152 FLORIDA.

furnish protection to cattle and herds. The grasses in this
section are more tender and succulent than in the northern
and western portions of the State.
 "For the production of sugar-cane this section possesses
an advantage over Mississippi and Louisiana, where cane
has to be cut before it has attained its full saccharine de-
velopment, in order to avoid the injurious influence of
frosts. In Southern Florida the cane will tassel and perfect
itself."
 Key West was reached about noon on the day after
leaving Cedar Keys, and we were soon enjoying the com-
forts of the Russell House, a large and well-kept hotel.
Afterward we rode about the city and island, visiting the
extensive water-batteries, the park, and the lighthouse.
Everything in and about Key West is strange, foreign,
and interesting. The business houses and public buildings,
the dwellings, the gardens, lawns, flowers, trees, soil, and
vegetation, the appearance of the people, their costumes,
and even their names, all are so un-American and sugges-
tive of a foreign clime, that it is difficult indeed to realize it
as one of the busy, enterprising cities of our United States.
Nevertheless, in this far-off, isolated community of Uncle
Sam's family are found the same social sentiments and the
same interests as among all American citizens.
 Key West has a steady business of exchange and sup-
ply for all the settlers ahd retail dealers of that section of
the State. It is not of the intensely active, Chicago sort of
business, but it is steady, easy-going, and quiet, as if it were
fully established and entirely safe and reliable-and knew
it. Cigar-making is the principal industry, exceeding all
other interests, employing hundreds of people, mostly Cu-
bans, occupying numerous large establishments, and pay-
ing'to Uncle Sam an annual revenue of upward of three
hundred and twenty thousand dollars. A stroll about the
place at once makes it apparent where the famous Key
West cigars come from ; everywhere are tobacco-dealers