FLORIDA.


turkeys, large and shy.
bear also are plentiful.
 The entire trip that
region, the only human
the road being four or


This is a range where deer and

day was through an unsettled
beings living anywhere along
five families of Florida natives,


the genuine, unadulterated "cracker "-the clay-eating,
gaunt, pale, tallowy, leather-skinned sort-stupid, stolid,
staring eyes, dead and lusterless; unkempt hair, generally
tow-colored; and such a shiftless, slouching manner! sim-
ply white savages-or living white mummies would, per-
haps, better indicate their dead-alive looks and actions.
Who, or what, these "crackers" are, from whom descend-
ed, of what nationality, or what becomes of them, is one


among the many unsolved mysteries in this State.
and shiftless, yet shy and vindictive, they are a
the pathway of civilization, settlement, and e
wherever they exist. Fortunately, however, they
few and rapidly decreasing in numbers, for they


exist near ci
we passed of
with low roo
or fireplaces;
floors; no ou
plants, except
supplies their
and the tops
wild fruits, f
clay eaten aE


 Stupid
block in
enterprise
are very
can not


ilized settlements. The four or five cabins
these "crackers" were bare log structures,
fs, no doors or windows-merely openings-
no filling between the logs, and usually no
t-houses, wells, or fences ; and no gardens or
a sweet-potato patch. A near lake, or spring,
water; hogs, cattle, and game, their meat;
of cabbage-palmettoes, sweet-potatoes, and
orm almost their only diet; while pellets of
s a seasoning ingredient take the place of


needed sal
 As the
we were s
tree close


t and pepper.
stage was slowly climbing
surprised to see four women,
by the roadside; all were of


a rise in the road,
seated on a fallen
precisely the same


size, with the same features, eyes, and hair, and a vacant,
stupid stare; each wore a light-colored, faded calico dress,
of plainest, scantiest possible make, quite clean (a surpris-