Petals Plucked from Sunny ClimesBrooks, A. M. (Abbie M.)
History
Petals Plucked from Sunny Climes
Brooks, A. M. (Abbie M.)
Cuba -- Description and travel; Florida -- Description and travel; Florida -- History
Long before 3 o'clock the fort was enlivened by those bent on
sight-seeing. Here were the richly-dressed ladies and their escorts,
with New-York-style mustaches, where only a restricted smile ever
rested, gazing through their eye-glasses toward every thing that came
near enough for them to take sight at, as though a fixed stare through
optical instruments was more excusable and allowable than with the naked
eye. Children of all sizes and colors came in crowds. There were more
old people present, whose silvery hair looked like a "crown of glory,"
than could be seen in any other town at once in the United States. Like
Ponce de Leon, they visit St. Augustine in search of the famous waters
which would give back their youth, restore and strengthen their feeble
limbs with renewed vigor, that would be perpetual as the verdure and
beauty by which they are surrounded. Nor are they disappointed in all
respects; for if they do not grow younger, they prolong their days to
enjoy more of God's pure air and sunlight, mingled with the perfume of
flowers and singing of sweet birds, than they would in their own homes.
As the time for the chase approached, painted Indians peered from every
part of the fort, most of them dressed in full costume, their heads
trimmed with feathers from birds of varied plumage, the most conspicuous
of which was the American turkey-tail. They were wrapped in
gaily-colored blankets, profusely trimmed with beads, all of which
trailed in a very _negligee_ manner, while they seemed as much excited
with the surroundings as any of the spectators. The Indians regard death
with much less terror than do the whites. They say that if in hunting a
horse falls and kills them, they will go where game is abundant, always
living there--thus, like the Christian, making death the golden gate to
glory.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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