The Billboard 1908-11-21: Vol 20 Iss 47 (1908-11-21)

% 16 The Billboard NOVEMBER 21, 1908. -fressed or made payable to The Bi The edi The St. Johns. W. H. DONALDSON, Managing Editor. ‘ PUBLISHED WEEKLY AT 416 Elm Street, Cincinnati, Ohio, U. S. A, wng Distance Telephone, Main 2769, Cable Address (registered) “Billyboy.” NEW YORK. SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. Suite D, Holland Building, 1440 Broadway. Room 2, 1439 Fillmore Street Telephone, Central 1630 Bryant. LONDON, ENGLAND CHICAGO. 8 Rupert Court, Leicester Square, W. «1-909 Schiller Building, 103-109 Randolph 8t. MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA. Telephone Central 5934. Caledonian Building, office 264, Postoffice Place. Address all communica:ions for the editorial or business departments to The Billboard Publishing Company. Subscription, $4 a year; 6 months, $2; 3 months, $1. Payable in advance. No extra charge to foreign subscribers. ADVERTISING RATES—Tweaty cents per line, agate measurement. Whole page, $140; half. page. $70; qua:ter-page £35. 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To the showman who wants rest and recreation, and at the same time a respite from the severity of the northern winter, there are places in the United States that may be visited at an expense very small compared with what would be incurred upon a trip to Italy or Southern The France. It is only within the past few years that our own Winter wealthy classes have fully awakened to the fact that sections tn Florida. of our great country offer facilities for winter sojourning that can not be surpassed by the countries of the Mediterranean. One need not go farther than Florida to find all the comforts of a semi-tropical climate, where flowers bloom in abundance and fruit ripens in the groves and orchards, while New York and Chicago are assailed by ‘blizzards, and only the doughty venture out even to the theatre or the opera. It is not necessary to go as far south even as Palm Beach on the East Coast, or Tampa on the West, to enjoy the equability of climate that has made these resorts popular for a period that is longer than that of any other of our wintering places. Saint Augustine, only thirty-eight miles from Jacksonville, has all the facilities for taking care of her winter visitors from the North in a manner that can scarcely be surpassed by any other city, either in this country or in Europe. Her hotels are of the most modern and commodious design, The Ponce de Leon and The Alcazar being unsurpassed anywhere for exterior and interior beauty. Saint Augustine itself is a most unique and interesting city. From a historical standpoint, it is the oldest town in the United States, dating from the Spanish occupation in the early part of the seventeenth century. The old portions of the town still bear the original Spanish aspect, some of the streets being so narrow that it is almost impossible for two vehicles to pass without collidivg, even though there are no sidewalks, the pedestrians using the main roadway. No city in the world possesses a more picturesque central or public square than is the plaza of Saint Augustine. Thickly shaded with oaks and palmettos, it is a beauty spot to which the visifors’ all bend their step at -some period of the day, and the life there during the tourist season has all the elements of gaiety that may be found in European cities of much greater size and importance. It was in Florida that the tourist first found the essentials of his egstwhile winter resort on the other side of the Atiantic. Northern cap#alists foresaw the popularity that was to be, and the hotels in which our multi millionaires and their families now make their homes from Down December till April, are the result. The transportation companies have not been dilatory either sbout providing accommo dations that are in keeping with the elegance of the hostleries. Out of Jacksonville, one may take a steamer to Sanford, two hundred miles distant, on the St. Johns River. The St. Johns is the crookedest river in the world. Though at Jacksonville its width is almost -equal to that of the Hudson at New York, it becomes gradually narrower and ecrookeder as the boat ascends, until about a hundred miles from Jacksonville it is barely wide enough for the boat to make its way between the banks, and the curves are so sharp that oftentimes one wheel is on the ground, while the overhanging foliage sweeps the decks. Tt has been said by some one that the chief beauty of the St. Johns lies in its ugliness. This is manifestly a paradox, but it f more or less expressive of the real condition. The river flows between swamps and marshes, that are unpopulated and unproductive. Picturesqueness is added by the trees on the banks hanging thickly draped with moss. Unguided save by the current of the stream float the famous floating lilies of Florida. At times they become so thick that they obstruct the progress of the powerful steamer, and the crew finds it difficult to dislodge them from the wheels with the strong poles shaped for the purpose. Now and again a mammoth alligato: from twelve to fifteen feet in length will draw himself lazily out on the bank to bask in the sunshine. It is all unique. The boat makes only one landing between three o’cloch in the afternoon and four the next morning. This is at Palatka, the mos) important town south of Jacksonville on the St. Johns, and a score of cab bies are in waiting for a possible “fare.” The disturbance they raise in thei) competition for him, could hardly be equalled by any other twenty men in any other place en this funny old world of ours. Sanford is situated in the heart of the orange-growing district of North ern Florida, and the trip back to Jacksonville by train takes you through some of the most magnificent groves in the State. This is only one—a representative one—of the many side trips that may be taken out of Jacksonville and Saint Augustine. The Florida resort is the resort for the man of moderate means, whu wishes to elude the icy winter of the North—who wishes to settle down and live where it is warm, while he is paying plumber bills on account ot! frozen and burst pipes at home. But if he is restless and wants to be moving, as becomes the second natur: of most showmen, let him leave Florida after a time ane go over to New Orleans, where he can mingle with the cosmopolitan crowds on metropolitan Canal Street. Le: him have lunch at Fabacher’s and dinner at the Louisianne, and at leas! one breakfast at Madame Beguet’s, to reach which he has to climb a pai: of crooked stairs behind an Italian saloon, and where there is sawdust o1 the floor. But Madame Beguet’s menu contains everything from crawfis} and snails to the best Italian claret, and !f he does not come away satisfied it is surely not the fault of the hostess. Then let him go on to Galveston. New Orleans, And Galveston, Out on that beautiful island that has been reclaimed from the sea ane lies like a gem on a beauty’s bosom, nestling in the gleaming golden waterof the gu.f, your dreams of life will seem as night-mares compared to the reality of the bliss and comfort and restfulness of it all. And near the sea wall you'll stumble onto a mass of shacks built mostl) of drift-wood and wreckage. Back of it is a garden of flowers—a most wonderful garden of shades and sunshine with the odor of.tropical fruits ane the perfume of roses wafted around by the rest-producing breezes from tha ever to be remembered sea. It may make one poetical, but it surely createan appetite such as you never dreamed of. To those who know, there is 4 little stairway winding up to the “bridge’’ on the roof of the shack, and here, in a little cabin overlooking the sea, presides Felix—he of the smiling moon-face and glasses, with his two hundred pounds of good humor and wit bubbling over. If you trooped in the old days with Barnum, or Rice, o) Forepaugh, you will remember Felix, and he hasn't changed a bit. You tell this insistent host that you are hungry, and it’s all off—about two o: three dozen oysters raw to start with—oysters that shame the things tha: bear the same name, even in Baltimore; then a half-dozen baked crabs, as a sort of settler. Now you are ready for your supper, and, armed with a homeforged knife in one hand end a dish cloth in the other, with a bowl of melted butter before you, the start is made; and once you get going on those steamed oysters, no one ever stops, except to wash them down. Hospitality is the watchword of Galveston, and they sure do live up te it. Whole-souled men and beautiful ladies vie with each other in making i pleasant and happy for the stranger that is within their gates. May a blessing rest for always on this beautiful isle of the sea, and all who dwel! thereon! Then on again to El Paso, with a little side trip over into Juarez, where there is a bull-ring and regular Sunday fights that will satisfy the curiosity of any showman who has been wanting to know what a bull-fight is like. Los Angeles is one of the most modern and delightful of our American cities. Furthermore, there is no other town in the country that offers the number and variety of side trips that may be enjoyed from this point. Go to Catilina. It is an ocean trip of only thirty miles, but in California the balmy sunshine of Southern California, it is one of the And Her most enjoyable excursions imaginable. Here are the submaResorts. rine gardens that have been celebrated in prose and poetry. where one looks down through the glass bottom of the boat and sees the most wonderful coloré both in fish and vegetation that he has ever dreamed of. San Diego is only a few hours’ run from Los Angeles. Here is the Coranado Beach Hotel, where one may dream away the beautiful days in peace and idleness. Then again, out from Los Angeles to Mt. Lowe, where can be experienced all the thrills of mountain climbing without physécal exertion, as the trip is made by inclined plane and trolley. Horses are used to get to the very summit of the mountain, if one so desires; but at the terminus of the trolley line, there is a tavern, from which the tourist ma‘ look out over the foot-hills, Los Angeles and the Catalina Islands, California is rich in resorts for the winter tourists. All through the southern part of the State are towns and colonies devoted to his comfort and amusement. Why should any showman, or actor, or performer, who is not working stay at home and miss the beauties of the semi-tropical section of our wonderful country, when opportunities for travel are so rich and plentiful * an expense that barely exceeds that of living at home. It is not eften that an actor, even though he be a star of the first mag nitude, is given editorial mention in a daily newspaper. Once in awhile when an actor dies or does something that an editor considers worthy of mention, space in the editorial column is allotted to a few Newspaper brief lines, extolling his merits; but Al. G. Field did no! Man On have to die or even to do anything more than he usually Minstrelsy. does, to have the editor of the Austin (Texas) Daily States man take his pen (or his pencil) in hand, and indite the following to the extent of nearly a full column, leaded: P For many years, in fact, up to within ten years since, minstrelky was regarded as a rougt and ready type of exhibition containing a lot of fun, some fuss and a show of feathers, ‘the whole constituting a combination of hilarity, frivolity, tomfoolery and immodesty (or more prop erly speaking, indecency) that rendered it fit anly for the rabble and riff-raff of soclety to witness Like other things, however, minstrelsy has grown and improved to snch an extent that ft is now recognized as quite as legitimate and creditable an exhibition of wit, bumor, sentiment song and pathos as the best character of play we mortals are accustomed to see, The ‘‘King of Minstreley’’ is in Austin to-day, and Austin is glad to have him here. Al. G Field, the modern minstrel, and recognized master and promulgater of modern minstrelsy, 1+ an sage welcome visitor to the Capital city of the greatest commonwealth in the Americar republic. ° Who does not know, or know of, this genial, kindly, sympathetic, whole-souled, generous phil eres man of men? He is truly a benefactor to mankind for his benefactions are more an a few. Al. Field has cast sunshine where the shadow was; with gladness he has supplanted sadness the pathways that sorrow trod he has lighted with joy; the heart dismayed he has shown the rainbow of hope; to the downcast he has made plain the brighter side of Ife: the remorseful he has transformed into the mirthful: vices be converts into virtues. Indeed, by their bewitching graciousness, Al. Field and his jovial, joy-making and noble co-workers have dispelled the gloom that overshadowed the life of many a poor, forlorn and dejected creature, and beckoned the weary and heavy-ladened in many « land to the clearer and more appreciable vision of the prom ising future as well as the net unpromising present. They are the exemplars of modern minstrelsy, and he fs its chief exponent and most accom plished promoter. In their hands minstrelsy is clean, is enlivening, isennobling, is instructive, !* to the human race beneficent. Suecess to the genial and gentlemanly Al. Field, ané his upright and uplifting cast of mio strelxvy. May his pleasure boding shadow never grow less e hope he will have, as he deserves to have, a crowded house In Austin to-night. Al. certainly has a way with him that newspaper men (as well a* others) like.