MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
404 
©EG. 48 
cause little complaint. But I advise my friends 
who may conclude to reach the South by this 
route, to take either one of the steamers which 
leave New York Saturday, in preference to any 
other of this line. They are better boats; the 
accommodations and discipline upon them are 
better than on this. I know this, because I have 
been a passenger on both. 
hence I refer here to what may seem a personal 
matter. 
not moisture enough in the atmosphere here In 
the course of the year to moisten salt. Fact is, 
the housekeepers complain that their codfish 
dries up too much. We buy flft)-pound tubs 
of butter and set it right hero on the ground 
floor of this house and it keeps sweet and pure 
until our small family uses It up-and without 
Ice.” 
Solon got out his beau-pod hydrometer and 
thereby convinced us of the scientific accuracy 
or his statements! He had traveled over the 
State, and while there wore other good places 
In it, It i,is was his point anti hore ho had stayed. 
IN THE WORLD SO WIDE 
BT RUNE BLUFF 
Madame has been looking for furnished 
rooms, with or without board. There seem to 
be rooms euougb, but New York prices and 
hotter. Every one seems expecting and antici¬ 
pating a great rush hither this winter. Visitors 
have begun to arrive much earlier than usual 
and these are creating a stalo of things among 
the “ spare” rooms of the Jacksonville house¬ 
keepers anything but restful. Prices of single 
rooms, without board, furnished, with fuel and 
light, are from $25 to $45 per month each. Re¬ 
member these are In buildings that could not 
have cost, lot and all, tnoro than $3,000 to$10,000 
each. Why, the venerable and saintly-looking 
old friend of mine, Solon JROMNSOtt, who lives 
here on the ground floor of a beautiful $4,000 
cottage of his own building, and on a lot that, 
with all its Improvements, could not have cost 
over $2,000 more, Only asks $35 per week for the 
five rooms constituting the up-stairs of his 
cottage. That Is only at the rate of $1,830 per 
year. This amount will hire a pretty good 
brown stone front in New York or Brooklyn. 
Then one can get day board, having furnished 
rooms, for from $5 to $10 per week. Board and 
lodging together range from $13 to $10 and $30 
per week—that is for good board in respectable 
places. There Is scarce a house to rent; have 
seen none yet. Occasionally one sees one of¬ 
fered for sale. 
From out the corner safe and small. 
That by the name of *• dome" we call. 
We look sometimes wltii wondering eyes. 
On the luring scene that hoforc us lies. 
The statel y pomp and the glided show 
Enchantlngly pass to and fro. 
And a longing cornea to step outside 
Of the old, worn paths, Into those untried. 
Our eyes, unused to the brilliant glare, 
Are dazzled, and all Booms strnngely fair. 
Though home Is still the one sweet spot. 
We wonder that e'en such a humdrum lot 
Could have held us there, ail satisfied. 
When, awaiting us, In the world so wide. 
Wealth, fame, an I honor and greatness lie. 
If to possess them we would but try. 
Hope takes the sMng from the last good-byes. 
That are said to friends and youthful ties, 
And where she leads, In faith we go; 
She whispers of trees whose houghs hang low, 
Laded with Fortune's golden fruit; 
And we follow Fame in hot pursuit. 
Till wo lose our way, as without a guide, 
We wander at will in the world so wide. 
And some have found that which they sought, 
But it broncht net all the hllss they thought, 
And some are stranded, Kinking In vain 
The coast of plenty they wished to gain. 
Wearied, discouraged, they ull look back 
Over their zigzag, wearisome truck. 
To the care-tree days in the dear home nest. 
And sigh that they went from the world's real best, 
When they ventured to follow tho*e paths untrted 
That stretch away In the world so wide. 
Savannah, Nav. 33.—Arrived here to-day at 1 
P. M. A great deni of foreign shipping here, 
evidently awaiting the cotton crop. Two or 
three-up river steamers are unloading cotton, 
but things look dull enough along the wharves 
and in the streets. Good fires and heavy over¬ 
coats comfortable In this city to-day". We atop 
over a day at Screven House to rest. Train 
leaves for Jacksonville at 4 P. M. A section In 
an old Pullman sleeping car eostB $1. But it Is 
cheaper to pay it than be pounded on these 
Southern railroads until 3 o’clock the next 
morning in any other car. Meantime, one’s 
hotel bill here In Savannah is what he chooses 
to make it. There are $4 a day houses, and 
there are cheaper ones, whfbh some assert arc 
“Just as good.” In estimating the expenses of 
a trip the kind of hotel one stops at has to do 
with the aggregate figures. 
A veteran Illinois farmer, who has been here 
three weeks, says teu days of the time have 
been cloudy and damp. Judging by to-day, 
salt dealers would not need to dampen their 
salt hero, nor housekeepers their codfish. Fact 
is, the weather is most enervating, and one poor 
pulmonary victim from Brooklyn, N. Y., died 
in the hotel here, for lack of br**atb. Thero is 
no ozone in the air. People with pulmonary 
complaints had better lingor inland, in the more 
northern of the Southern States, until after 
Christmas, at least. In my Judgment. Perhaps 
this may be Jumping to a conclusion ; if I find 
It. Is so, I will acknowledge it. 
Jacksonville, Fla., Nov. 24. — Left Savannah 
yesterdny at 4 P. M., reaching hore at 0 A. M. 
to-day. Road rough as an old-fashioned cor¬ 
duroy road through a swamp I From what pas¬ 
sengers who came via Charleston and the all¬ 
sea route hither say, am inclined to think it the 
pleasantest way to get here. Don’t advise any 
one to take the weekly steamers from New 
York to Fernandina. They are not in good re¬ 
pute among passengers who have tried them, 
albeit passage is $5 cheaper by them to this 
point, than by any other route I know of. 
Called, with Mr. Crandell of the N. Y. Trib¬ 
une—who has been of our party from New York 
—upon Solon Robinson. Ho is tn poor health, 
looks venerable and moves ns if carrying a bur¬ 
then of infirmities. But ho has vigor of mind 
and tongue enough left to talk like a Western 
real estate agent. Wanted to know how long 
we were going to stay here. Wo didn’t know ; 
thought we should hunt for a drier climate 
than this seemed to be. 
Solon promptly suggested that we might find 
it in- Hades! But he vigorously asserted tkat 
there was no drier climate on the continent 
thau on the very spot where his cottage stood 
—“340 sunny days in a year, Blr, by actual count, 
to say nothing of the partially cloudy and par¬ 
tially sunny days.” 
“ But bow about these fogs to which we were 
Introduced this morning?” 
“ Fogs ? Why, sir, there are not over five such 
foggy mornings here in a year." 
[ftfem.—Make a note of that. Here is one of 
them; and l tike to be exact with such exact 
people!] 
Solon again.—” Why, air," said he, “ there Is 
MT KUSSET APPLES 
DOWN SOUTH 
Hero we are in Jacksonville at 9 A. M„ in the 
midst of a thick fog. Whore is the sun ? Have 
been plowing through fogall the morning. The 
atmosphere is what the people here call “soft 
It is what 1 f call murky and damp. 
A late March twilight, with a bitter Trost in 
the air, the now moon just dipping its golden 
horn behind the maple swamp In the West, and 
the ground sounding crisply underfoot. We 
had just come in from foddering the cuttle - 
” we" sounds rat her singularly when you roiled 
that It meant Kitty aud ino, two girls of seven¬ 
teen ard nineteen; but you see there wasn’t 
anyone else to do it. Father had been bedrid¬ 
den ever since that last attack of paralysis, and 
we could afford to hire no one to take bis place 
about the farm. 
“I don’t pity them gals, " neighbor Dyson 
said. “ They might sell the horse and cow.” 
Neighbor Dyson had generous- 
__ ly offered uh something lees than 
half price for them, thinking, no 
doubt, that we would be thank- 
^ ful to jump at the chance. But 
Kitty ami i, taking the matter 
into consideration, thanked him 
and declined politely. 
“Wecouldn’t koep house with- 
rJlW ol,t old Mooley, could we, Ad- 
W j/j dy ?” said my sister. “There are 
\J 1/ * BO nuin y n,cc dishes we can make 
for poor father if we have plenty 
good rich milk and cream. 
An(1 the h,,ttPr that we should 
:■ have to buy at .Neighbor Dyson's 
city prices, would go far to ooun- 
"Jj i ._ — terbalanee the money we should 
get for Mooley." 
“ As fortho horso,’’ said I, “ he 
oats but little ; and how on earth 
could wo get around the coun¬ 
try, even to the post-office, such 
weather as this, if it wasn’t for 
old Dobbin, that wo had ever 
since I could remember.” 
So it happened that, on this 
^ special March evening, we had 
just come In from attending to 
the wants.of our live sifo'ck. 
I was in great spirits, playing 
with pussy, who came to meet us 
with her plump tail erect; but 
Kitty leaned sadly against the 
wooden mantel aud looked into 
a. the fire with mournful eyes. 
'£3 “ Kitty,” cried i, at last, “what 
does make you so dull ?” 
“To-morrow is the third of 
March,” said she gravely. 
“ What of that?" I demanded. 
“Don’t you remember? The 
interest on the mortgage be¬ 
comes due to-morrow.” 
“So it does," said I, my radiant, 
face falling faster than thether- 
mometer on a freezing day ; 
“$35; and we have nothing to 
pay it with except the $15 Laura 
Sjpj Osgood paid for the old melo- 
“ Perhaps Willis Avery would 
9 wait J" suggested Kitty. 
-— - 1 I drew myself up slightly. 
i “ I don’t choose to ask him to 
wait,” said I. 
Now it happened that Willis 
Avery, who heid the mortgage 
on our homestead, was the son 
_ of a neighbor and an old play¬ 
fellow and boy-beau of my own, 
~ who had gone to the prosperous 
_ , | joungcltyn few miles north of 
— ■ tt- ■—- us and commenced business on 
his own account, and I had a 
particular aversion to asking aid 
DIARY AND NOTES OF AN EX-EDITOR SEEKING 
HEALTH. 
BY C. I>. BRAGDON. 
Hore is another $4 a day hotel. Four of us 
who arrived this morning, breakfastless, didn’t 
know where else to go; but it is a profound 
conviction, emphatically expressed, that “we 
must get out or this." ThlB “ land of pure de¬ 
light" and city of morning fogs and night mists 
must feed and lodge us cheaper If possible. 
I find there are other people who think the 
same way and doubtless others will come, 
[My Dear Moore:— This diary—or these 
notes—will include some account of what I may 
see, something of what l may hear and, per¬ 
haps, my own opinions or conclusions concern¬ 
ing what I both see and hear. Necessarily, re¬ 
corded daily, there will be a degree of superfi¬ 
ciality about them; but when 1 began to think 
going South, 1 found there 
were many questions I wanted 
answered before I decided where 
to go. I did not got them an- /^- 
Bwered; and the few answers I / 
did get were so conflicting as to 
be confusing; and literally, I 
feel as if 1 had been compelled 
to, in a great degree, “go it 
blind.” But 1 have been realiz¬ 
ing facts and acquiring know I- . 
edge which may prove of inter¬ 
est or advantage to others. Such I l 
have been jotted down in this 
diary aud are at your and the 
public’s service, if you choose to 
print ’em.J ISgSsi 
New Fork, Nan. 18-Sail to¬ 
day In steamer Herman Living¬ 
ston for Savannah. Purchased 
ticket by this line to Jackson¬ 
ville, Fla., for $37.50 each—which 
includes stateroom, meals, and 
passage to Savannah, transfer 
in omnibus at Savannah to the 
Gulf railroad depot, and pas¬ 
sage over that road, la this the 
best route? 1 do not know. 
Some prefer the Charleston 
route and steamer passage all 
the way. Cost, probably the same 
—time longer. 
Later .—We are afloat. There 
are young men on the boat who 
never ought to go away from 
home if they have a comfortable 
one. Doubt If they get to Flor¬ 
ida; if they do they will scarcely 
live there long. Certainly their 
friends, if they have any, ought 
not to allow them to go unat¬ 
tended. Here la a poor fellow 
whose every breath is a short 
gasp; whose face and frame ex¬ 
hibit no vitality adequate to 
meet the fatigues of a sea and 
railroad voyage. Life may be 
very precious to him and this 
may be the last straw to which 
be can cling; but it is hopeless, 
I fear. “ Too late I too late!” is 
written all over bis case. 
At Sect, Sunday, Nov. 21.—Still 
we are lumbering along towards 
Savannah. Rough sea and head 
winds most of the time. To-day 
it is hot on deck. We are to 
reach Savannah full twenty-four 
hours behind time. This old 
wooden boat has proven a fair 
sea craft, but 3low enough. Food 
served and attention paid to 
securing the comfort of the pas¬ 
sengers have been such as to 
