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Adrian, Dec. 18, 1878.—Ex-mayor W. H. Waldby accompanied by Mrs. Waldby, their daughter Bertha, and Miss Hortense Seaver, left this city on the 16th, for Jacksonville, Florida, and they are probably by this time rapidly nearing their destination in the land of orange groves and semi-tropical sunshine. The ladies will remain at Jacksonville during the winter. Mr. Waldby will return in a few weeks.1 Tecumseh, Jan. 8.—Mr. J. B. Swan, Mr. N. M. Sutton, and Miss Annie Sutton go to Florida the 21st.2 Pleasure trip.3 Adrian, Jan. 16.—Florida Excursion.—The Florida excursion, organized by Messrs. Eberts & Hulett, starts for Florida on Tuesday next. Mr. Hulett was in town today making arrangements and seeing probable excursionists. The party will number about ¤fty and will be personally conducted by Messrs. E. & H. themselves.4 The tickets for the round trip are put at the low price of $50. F. R. Stebbins, Esq., will be one of the party, and will gladly give any information in relation to the trip. Parties can take the morning train east to Toledo.5 Adrian, Jan. 20.—F. R. Stebbins, Esq., and Mrs. R. H. Whitney, of this city, will join the excursion to Florida, which starts tomorrow.6 Adrian, Jan. 21.—From Florida—Mrs. W. H. Waldby sends home the Jacksonville Sun and Press of the 14th inst. From it we hear that a tolerably healthy earthquake shook up all that region on Sunday night, the 12th. People were thrown out of bed, and things shaken up generally.7 We also learn from reports in this paper from various parts of Florida that the recent freeze had not seriously damaged the orange crop.8 Adrian, Jan. 21.—F. R. Stebbins, Esq., started for Florida this morning, and now that he has gone, we do not hesitate to print a little poem of his, which¤rst saw the light in the Florida New Yorker, premising that the correct pronunciation of Augustine gives the emphasis on the ¤rst syllable: 3 1879 Indian River, Florida A Southern Memory Saint Augustine! Dear old Saint Augustine! Time-scared, yet beautiful!—thy face doth seem, In all my memories, a radiant beam Of golden sunshine, guiding all life’s dream! Queen-robed Augustine! Saint Augustine! Quaint old Saint Augustine! The blossom perfume of thy orange groves, Sweet as the blessedness of youthful loves, Seems calling me, where’er the wanderer roves From thee, Saint Augustine! Saint Augustine! Wave-kissed Saint Augustine! The north beach glitters with its wealth of shells, Bathed in the beautiful blue ocean swells, Which blend their music with the distant bells, Of old Saint Augustine! Saint Augustine! Palm-crowned Saint Augustine! The soft south winds still kiss San Marco’s wall, While in the frozen north I’m held in thrall Longing for thee as the white snow-®akes fall, Blue-skied Saint Augustine!9 Adrian, Jan. 27.—The Florida excursionists were detained at Portsmouth, Ohio, by ice in the river, and probably did not reach their destination last evening, as was expected.10 Adrian, Jan. 30.—The Florida excursion party, which left the 21st, reached Jacksonville last night.11 AT SAVANNAH AND THE JOURNEY THITHER Savannah, Ga., Jan. 23.—I did not intend to open my note book before our arrival on Indian river, in Southern Florida, but have thought a few lines from 1879 Indian River, Florida 19 this locality will, perhaps, interest some of your readers. We were detained twenty-four hours at Portsmouth, on the Ohio river, on account of one of those immense ice ®ows [sic], which was heralded by telegram forty miles away, and when it reached Portsmouth was seven hours in passing, with the river full of ice, and running about four miles an hour. But the Mayor of Portsmouth took us through a very large steel manufactory there, where we looked into furnaces which register four thousand degrees of heat, and looked on the various manipulations of the ore until it comes out the ¤nest steel. Not long after leaving Huntington, on the [West] Virginia side, the railway strikes the Kanawha river, and for forty miles we were whirled along its banks above foaming rapids and falls, with a wild confusion of immense rocks and mountain gorges on all sides. This route is lined with coal mines, many of the entrances high up the hills; but we saw a few directly from the level of the railway, and we could look into their...

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