmaster. Mail for guests delivered by hotel carriers. Mail time between St. Augustine and New York, 36 hours; Boston, 36 hours; Chicago, 75 hours. For arrival and departure of mails see schedule posted in office. TELEGRAPH OFFICES. Bank building north side of Plaza, Hotel Ponce de Leon and Hotel San Marco. Rates for 10 words, Jacksonville, 25 cents. New York or Chicago, 85 cents. EXPRESS. Southern Express Co.; office, Nos. 34 and 36 Alcazar, Cordova street, open 7 A. M. to 8 P. M. BANKS. First National Bank, north side of Plaza. Hours, 9:30 A. M. to 2 P. M. St. John's County Savings Bank, Hotel Cordova. Hours, 9 A. M. to 3 P. M. CHURCHES. Baptist— Ancient City Baptist, Masonic Hall, Opera House Block. Services: Sabbath, 10:30 A. M. and 7:30 P. M., Sunday school at 9 A. M. Prayer meeting, Thursday at 7:30 P. M. Rev. H. M. King. Episcopalian— Trinity Church, facing Plaza on the south. Services: Sabbath, 10:30 A. M. , 7 P. M. Sabbath school, 3:30 P. M. For other services see bulletin on front of church. Rev. W. L. Githens. Methodist — Grace Church, Cordova and Carrere streets. Services: Sabbath, 10:30 A. M., 7 P. M. Sunday school, 9 A. M. Class meeting, 11:45 A. M. Young people's prayer meeting, 6:15 P. M. Wednesday, prayer meeting, 7 P. M. Rev. C. C. McLean; parsonage adjoining church. Presbyterian — St. George street, near Bridge street. Services: Sabbath, 10:36 A. M., 7 P. M. Sunday school, 3 P. M. Wednesday, prayer meeting, 7 P. M. Rev. Edwin K. Mitchell; residence, St. George street, north of Magnolia Hotel. (A new church is now building). Roman Catholic— Church facing Plaza on the north. Services: Sabbath, 6, 3 and 10 A. M., 4 P. M. Rt. Rev. Bishop Moore, Rev. Father J. Lucke; residence, St. George street and Plaza. Y. M. C. A. — Ward G. Foster, Pres.; G. M. Caldwell, Secty. Rooms in Lyon Block, corner St. George street and Alameda. Sabbath, praise meeting, 4 to 5 P. M. Bible class, 7:30 P. M. Saturday. Rooms open daily 8 A. M. to 9 P. M. PHYSICIANS. Drs. E. M. Alba (Lyon Block), L. Alexander (St. George street), A. Anderson and F. F. Smith (Alcazar), J. K. Rainey (St. George street), De Witt Webb (St. George street), S. Mills Fowler (Granada street), C. A. Dunham (St George street), Horace Lindsley (St. George street). FORT MARION is open to the public from 9 to 12 A. M., and i to 4 P. M. The hours have been changed since the chapter on Fort Marion was put in type. BOATS. Small steam craft ply between wharves and beaches (trip 25 cents) and other points; and may be chartered for excursions. Sailing boats with skipper, 50 cents to $1 per hour, $2 to $5 per day. Rowboats for hire by the hour or day. OPERA HOUSE (Genovar's)— St. George street, between Treasury and Hypolita streets. LIVERIES. Saddle horses and vehicles, with or without driver, are for hire. PUBLIC LIBRARY. St. George street, in post office building. Hours, 10 A. M. to i P. M. (daily except Sunday and Thursday), and 3 to 5 P. M. Non-residents borrow books free of charge, on 4eposit of $2. STUDIOS. Valencia street. Hotel Ponce de Leon. No. i, George W. Seavey. No. 2, F. H. Shapleigh. No. 3, W. Staples Drown. No. 4, Robt. S. Germain. No 7, M. J. Heade. MUSEUMS. Vedder's (Bay street)^ living specimens of Florida natural history. Chapin's (near the forti, curiosities. The collections of the St. Augustine Institute of Natural Science, No. 33 Alcazar court, are open to the public daily from 2 to 5 P. M., admission free. YACHT CLUB. St. Augustine Yacht Club; Com., E. A. Douglass, of New York. Clubhouse, Sea-wall and Central Wharf. DATES. Ponce de Leon discovers Florida, 1512. Menendez founds St. Augustine, 1565. Drake, 1586 Boucaniers, 1665. Moore of Carolina, 1702. Oglethorpe of Georgia, 1740. Florida becomes a British possession, 1763. Retroceded to Spain, 1783. Acquired by the United States, 1821. Seminole war, 18^5-42. LATITUDE. 29° 59' 48" N. Longitude, 81° 11' 20" W. " STANDARD GUIDE " THERMOMETERS are provided at various points for public reference. STANDARD GUIDE MAP ST. AUGUSTINE. CORRECTED FOR 1880 1. Depni • 20 Hotel Ponce de Leon ^2. San Marco Hotel. Alcazar. *3. W. G. Warden's, 22 Hotel Cordova. A- Cemetery IJ Post Office. 5- Fort Manon Old MarJtet. 6. Gateway. 'S Plaza 7. Miiseum- If) Pldza Rasm 8. Methodist ChiKcli. Plaza Hotel. 9. Magnolia Hotel School. 10. Opera House. Episcopal Church. II . Hernandez Hotel Lyon Block 12. Florida House. ' Villa Zorayda i:^. Bath Hduse Presbyterian Church, J 4. Court House Barracks. Hasm. 15. Yacht Clul) Parade. . 16. Bank. Barracks. 17. Cathedrar .10 Mrlilary Cemetery 18. Bishop Moore'om JACKSONVILLE, Fla., . Thursdays and Sundays. From FERNANDINA, Fla., Sundays, From CHARLESTON, S. C, Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays, The Fleki' is composed of the following elegant Steamers: IROQUOIS (New), . . Capt. E. Kemble. CHEROKEE, . . . Capt. B. Doane. SEMINOLE, . . . Capt. S. C. Piatt. YEMASSEE, . . . Capt. H. A. Bearse. DELAWARE, . . . Capt. I. K. Chichester. This is the only line of steamers running through to JACK- SONVILLE^, Fla., without change. For further information apply to WM. P. CLYDE & CO., General Agents, 1 2 South Wharves, 35 Broadway, PHILADELPHIA. NEW YORK. THEO, G. EGER, Traffic Manager. 35 Broadway, New York. standard Guide Advei^tiser The Best Life Insurance. OUR 'i'went3'-rayment Combined Life ami I'^ndowment Policy with guarantee of legal cash value at the end of second or any succeed- ing- A-ear gives vou the best protection for life at a low premium, and besides furnishes a HANDSOME ENDOWMENT FUND, if you wish to retire at the end of twenty years (or before that period if necessary). No society or co o]")erative insurance approaches it for cheapness. It will pay you to examine its merits. Example: Age, 35. $10,000 Premiums, $342.00. Total premiums in twenty years, ...... $6,840.00 Legal cash value at end of twenty j'ears, ..... 5,264.90 Cost of twenty years of insurance, . . . . . . $1,575.10 Average cost per )'ear for each $i,co3, ...... 7.87 This would be the average annual cost if there were no di7'idcnds. \ A moderate estimate for dividends on this kind of policy would nearly if not quite extinguish the cost should the insured call for the cash value at the end of twenty vears and retire. The Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (Incorparated in 1S51) issues all kinds of life policies and endowment bonds. Its contract is simple, liberal and definite. Send me age and address for guaranteed values at ycjur age. GILFORD MORSE, Manager, 243 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. WORCESTER'S DICTIONARY *'THE STANDARD..* TuF-: New Edition includes a Dictionary that contains thousands of words not to be found in any other Dictionary, a Pronouncing Biograpinical Dictionary of over 12,000 personages, a Pronouncing Gazetteer of tlie World, noting and locating over 20,000 places, a Dictionary of SynonymeS, containing over 5,000 words in general use, also over 12,500 new words, recently added. AH in one volume. lLLrSTR.\TED WITH WoOD ClTS .VND FULL-PAGE PLATES. In the face of the most bitter oppositioii, Worcester's Dictionary has won its way solely upon its merit, until it is now recognized as "FA' far the best authority .\s to the prese.nt usi: of the Ln<;itsii lam.lage." THE NATIONAL STANDARD OF AMERICAN LITERA- TURE. Every edition of Longfellow, Holmes, Bryant, Irving, Whittier, and other eminent American authors, follows Worcester "It presents the usage of all great English writers. " Many publishing houses, which for a time adopted a rival work, have now feone over to Worcester. The same is true of the leading magazines and newspapers. The Harpers Mai^azivc, H'eekly, Nc-lL' Vor/: J'rihiim, Ihrald, Tunes, World, Post, Situ, Independent, A'ation ; the Boston Adve?-fiser, Transcript, J/eratd, Glolie; Philadelphia Ledger, and other leading papers all over tl\e countr)-, now use the word- forms presented by Worcester. It presents the (^my^fo/ usage of our best public speakers, and has been regarded as the standard by our leading orators — Everett, .Sumner, Phillips, tlarfieid, Hillard and others. -Most clergymen and lawyers use Worcester as authority on pronunciation. Worcester's Dictionaries have been largely used in the common'- schools since their publication. Ever^- year brings an e.\tended lieUl and an increased sale. The}- have been recommended by State .Superintend- ents of Education and ailopted by State Boards. .Vll the leading cities of the country have authorized their use, among which are Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Chicago, Washington, St. Louis, Cambridge, Worcester, etc. FOR SALE BY ALL BOOKSELLERS. J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, Publishers, 715 and 717 MARKET STREET, PHILADELPHIA. Standard Guide Advertiser. STEINWAY PIANOFORTES. The Standard Pianos of the World ARE USED AND PREFERRED BY ALL Leading Artists. iSteinway & Sons are the only Manufacturers who make all component parts of their Pianofortes,, exterior and interior (including the casting" of the fujl steel frames), in their own factories. ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE MAILED FREE ON APPLICATION. STEINWAY & SONS, WAREROOMS, STEINWAY HALL, Nos. 107, 109 and 111 East Fourteenth Street, New York. L. S. SMITH, (Graduate N. Y. City Collf.gk Pharmacy.) Chemist and Druggist. Largest and Finest Retail Drug Store in the South. Manufacturer of Smith's Hkadache Powders, a cure warranted or money refunded. Agent for Poland Mineral Water. The. only place in the city where a complete assortment of Homeopathic Remedies can be found. Night Bell. King Street, Cordova Block, St. Augustine, Fla, S. B. & G. H. MANCE, Builders and Real Estate Agents. OFFICE IN LVON BUILDING, ST. AUGUSTINE, FLA. Lots sold and Buildings erected on the most reasonable terms. City and country propert)- bought, sold and exchanged. Money loaned and collected. DR. E. M. GOODRICH, Northern Dentist of Twenty-five Years Experience. Office and Residence, North St. George Street, NEAR THE CITY GATES. Standard Guide A dvertiser. i he Lefever Arms C^o., SYRACUSE, N. Y. Any Gauge or Weiglit. Price $80 to $350. The best balanced, most symmetrical and strongest gun in the world. Has an unexcelled record for pattern and penetration. Con pensated action to take up wear in every direction. Used by the leading trap shots in America, and has received the highest commendation from sportsmen and mechanical experts. Send for Illustrated Catalogue. List of shop-worn and second-hand guns sent on application. The Lefever Arms Company, SYRACUSE, N. Y. Standard Guide Advertiser. LYMAN'S NEW Wind-Gauge Sight. A REAR SIGHT FOR Hunting and Target Rifles. Send for 96-page catalogue of i_ Sights and Rifles. Address WILLIAM LYMAN, ilDDLEFIELD, CONN. LYMAN'S IMPROVED Ivory Hunting Siglit. LYMAN'S Spirit Level. For Hunting and Target Rifles. Standard Thermometer. The Most Useful and Ornamental Thermom- eter made. Endorsed by scientists and the Signal Service. For Sale by the Trade Everywhere. Adopted by the Penn- sylvania, Boston & Al- bany, Northern Pacific, Fitchburg and other rail- roads. Particularly use- ful in homes, and quite as necessary as the clock. Made in 4, 6 and Sin. Dials. Price, $2.50. For circulars apply to STANDARD THERMOMETER COMPANY, PEABODY, MASS. Standard Guide Advertiser. t- s^^^'pSi^^^' \^ Boo^ ^ v^^^ OXJE. 4)40 ROAD WATCH is specially con- ^ structed for theQ most exacting use and is the BEST PhilaT^^s,! Railroad Watch made. It con-I^SI tains numerous important patent ed improvements of vital import ance to accurate timing — Patent Dustproof, Patent Stem Wind, dr^iT.jWhich we control exclusively It has 15 Genuine Ruby jewels in settings, and is accurately ad- justed to heat, cold and isocliroii-^^.^ ism. It is fully equal for appear -^^S^\ aiice, accuracy, durability and\^Mi service to any $go watch. Price $43, either all cash or in Clubsj $1 a week. Open face cv hunt- ing. Oar $X a week Club System, while as convenient to the buyer as any installment system, is a wholesale spot cash system to us. The Co-operation of the ci'ih members sells us 43 watches mil J each ^43 Watch Club, and we get cash from the club for each watch before it goes out, though each member only pays $1 a week. This is why we give you more for your money than t.ny one else and why we are doinjj ihe largest watch business in the wor'd An Ajax Watch Insulator ginen free with eiirh Watch. The Keystone Watch Club Go Main Oflice in Go's Own Building. 904 WALNUT ST. PHILADA. PA, Agents Wanted. Ajax Watch Insulator, $1.00 A perteof protection ai^aiaat iTiagneti-sm. Fit any Watch, Sent by mail "n receipt of price. (Xj* We re/f.r to any Commercial Agency ( i Standa7'd Guide Advertiser. Old St. Augustine." AN adequate historical sketch— historical in the best and truest sense, for its pen-pictures vividly portray the scenes of former days, and recall, as living personages, Huguenot and Spaniard, Franciscan, Sea King, Buucanier and Semi- nole, and other actors in the town's eventful past The chapters are crowded with stirring incident — the sanguinary conflicts of the French and Spaniards — the sufferings and fortitude of the Mission fathers — the revengeful onslaughts of Drake and the hunter-seamen from Hispaniola the sieges by the British invaders — the exodus of the Minorcans —the stubborn conflicts of the Seminole war. The story is clearly told in briefest possible compass, and with most careful regard for accuracy, but none the less with spirit and enthusiasm. The volume is richly illustrated with artotypes or photo- gravures from negatives taken expressly for this purpose, and fac-similes of very old and rare engravings. The binding is a photographic reproduction of Coquina, the shell stone of which Fort Marion is constructed. Price $1.50. Sent postpaid by E. H. REYNOLDS, St. Augustine, Fla. For sale at all book stores and news stands. GOLDEN OPINIONS. BOSTON EVENING TRANSCRIPT. Tiie object of this book is, as the author tells us in the preface, "to show the St. Augustine of the present, tinged and illumined with the light of the past." In ihis design Mr. Reynolds has suc- ceeded admirably! The ancient city has been so belettered and befogged by superficial and ill-informed tourists, that its true history has been almost lost sight of— a history more varied and romantic than that of any other American city. Mr. Reynolds has produced by far the best book that has appeared on the subject; and now for the first time one can under- stand the story from its beginning. LITERARY WORLD.— This little monograph is evidently a labor of love, and the author has every reason to be proud of his work, which is in all respects, from the "make up," arrangement of subjects, choice of pictures and plans, and style, deserving of high praise. And as no city in North America has experienced more violent changes, or passed through the hands of a greater variety of masters and i vaders, the result of Mr. Reynolds's arrangement is a series of tragic scenes almost without parallel. J he history of the colonj' of Minorcans is one of absorbing interest almost akin to that with which romance and poetry have invested the Acadians. The great wrongs done to that inoffensive people are hardly known to the present generation. . . . Another graphic chapter in which the author's sympathies are warmly enlisted is that on the Seminoles. NEW YORK OBSERVER. —A very agreeable volume, beautifully illustrated. Mr. Reynolds has improved unusual opportunities for the preparation of an historical monograph on one of the most interesting as well as ancient settlements on this continent. It is history with all the charm of story, and ought to be familiar to every one who has any interest in the past of his native land. Mr. Reynolds's chapters are faithful and pleasing pictures in the panorama of events which have given an element of romance to Florida during three centuries. THE NATION. — It is hardly necessary to have seen the quaint old town of which Mr. Reynolds writes, to feel interested in his narrative ot its "changing fortunes"-^"unstable as the shifting sands of its harbor bar." NEW YORK EVENING POST. — A series of well selected historic pictures, on which he has succeeded in throwing a strong light. THE CRITIC. - The intending tourist will do well to purchase this book and stow it in a corner of his satchel, for there is much in it that will repay perusal. BOSTON JOURNAL.— As interesting as a romance. WASHINGTON POST. Reads with the interest of a novel, although he has never sought for the romantic to the exclusion of the facts of history, and his interesting work is always historically accurate. The author possesses a clear and direct style, often picturesque, sometimes quaintly humorous, and always readable. The photographic reproductions are among the best specimens of this work we have ever seen. CHRISTIAN INTELLIGENCER. — This is a history of adventure and of conqurst, possessing all the charm of the most exciting romance. By the nrst sweep of hi; pen the author captivates his readers. . . . The most thrilling his- torical incidents are skillfully grouped, and so vividly portrayed, that as one reads, he sees the actors come and go in quick succession as in a well-played drama. The reader's soul is sometimes thoroughly stirred within him by the author's graphic recital. . . . Tourists especially should not miss reading this little volume, crowded as it is with historic facts, the knowledge of which will greatly add to the zest of their pleasure. SPRINGFIELD REPUBLICAN.— A history which reads like a romance from beginning to end. Mr. Reynolds is nor sparing of his rhetoric, but the stirring events connected with the early history of this most ancient city of the United States warrant a departure, perhaps, from the more prosaic style of historic narrative. Seizing upon the most striking episodes of the city's history, he elaborates them in separate chapters which are vivid specimens of the pen-picturing art. PHILADELPHIA PRESS. — A delightful running account of the romantic town. No place in America has a more eventful historj'. NEW YORK TIMES.-nIn an exceedingly pleasing volume Mr. Chas. B. Reynolds tells the history of an old Florida town, whose story is one tinged with peculiar romance. . . . With exceeding accuracy gives all the' histori.al facts, bringing down the curious story to to-day. The subject is so full of interest that the author's pages arc all aglow with romantic lights. MAGAZINE OF AMERICAN HISTORY.— Prepared with skill and excellent taste. ... A concise and valu- able record, written with care and accuiacy, and deserving of the highest praise. CHRISTIAN UNION.— The history of the quaint old town has been, a varied and stirring one, and it loses none of its picturesqueness in Mr. Reynolds's graphic narration. SUNDAY SCHOOL TIMES. — Among all the booklets which have been written concerning the old Florida seaport, none is worthier of its subject than "Old St. Augustine." . . Mr. Reynolds delineates in a clear and graphic way the shifting panorama of St. Augustine's history, and he has succeeded in writing a little volume which is full of light, shade and color, and one which will be welcomed as an adequate memento. BOSTON DAILY ADVERTISER. — A picturesque and dramatic story of th ee centuries of battle and change. INDEPENDENT. — Tells ihe storj' with eminent care, brevity and precision. Sta7idard Guide Advertiser. F. W. DEVOE & CO., Fl^LTON STI^EET, Coi\ AVILLIAIVE, NEAV ^^OKK. (Established 1852.) MANUFACTURERS OF RTISTS' IVIATERIALS. F. W. D. & CO.'S TUBE COLORS. F. W. D. .V^ CO.'S CANVAS. F. W. D. & CO.'S FINE BRUSHES. F. IV. DEVOE cr' CO., in 18S7, sold more Artists' Tube Colors of their oivu manufacture thaii were iinpp7-teJ into the United States from all sources during that time. Our Manufactures are used by and command the confidence of the leading artists of the country. A list of those endorsing our goods sent on application. Crai'nn, Sculptors mid Etckino' Materials. Drawing Papers, Mathematical Instriiinents. \ WHITE LEAD, COLORS, VARNISHES. Artists' Materials of F. W. Devoe & Co.'s manufacture can be had of all first-class dealers throughout the United States. F. W. DEVOE. F. DRUMMOND. 1. SEAVEK PAi;E. HOTEL CORDOVA. (•Under tmk Arch by the Round Tower.) Books, Fine Stationery, Novelties, Artists Materials. Wc desire to call attention to a line of artistic, /laint-fai/itcd soirz'cni/s of tJic Ancient City, many of thein designed especially for Easter gifts. These gOOds' can be found nowhere else in the city. FIxNE ENGRAVING AND PRINTING. STATIONERY, MENUS, ETC., DECORATED TO ORDER. Standard Guide Advertiser. The Plaza Drug Store f!PlaTa deltt Cbnstittiacm . REMOVED TO LYON BUILDING. Corner St. George and King Streets. THE OLDEST DRUG STORE IN THE OLDEST CITT IN THE UNITED STATES, E. M. ALBA, M. D., St. Augustine, Fla. O. H. Smith. Ch.a>. K. (;.\kd. ■ (". 1. Vedder. W. LYON & CO., W HOLESALE GrROCERS, AND DEALERS IX Hardware, Crockery, Building Materials, Etc. LYON BUILDING, ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA. Visitors to our Cit)" are respectfulh' invited to examine our buildino" and our stock. Standard Guide Advertiser. OTEL Ponce de Leon. HOTEL ALCAZAR. HOTEL- CORDOVA. SO much has been written about St. Augustine, Florida, with its incomparable winter climate, and of the magnificent Ponce de Leon Hotel, with its every luxurious appointment, that the manage- i £5i:J^^^ ^'^'^^^^ ment feel that the simple an- nouncement that the Ponce de Leon, Alcazar and Cordova will be thrown open for the recep- H:^ tion of guests about the ist day of January, 1889, * will be quite sufficient. The Alcazar, an adjunct to the Ponce de Leon, and a complete hotel in itself, contains swimming pools, Russian and Turkish baths, tropical gardens, tennis courts, casino, cafe, concert rooms and music (by Joyce's band of fifty musicians under Thos. H. Joyce, of New York). Thus is af- forded every element for the dissipation of ennui and the perfect enjoyment of a most charming midwinter climate. It is with confidence, therefore, that we invite you to the luxuries of a palace — to the hospitalities of the Ponce de Leon. Hotel Ponce de Leon, Hotel Alcazar, O. D. SEAVEY, Manager. HOTEL CORDOVA, E. N. Wilson, Manager. Sr. AUGUSTINE, FLA, Standard Guide Advertiser. A Magnificent Hotel. THE Magnolia Hotel, ST. AUGUSTENE. Cextrallv Located Near Plaza and Post Office. W. W. PALA4ER, Proprietor. Rates, $3.00 to $4.00 per clay. Special rates by the week. This hotel has just been rebuilt, enlarged and elegantly refitted. No expense has been spared, and it is the universal expression that it is now one of the finest hotels south of New York City. The buildino- is in the Oueen Anne style, and the space under its cover is over sixty-four thousand square feet, or nearly two acres. Standard Gzcide Advertiser. Florida * House. St. Augustine, Florida. THE situation of tiiis hotel is peculiarly favorable, being midway between the old City Gates and the Plaza. It is convenient to all points of interest. The season of 18S9 is the third under the present management, and the house, so long and favorably known to all winter tourists, has been materially enlarged and greatly improved for this year. It has been newly carpeted, entirely repainted inside and out, a new kitchen has been built and fitted up with the latest improvements. The sanitary arrangements, having been looked after minutely, are now the most perfect in the city. Everything has been provided to meet every desire and add to the comfort of all who may favor us with their patronage, which is most respectfully solicited. The Hotel has been provided, in all departments, with the best of service obtainable, special care having been taken in the selection of experienced, and first-class cooks and assistants, and the Cuisine will be unexcelled, and maintained at all times at the highest standard of excellence. Terms for transient guests, $3.00 to $4.00 per day. A liberal reduc- tion for parties desiring to engage rooms for the season. For further particulars address by mail or telegraph. CHARLES F. BECK, Proprietor. P LAZA nOTEL FRONTING OCEAN AND PLAZA. The Only Apartment Hotel in the City. NEW, HOUSE WITH MODERN IMPROVEMENTS. Rates : 50 Cents to $2.00 per Day. S. C. SC HROEDER, Proprietor. ERNANDEZ HoTEL. CENTRALLY LOCATED. Charlotte St., 3 Minutes' Walk North of Plaza, Near Old Fort. NEWLY FITTED OUT FOR THE SEASON. COMFORTABLE AND HOMELIKE. Terms: $2.00 to $3.00 per Day, $8.00 to $15.00 per Week. MRS. J. V. HERNANDEZ, Prop. INGLESIDE, m Home of the Late Judge Stickney, Now Open for the Reception of Guests. Beautifully Located in an Orange Grove. Rooms Large and Newly Furnished. Open Fires. Table supplied from Philadelphia and Chicago Markets. For Ter.ms Address MRS. H. FRAZER, St, AugUSTINE, Fla. Standard Gtndc Advcriiscr. The St. Augustine NeAvs Company JX THEIR DAILY AND THEIR WEEKLY EDITIONS OFFER OF THE BEST ADVERTISING MEDIUMS IN THE SOUTH, At rates very moderate for the extent of circulation. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Daily (28 columns) per annum, - -■ - - $5.00 "Weekly (48 columns) per annum, - _ . $2.00 St. Augustine News Co. ST. AUGUSTINE, FLA. C. F. HOPKINS, JR., Real Estate Department. : GEO. W. GIBBS, Manager. St. Johns County Savings Bank AND REAL ESTATE EXCHANGE. Hotel Cordova, King Street, - - St. Augustine, Florida. Does a ueneral ]Sanking" Business, 3 per cent, per annum allowed on 90 day balances. Special attention, paid to purchase and sale of Real Estate, collecting- of rents, etc. SOLE AGENTS IN THE CITY' FOR THE SALE OF THE DISSTON LANDS. DO YOU WANT REAL ESTATE IN FLORIDA? Call on H. J. RITCrilE in Long's Block, fronting the southeast end of Plaza, ST. AUGUSTINE, where you will get reliable information and your choice of BARGAINS. Standard Guide Advertiser BATTERY PARK HOTEL, Asheville, North Carolina. THE City of Asheville, situated on a hilly plateau between the .Mleghany Jlountains and the Blue Ridge, at an elevation of 2600 feet above tide water, and at the confiuerce of the Swannanoa and the French Broad rivers, is noted for its healthful and delicious climate; its pure and invigorating atmosphere; the beauty of its scenery; its delightful drives; and adjacent points of interest. Climatic maps prepared by Prof. Chas. Denison, M.D., and official data furnished by U. S. Signal Service, show that Asheville has the dryest climate, tlie year round, of a;:y point east of Denver.. Out of 365 days there is an average of 259 clear ones. The high altitude and low latitude insure cool summers and mild winters. During the period of eight years the mercury has but twice risen to 83° Fahrenheit. ]\'Ialaria, the disease of the century, is unknown in this section. Pulmonary and throat troubles sticcumb to the balmy air of this locality. Some of the most learned and skilled physicians in the United States have recorded the fact that, in this climite, tubercular consumption is not hereditary. This is a most re- rnarkable and very valuable truth, and has been proven in numberless instances. Battery Park is a spot of historical interest, and deservedly popular, not alone for its beautiful views, but as having been the location selected during the war by the confederates as the defense to the city. Here a battery was planted, and the old breast-works still remain, and are preserved as flower- beds. The view from the hotel is said by travelers to be unsurpassed in the world — the eye command- ing a "^'iew covering 1000 square miles of most beautiful mountain scenery. The Battery Park Hotel has a frontage of over 300 x 175 feet. There are wide verandas, spa- cious halls, dining rooms, parlors, reception, and reading rooms, ladies' billiard room; large rotunda with marble tiling and old-fashioned fireplace of generous proportions; a ball room, 105 x 50 feet — the handsomest at an V resort in the United States — with a movable stage for amateur performances; and ten-pin alley underneath, fitted up to please the most fastidious. It is heated by steam and open fire- places, is lighted wholly by electricity; and provided with Otis hydraulic passenger and baggage elevators; electric bells in all rooms; steam laundry, with all the improved machinery; water-closets and baths, public and private, on every floor; news stand and telegraph office, billiard room, bowling ■ alley, and manv of the out-door games in vogue. The house is provided with all necessary comforts for the winter a's well as the summer momths; in other words, it is built for doing business throughout the entire year. During the colder portion of the winter the verandas are inclosed by glass, and many of the private suites of rooms have glass bow-windows. By this arrangement invalids can enjoy a sun bath without leaving their rooms. It is an all-the-year-round house, and is kept as such. A first-class livery stable is run in connection with the hotel, where saddle horses, village carts, broughams, buggies, etc., maybe hired at any time. Some of the drives to well-known places are beautiful in the extreme; for instance, the road leading to Bald Mountain — famous to theatre-goers as being the seat of action of the popular drama " Esmeralda" — is one of the most famous in the South. " Battery Park Hotel, on the 12th day of July, 1886. made its first bow to the public, and entered the arena for its share of public favors. It has now (October, 1888) passed through three summers and two winter seasons, and its success, which was never doubted, has been so complete, and has so far ex| ceeded the expectations of its owner that its enlargement is nearly double the original capacity. _ Prom- inent physicians everywhere can be consulted as to the clima're. For descriptive pamphlet, or inform- ation pertaining to the business, address BATTERY PARK HOTEL, Asheville, Noirnr Carolina. John B. Steele, Manager. Standard G^iidc Advertiser rinridas Summer & WinterResart Dnthe Atlantia Eoast, 15 Miles fram Jacksanville. PABLO BEACH, the far-famed "Coney Island of the South," is located on the coast of the broad Atlantic ocean, six miles south of the mouth of the St. Johns River, and sixteen miles east from Jacksonville, with which it is connected by the Jacksonville & Atlantic Railroad, which has frequent daily trains running, making the trip in fm-ty minutes. The celebrated Murray Hall (said to be the finest hotel structure immediately on the Atlantic coast, from Florida to Maine) will open early in February under the management of Messrs. Osborn & Davis. The Hotel is situated on a bluff 75 feet from the water's edge, and overlooking the finest beach in America, extending, as it does, from Mayport, at the mouth of the St. Johns River, to St. Augustine, a dist;^nce of forty miles, affording one of the finest drives in America. The house is fitted with all modern improvements, and is elegantly furnished throughout. It contains rooms for three hundred guests, and has nearly one-half mile of fine, high piazzas, twenty feet in width. There are fifty-eight open fire-places, besides steam radiators throughout the house, in the halls and public rooms, making the house one of the most comfortable on the coldest days. The house is lighted throughout with the Incandescent Electric Eight. The house is supplied with Artesian water from its own well, which is four hundred and ninety-five feet deep and contains many valuable mineral properties. The supply is abundant, being 3,000,000 gallons every twenty-four hours. It will thus be understood that the water from this source must be perfectly pure, as no surface water nor underground streams or common water can become mixed with it. From this well the supply flows at a temperature of eighty degrees the year around. Besides this well, the house is supplied with rain water for those who prefer it. Bath Rooms, Billiard Rooms, Bowling Alleys and a well-stocked Bar are attached to the house. The surf bathing is unsurpassed by any seaside resort in America, the beach being perfectly safe, with no holes or under-tow. During the past season, bathing commenced as early as the nth of January, and continued to the 16th of December, the temperature of the water being, even in winter, higher than it is at Northern resorts in summer. .\n abundance of fish is caught on the beach in front of the hotel with surf nets or casting lines. There are also black bass in I'ablo Creek, a mile back (if the house. Deer, quail, wild turkeys and ducks are to be found within a few miles of the hotel. A more perfect spot to pass a few weeks or more cannot be found in Florida. The Western Union 'I'elegraph Company has an office in the hotel. For rates and other informa- tion address G. CHRISTOPHER, Proprietor, lACKSOXVILEE. FL.V. OR DAVIS & OSBORN, Maxacers, PABLO BEACH, FLA. Standard Guide Advertiser. SABIN, ABBOTT & CO., WHOLESALE AND RETAIL Dr}^ Goods, Carpets, Ladies' and Gentlemen's Furnishing Goods. READY MADE CLOTHING, HATS AND CAPS. FuU Line Ladies' and Gentlemen's Fine Boots and Shoes.. LADIES' and MISSES' WRAPS and GARMENTS. Special Departments — Millinery and Custom Tailoring. , THESE DEPARTMENTS ARE UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF THE BEST ARTISTS THAT CAN BE SECURED, AND WILL GIVE ENTIRE SATISFACTION, In every department we have the largest stock in the city to select from, and our prices will lie found right every time. We treat all alike, having one price and that the lowest. Call at our house and you will receive prompt and polite attention. SABIN, ABBOTT & CO., Nos. I AND 2 Vaili. Block, two Doors from Old Cajhkdral. GO TO G. T. BUNTINGS FOR YOUR Furniture, Mattresses, Pi PICTURE FRAMES, MOULDINGS BRACKETS, WINDOW SHADES AND FANCY CABINE'l' WARE. <^N. B— Undertaking Department entirely separate.) TELEPHOIIE; Store, No. Residence, No. • No. 45 North Charlotte S St. Augustine, Fia. Standard Guide Advertiser. Roberts & Fellows, (Successors to Edw. L. Wilson) — -PUBLISHERS OF ORIENTAL AND AMERICAN Photographs*- MANUFACTURERS AND DEALERS IN Photographic Transparencies FOR THE OPTICAL LANTERN. Agents for the Mcintosh Stereoptieons, Seiopti- eons and Microscopes. COLORING LANTERN-SLIDES A SPECIALTY. SEND THREE C£NTS FOR CATALOGUE. 1305 ARCH STREET, LOGAN BUILDING, PHILADELPHIA, PA. Notice.— Negative Retouching, Slide Making, Developing and Silver Printing for the Trade and Amateurs. ^ ^^> i\D^y5^ ^CELEBRATED HATS FOR LADIES AND GENTLEMEN. + LADIES' ROUND HATS,* - EXCLUSIVE STYLES. The firm are now prepared to offer their patrons an tJmbrella stamped with their own name and trade-mark, which in every way will be as reliable in style and quality as their celebrated hats. RETAIL STORES; NEW YOKK: Nos. 178 & 180 Tifth Ave., near Fifth Ave. Hotel, bet. 22d & 23d Streets. No. 181 Broadway, near Cortlandt Street. CHICAGO: Palmer House, Nos. 171 & 173 State Street. PHILADELPHIA: No. 914 Chestnut Street. St Augustine & South Beach R'y. FRO-M ST. AUGUSTINE LIGHTHOUSE, Ocean Beach . AND South Beach. — )t)( — HOURLY WEEK DAYS AND HAEF-HOURLY SUNDAYS. i'AKE FERRY AT FOOT OF PLAZA. AND S'lEAM OARS ON ANASTASIA ISLAND. A. WOOD, Gen'l Manager. % C. L. SCHEMBER, PRINTER, 9G NASSAU STREET, NEW YORK. \^ 9-^ " "y^ ' ^; "^ V •' 9- oo =• m; ?-' \^- \' V, ^ v-\'- .xx^' '-^. ^^'i^ •>2^ -' ,.^^ . K ^ aV^ .^■> ''rj. >0 o^ ^■%. V •y.:^ v" '^_ ^.^^ .^^ '' ^ , "^ %j; \>' , ^ -' cV^^ •^^ ^"^ '^, v 'J. v^ 0* -^. ,0 o. ■"o 0^- s " \>;^ •^^ \^a r/^ x^-^ "oo"^ \, ^ -. " ^ ^' -.%:. N " ^ . .^^^■ '%'^ ■% v:^^ ^'^ -o- * '^ ^„ -bo^ "OO^ - A^ A^' ,0' H -Ci ^o vN^^' ,0o^ .0- v^r*:>r.o> / ■^^ aV '0^ \ '^ V -^"' . , , . , v. * o s o ^ ^ -^ * , , ^ ^ <^' . . . , '/- o ■^ ^'v , ^A* " •^> \\ , V I B -30. c*-. t- v\^ -0 o, ' >i ^o^^ - ,,xV hl'^ <>-r., ^^ 0' 0^ v.■^"^;^^^■ .■^ X^- 'tt 0- ■■> K '"> \V c^. *- V^'^^^/'V ■■^ Tx^// ^;r. ..XV v*^ ,vV-v. - - ' » * <> ^ ,\ « ^^ V'' 'O. 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