1 78 SUNSHINE AND SPORT IN 



World," a proud title, better worn in the olden 

 days of Spain's mastery over the Western ocean. 

 To-day there can be no question about the coming 

 greatness of Key West, and on aesthetic grounds I 

 shudder at the prospect. Yet the completion of 

 the Isthmian Canal, and also of the railroad 

 connecting this now unpretentious agglomeration 

 of sponge schooners and cigar factories with New 

 York, must inevitably raise it to a foremost position 

 among the cities of the South. Let us hope that, 

 within the restricted scope of its insular possi- 

 bilities, the beauty of Key West may grow with its 

 wealth. At present, seen at any rate from the 

 wharf, it is so unsightly that, mindful of its future 

 greatness, I forbore from photographing it. I have 

 always thought it the height of cruelty for the 

 illustrated journals to confront queens of the 

 musical-comedy stage and other royalties with 

 brutal reminders of their knock-kneed babyhood. 

 There are some not unattractive private residences 

 further along the main street, beyond the stores, 

 but the face that Key West turns towards the Gulf 

 is homely just beyond the verge of urban plainness. 

 The one human landmark of Key West is a shrill- 

 voiced dwarf, a more than ordinary restricted runt, 

 who meets each steamer and plies his countrymen 

 with chaff and pictorial postcards. He and the 

 drunken dock - labourer are, in fact, my last 

 memories of Americans on their own soil. I would 

 that this were not so, but the truth compels. 



Yet would I rather that my thoughts lingered 

 further West amid the restful isles and drowsy 

 mainland, where, untouched by winter frosts, every- 

 thing, save wheat, grows rampant ; where man and 



