Pare and quarter sufficient juicy peaches to make 1 pint. Stew gently in 1 pint of water till tender, add 1 cupful of sugar and stir until dissolved. Add 3 tablespoons of corn-starch mixed with a little cold water stir till thick and clear. Turn into molds, and serve cold with cream.
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| Notice the gold detailing on the door |
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| The Croom bed |
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| Detail of the canopy |
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| Palms and Azaleas along drive |
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| Oaks and Azaleas, looking toward Main House |
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| Gray Cottage, with Azaleas and Camellias |
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| Front lawn, with Azaleas and Canary Island Date Palms |
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| Rough House with pool to left |
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| Close up of Pink Perfection Camellia |
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| Wisteria |
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| Dogwood |
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| Pink Perfection Camellia |
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| Camellia beside Gray Cottage, with Guest House behind |
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| Azaleas and Camillia, Gray Cottage to left, Guest House and Old Kitchen behind |
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| Gray cottage. Ivy covers the butlers' pantry. |
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| Azaleas around the pool |
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| View of Azalea bed in front of Main House |
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| Azaleas by the Main House front porch |
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| Another view of Azalea bed by Main House front porch |
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| Long view of Azaleas in front of Main House |
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| Front view of Main House |
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| View of Main House from the drive |
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| Azaleas and Canary Island Date Palm in front of Main House |
It will be seen by the following table that the railroad company's charges for carrying cotton, pork, corn, flour, etc., to Saint Mark's are very high as compared with other towns:
... There is not a port on the east having the advantage of a railway communication nearer than Cedar Keys, a distance of ninety miles; on the west none nearer than Pensacola, a distance of two hundred and eighty miles. Cotton can be carried from here to the market in New York cheaper than by the present route via Savannah. The cost of the above route is as follows, viz: five cents, and from Jacksonville to Savannah, thirty-two cents; from Savannah to New York by sail, fifty cents--making a total coast of $1.65 per hundred pounds.
By the Saint Mark's route, it could be carried from Tallahassee to Saint Mark's for twenty cents, from St. Mark's to New York for seventy-five cents. By the Savannah route it only takes one week to New York; by the Saint Mark's route one month. Therefore, I allow three weeks' interest on the value of the cotton, at ten per cent, would equal ten cents per one hundred pounds; thus bringing the cost Saint Mark's route $1.05, against $1.65, the cost of the Savannah route--, leaving a balance in favor of Saint Mark's export but half the forty thousand bales of cotton it exported up to 1861, allowing five hundred pounds to the bale, there would be saved to the cotton-growers of the district an annual sum of $60,000.
On the other hand, Saint Mark's has no accommodation at present for the transaction of business; no wharf of importance, the present one being only about sixty by forty feet; no warehouses or cotton-presses of any description. The site of the village is upon low, flat marshy land, covered over with weeds and stagnant water, and the climate extremely unhealthy, it is nearly impossible for a new resident to escape having severe attacks of chills and fever. The coast is also subject to severe gales in the fall months, which sometimes do great damage. I see no prospect of Saint Mark's rising in importance for many years to come.
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| Arvah Hopkins |
The fourth year under the Commission-Manager form of the Commission-Manager form of Government presents the high-water mark of municipal activities, progress and accomplishment. The major activities have been: A quarter million dollars paving program begun and completed; another extension to our sanitary sewer system, designed and built to provide adequate sewerage for one-quarter of the area of the City in a new and developing section; a complete and smoothly working organization put in operation in strict accordance with the organization plan adopted and shown by the chart in this report; an increased efficiency in the operation of utilities already resultant in better service than at any previous time; new water and gas mains on most of streets, and sewerage installed on all streets paved during the year; the consummation of a contract with a proposed hydro-electric power company for electrical energy, which, if put in operation, will mean a great saving to the City. Yet, probably the greatest accomplishment of the administration this year has been to establish in the minds of the people a confidence in this form of government, a continuing interest in city government and a determination to secure the best service possible, which insures the success of the future of Tallahassee.
Some of the minor accomplishments this year have been the completion of a three mile side-walk program; the building of approximately two miles of worn-out or unimproved streets into excellent sand-clay thoroughfares; the preliminary survey of a sanitary sewerage system for the extreme Northeastern and Eastern sections of the city; the repairing and putting in successful operation of two septic tanks that had become unfit for use through lack of attention for several years; the installation of a new $15,000.00 fire truck, which was bought previous to the beginning of this fiscal year and an addition of one thousand feet of fire hose to the equipment; the effecting of a five cent reduction in fire rates on buildings and merchandise stock in the business section of the City by means of improvements to the fire equipment and water works plant; the purchasing of a Worthington Axiflo Pump to double the output of one well at a reduction of pumping costs; the planning and building of nearly two miles of White Way in co-operation with the Citizens Committee, the financing of which is now assured and the material bought, so that the process of the installation is already begun.
This has been a big year not only in actual municipal accomplishments, but in the growth of the City as shown by building permits as follows:
Building permits, ninety-six (96), amounting to $402,060.00; repair permits, one hundred and twenty-eight (128), amounting to $51,390.00, making a total of $453,450.00 for the year 1923. The postal receipts were $71,942.94 for 1923, a gratifying increase of $12,193.80 over the receipts for 1922. The increase in population is in line as is evidenced by new homes and apartments houses throughout the residential section and several handsome business houses under construction. Three large manufacturing plants just located just outside the city limits add a big weekly pay-roll. The railroads are doubling their yard capacity, one railroad having to increase the local switching equipment from one eight-hour shift, to three shifts covering the entire twenty-four hours, and handling two hundred cars per day originating and stopping locally.
This unprecedented growth carries with it a financial burden necessary to properly environ and serve our citizens. Work must be done now, particularly must there be additional provision made for street maintenance, increased efforts in matters of sanitation, new streets opened and built, and a larger police force; more utility equipment, especially in the water works system. It takes from one to two years for this new growth and increase in assessable valuation to definitely contribute in the way of finances to the city treasury, which must carry the load of necessary added expenses due to progress. The development of the City must not be retarded so as to affect the growth of industry and business. It would not be surprising if this should result in a higher millage, for the Tallahassee municipal tax is as low as any city in Florida. A low tax rate does not necessarily mean a progressive and enterprising city. The equitable and economical expenditure of tax money is the important consideration and the rate whether high or low is secondary.
