194 HOME LIFE IN FLORIDA. 



year round. There were three mails a week, coming over- 

 land for sixty miles, instead of one ; there was a telegraph 

 line erected next, and then the St. John's and Lake Eustis 

 Railroad opened a line of communication with Jacksonville 

 via the St. John's River that shortened the two-and-a-half 

 day's trip on the Ochlawaha boats to one day, or a little 

 over. Then came a daily mail, and four or five boats a 

 week in addition to the daily service by way of the St. 

 John's and Lake Eustis Railroad. All these onward steps 

 were not only the cause, but the direct result of the new 

 class of settlers who were coming in — and are still, we may 

 add — faster and faster. 



Now, at this present writing, the change in this young 

 city of Leesburg, fed by three railroads, is simply wonder- 

 fid ; and the rapid improvement here is but a type of the 

 majority of the Florida towns as soon as a railroad reaches 

 them. 



There is almost nothing that can not be purchased in the 

 larger and older towns. Many of them are tapped by more 

 than one railroad or boat line ; several have ice factories ; 

 many have large handsome stores, churches, banks, acade- 

 mies, every thing in fact that can minister to comfort, lux- 

 ury, and refinement. All these things Leesburg now has. 



In many localities, where the transportation lines have 

 preceded him, the settler will find no difiiculty in procuring 

 all of the comforts and many of the luxuries of life. 



The country is still new, but the days of deprivation are 

 rapidly passing away. It does not pay for the settler to 

 bring a lot of perishable provisions with him if he is bound 

 for the near neighborhood of a town ; the freight charges 

 will ''eat up" any difterence in the price. For instance, 

 a neighbor of our own brought from New York a barrel 

 of flour; it proved not to be the quality desired, and a 

 merchant "in town" offered to exchange it for a superior 



