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THE SOUTHERN WORLD, NOVEMBER 1,1882. HOME LIFE Ilf FLOBIDA. IT BILIM HABCOUBT. JVM Paper. “ What Will It Cost? ’• Hid we not, in oar article entitled “The Orange Groves of Florida," published In the issues of the Soctbibi Wobld of June 15th and July 1st, of the current year,—had We not ben, we repeat, given full details as to the “making" and value of groves of this topular fruit, such a description would have fitted in just here; but having done so, we will (bearing in mind the Bible warning against "va'n repetitions"), merely refer our readers to those issues, for all that they need to know on that subject, until they come to put its details in actual practice, and then any further necessary knowledge may be gleaned from neighbors, or from any relia ble book on orange culture or Florida fruits. Passing by then, as an accomplished fact, all instructions on the orange question, we will proceed at once to the discussion of how to make a home. We do not mean a house, we have already discussed that matter, but a real, true home. One may have a very fine house, fitted with every comfort, and with gorgeous furniture and beautiful grounds, and yet it may ut terly lack that repose and harmony and sen sation of "coziness" without which a true heart-satisfying home cannot be made any where, even if all the members of the fam ily that occupy it, are genial, good natured and affectionate, and as every one knows these qualities are so important that with out them, there can be no home life at all, but only a restless unhappiness, and a pas- aionato longing for peace and kindly fellow ship. They make up three-fourths of a home, it Is true, and with them one may be happy, even with the most incongruous surround ings, but still there will be a sensation of “ something wanting.” There are costly houses scattered all over the country, elegantly furnished and full of luxury, but the moment you are ushered Into their drawing-rooms where the expen sive furniture is carefully swathed in cold looking linen, and books, if not altogether absent, are because of their handsome bind ings—practically labeled “ touch not, handle not," being stowed away under glass covers, to be seen, not read: you feel a chill sense of uneasiness, and draw a sigh of relief, as you pass out again into the free, untrammelled air. Again, there are snug little cottages all about us, where every apartment, though furnished in the plainest manner, conveys an idea of comfort, ease and home. Now, though we have few very fine houses, as yet, in Florida, we find this same difference in full existence; we have seen* houses well built, with large rooms, halls and piazzas, and all necessary furniture, the dwelling places of wealthy people, which conveyed not the faintest touch of that home feeling so dear to us all; we have seen the same thing in other houses, where the owners had dwelt for years and yet, bad not planted a tree, nor, vine nor flowers around them; where chickens and pigs roamed In and out of the house at will, in and under the beds and tables; sometimes a broken down rail fence suffices to keep cattle at a respect ful distance from the house, but often the bouse is dropped down in the piney woods without any fence at all. We passed such a house as the latter one day (our conscience forbids us to call it a home), and a woman arrayed in one scanty garment, a "kaliker” dress, was singing over the wash-tub near the door, while a sow and three of her progeny were visible from our point of view, a saddle inside the narrow entry; at the door half inside, were a cow and calf, and roosting contentedly on the window-sill were a half dozen chickens. The woman nodded at us with the custom ary " Howdy I" and we rode on with a won der, and a half sigh—the wonder at the evi dent contentment of that woman under such a state of existence,and the half sigh because some of the rest of us could not be content with it also; it involved so little work and ■o little expense, at least, until our groves eome into profit, for that little significant word ‘until’ covers for many a Florida settler a multitude of weary days, and months, aye and years; if he has not the wherewithal to meet current expenses while waiting the happy climax to his labors. It often happens to such an one, to wish that human creatures could do as the alliga tors and water-turtles, namely, go down into the mud and lie dormant until the sun shines, or what means the same thing here, until the grove has arrived at full bearing. And now, we hear a voice at our shoul der more truthful than complimentary. “ Goosie, goosie gander, wither will ye wan der.” It is true, we have strayed from our path; let us go to our present task of mak ing a home, such an one, we mean, as we find here and there, almost always too, among the Northern settlers, with neat fences, clearly laid out walks bordered with oleander trees, with roses and other flow ers scattered all around, with broad latticed piazzas, shaded and beautified by densely foliaged vines, mingled together in joyous, happy-go-lucky fashion that is charming to see. . Buona nox, evening glory, yellow jasmine and trumpet creeper, beauties all of them and to be had for the digging in the ham mocks all around. Thunbergia, cypress-vine, barcliana, evening jasmine, English ivy, honeysuckle, all these and many more, hob nob together in riotous exuberance, and the glory and fragrance of their loving em brace must be seen to be realized. This is a type of the home we would have every lady to own who comes to live in our “ Land of Flowers," and she can easily have it too, and in a less time than one would suppose possible. To any one accustomed to the slow growth, and yearly check for months of vegetable life in the North, the rapid, luxurious and almost ceaseless growth of South Florida vegetation is simply won derful. If you own so much as twenty acres of land it will go hard if there is not at least one large or small lakelet on the tract. If it be a deep one, at least in the center, it will never go dry like a cow; build your house near by, not very close, else in wet weather the water may creep up to your door, but so as to have a full view of the clear, beautiful water, and the beautiful water lilies that are either already there or can be brought from more favored lakelets in the neighborhood. A little water, in one pure, mirror-like spot, will do wonders for a landscape, in fact, one feels the want of a principal element of beauty if it is not to be seen. As we have intimated, there are few tracts of twenty, or even ten acres in South Florida where a lake of some kind may not be found; from the second story of a houso at the writer’s hand, for instance, no less than ten such sheets of water, some larger, some smaller, are visible, their extent altering greatly as the wet or the dry season prevails. “ Are they not unhealthy ?" we are often asked. No, not at all; they are vastly dif ferent from the ponds scattered widely through many of our Northern States, which have mud bottoms, and in which the water becomes stagnant and malarial; our nu merous Florida lakelets, (we don’t degrade them by calling them ponds,) are formed by hollows of different sizes becoming filled with water during the copious rains of sum mer. Sometimes they are originated and fed by springs, but however this may be, the fact remains that their bottomsare composed entirely of sand, clean, pure and unfouled by mud. The water constantly filters down through the the sand, and a constant evapo ration also takes place from the surface, so that its mass is always changing and never stagnates. Many a time have we ridden through these little lakelets when the water was so deep as to necessitate lifting our feet to our horse’s back, and yet the white sand and short grass at the bottom were almost as plainly to be seen as if uncovered. When the dry time comes, and they begin to recede from their shallow margins, there is nothing left exposed to decay in the sun and air, as there is on the great lake shores; but clean sand, or perhaps a few blades of timid, slender grass, looking as if frightened to death at its return to dry land. There are no healthier localities than those in these numerous little sheets of water, and they are not only ornamental, as we have said, but useful also. The horses, cattle, chickens, ducks, dogs, all the domestic family in fact, regard them with high favor as fashionable watering-places, and frequent them accordingly, especially during the summer season. The horses and cattle browse around their margins, the chickens have a fine time chasing insects and hunting little frogs, the ducks paddle about to their hearts content, only slightly demoralized when, once in a while, a wicked alligator pokes up his head and one of their number reluctantly accompanies him on his return trip to the bottom of the lake. The dogs lap up the pure, clear water and go their way rejoicing, and the cats, when disgusted with the table kept by their owners, go down to the shore and step on the damp ground with a comioally reluctant, dainty tread, and sit ting down at the water's edge, with a silent protest against such useless moisture, wait patiently, with pricked up ears and intent gaze, until a luckless fish swims within the fatal radius of those lurking claws, and then, presto I a paw goes under the water like a flash, and the fish comes out, bewildered with its sudden rise in the world. That last word gives another phase of the usefulness of even our smaller lakes for there is scarcely one that lacks a supply of fish. The so-called trout, which are really black bass, are found in nearly all, and the bream, sun-fish and war-mouth perch, abound. They are all fine fish for the table, their flesh sweet and firm. The trout often attain a weight of from twelve to fifteen pounds, the others are smaller and good for frying, often also in these small lakes, so tiny as to be cooked like the smelts or frost- fish of the Northern winter markets, namely in one indiscriminate mass.' They taste very much like them too. Then there are turtle in these lakelets, real genuine turtle. We don’t claim that they are green turtle, but nevertheless they are excellent eating, either in soup, a plain stew, or cooked a-la-terrapin. There are two kinds. One, a very handsome fellow, with an arched, hardshell back, boldly marbled in orange and black. He' is a mild, inoffen sive creature, and very pleasant to interview on the soup tureen. We can’t speak so high ly socially of his brother turtle, who is the unmitigated scamp with a broad, flat leath ery back, hard in the center and pliable at the edges, and who wears a dirty, blackish, wrinkled coat. He is not mild nor inoffen sive, try him once and you will see in what manner he will dart his long, homy, tube like snout at your fingers. He always re ceives very respectful treatment from his captors until the opportunity carefully watched for, arrives of cleaving the threat ening snout from his ugly body, or, per chance. !>e ends his days in a pail of boiling water, wMch, after all, is the bestand most merciful way of ending them. The largest we have seen of either of these turtles weighed about ten pounds, and they, with the fish, are no despicable gifts from the little lakelets to the family table. How are they caught ? Well, we will come to that in due time. Very often, too, water fowl frequent their smooth waters, and from this source a sports man can furnish many a welcome dish for the household. In front of our modest home, with a short avenue of oleander trees lead ing down to its grass-grown shore, is one of these little lakes we have been talking about. It does not cover an acre of ground at its largest, and in dry times it shrinks to a deep half-acre basin in the center, whose sides are evidently perpendicular like a well. It never contracts more than this, and is proba bly fed by springs. The water is as clear as crystal, and in calm weather reflects the sun and cloud like a burnished mirror, while in windy times, it is wonderful to see how the miniature waves rise up, so as to thump and toss our little boat and cur] their white caps all around it. Our circular water mirror has a veritable frame of its own of green and gold, a clear, un broken circle about six feet wide,of a curious aquatic plant with small leaves floating on the surface of the water, with bright yellow flowers rising above them, clearly defining the edge of the well-like, permanent basin. “ I would give five hundred dollars for a lakelet like that on my place,” exclaimed a less fortunate neighbor whose water-mirrors will sometimes shrink away to nothing, leav ing a grass-grown hollow that cattle delight in. And this wish is expressed, not on ac- countof the beauty of that little sbiningspot, but because of its permanency, and hence its value to its owner, should he desire to water his grove in a dry time by the aid of a wind-mill, or use it for the supply of his house. In this connection five hundred dol lars is a low estimate of the value of a per manent lakelet large or small, near one’s grove and house. As a rule, the shores of these lakelets in cline so gradually to the deep water in the center that fishing from the shore is out of the question. A prettily painted skiff riding on the water adds much to its beauty, but where such cannot be procured, a home made flat-bottomed scow answers just as well. As we said awhile ago, it is better to put your house back a few hundred yards from the lakelet, not only for the reason then given but because, if you have no other con veniently near, you will either have to shut out your chickens, horses and calves from its enjoyment, or else lay aside all idea of building up a cozy home-like surrounding. Ohiokena, hones and oalvea don’t agree with flowers, trees and vines. Fence off a small space around the bouse, if regularly made pickets cannot be had and this is the case in most parts of the State; shingling laths from the nearest saw mill, cut into five feet lengths, make an excellent and neat fence, painted or white-washed. We say a small space advisedly because unless one is able to keep a man or boy constantly employed among the flowers and small fruit trees and grass plats around the house, the weeds will gather headway and soon choke the more delicate plants to death, and that wicked irrepressible sandrspur grass, with its tall tufts of sharp, stiff, hooked points that punc ture like a needle, and holds fast with a tenacity of purpose that we might admire under other circumstances, will quickly take possession of the territory, and make pedes trians unhappy, especially those who are un fortunate enough to wear skirts. One might well liken these vandals of the Florida soil to an uneasy conscience,“their prick" is sharp enough surely. They are called “spurs" rather sarcasti cally it would seem, since their effect is to retard progress rather than to spur it on. They are had enough in the field or grove but they become intolerable around the bouse, and so since they and other obstreperous weeds flourish during nine months of the year, and require constant watchfulness to keep them under subjection, it is better to throw most of the battle upon the plow out side of the garden gate, for in afamily where the means are wanting, to hire a man or boy by the month, the burden of keeping such “ useless trnsli ’’ as flowers or vines in order will be cast by the busy men folks upon their more delicate companions who are alive to their actual utility as home attrac tions. Those who have come from the old settled, thoroughly civilized portions of the North, or West, or indeed, of the South, will almost inevitably experience a sense of dismay and hopelessness, at the prospect of the long struggle before them, when they behold a wilderness of oak or pine trees, rearing their heads aloft on the very spot selected for their home. Where a place can be pur chased with improvements already started, it is a great gain, but the majority cannot secure such an one, and so must carve their own home out of the virgin forest. Nor is this such a dreadful <undertaking as it ap pears at the outset; the trees and vines grow so rapidly, and it is snch a pleasure to watch their increase, and note how steadily order is forming out of chaos, and comfort and beauty marching to the front. We know ail about it because our own home was started amidst a forest of tall, deadened trees, with a straggling field of corn growing in their midst, and sand-spurs so luxuriant that every step was painful and almost impossi ble, until a plow had turned under the ob noxious vandals. The white, ghostly-look- ing trees had to be hewn down, cut up and rolled away in piles to be burnt, the stumps grubbed and burned out, and the corn laid low before the carpenters could even lay the foundation for the house. The kitchen, which is generally detached from the main house, was built first, and the two members of the family who preceded the rest in their flight from the chilly North, lived therein, cooking on an oil stove out of doors for two months. The room was com modious enough, twelve by eighteen feet but for a dwelling after a large, three-story city house, with all modern conveniences was a somewhat bewildering change, and the wild surroundings of a native forest, and the rat, tat, tat of hammers on the main house and the thud of falling trees all day, the weird glare of of a hundred fires illumi nating the landscape at night, and flashing back from that little mirror we have spoken of, all these things added not a little to the oddity of a novel scene, until irresistibly arose the recollection and personal applica tion of the famous nursery rhyme, of the little old woman who fell asleep ;.n tho king’s highway, who bewildered by the curtail- mentof her skirts whileshe slept,exclaimed: “ It I be I, as I hope I be, I’ve a little do* at borne, and be knows me • If I be I, be will wa* his little tall, ’ It I be not I, he will bark and he will wall. •• Home went the little woman, all in the dark ” Up jumped the little dog and he began to bark The dog began to bark and she began to err ' Ohl lawkl oh I mercy! this surely can’t be I." When the house was finished every one went to work to “ fixup," and transform the crude elements into a comfortable, home like place, the stronger arms went to digging out and burning out stumps, and in a few months, one pair of arms—unaccustomed to such work too—disposed of over three hund red of these unsightly hindrances to cultiva tion- The weaker hands found full employ-