Petals Plucked from Sunny Climes

no signaling here, as at other rivers in the State, for fossilized Spaniards to take us over the bars. After describing a triangle, we enter

by a seat upon the decks of its steamers. The banks are low, with an occasional bluff, accompanied by a wildness of scenery not so unvaried as to become monotonous. The river runs through heavily-timbered lands, consisting of sweet-gum, sweet-bay, and live-oak, from whic

twenty-four in circumference, and eight feet through at the base. From this kind

birds, which sing songs of joy as we pass; but when wounded, their helpless bodies fall into the turbid waters-the last that is seen of them being a fluttering pinion, signaling their sinking condition, with no one to pity or rescue. The clic

mid-winter the river-banks are lined with flowers in full bloom, as though Jack Frost was not abroad with his withering b

ty feet, forming bowers filled with blooms, supported by woody stems, sending forth thei

with a more ambitious turn, are clinging to the trees, with their pink petals bursting into bloom, as the wild oranges and scarlet berries combined

hey need, from a sugar-mill to a plug of tobacco. From this portion of the country are shipped sea-island cotton, moss, oranges, vanilla, chickens, and eggs. These are sold in Jacksonville to obtain their family supplies. The Captain goes shopping

e we witnessed an affectionate meeting between a husband and wife. The lady had just returned from Jacksonville on the steamer. When she stepped on shore, and saw her husband waiting for her, she

ver at a single bound, then goes crashing against the large limbs,

l been removed from the river. The sound, then, of big limbs rasping across the boat, which had been crushed by coming in contact with it, resembled thunder. The Captain changed his seat very suddenly to go forwa

They appear to come from nowhere, their first appearance being on a bateau, or little platform, by the river-banks, where are seen sta

late through the South entirely unknown in other localities, called crackers, I herewith append a descr

DING IN A C

ing their neighbors through "hayin' and harvestin', or diggin' taters." Many of them never "hire out," but subsist entirely by hunting, fishing, or gathering berries, for which pursuits their wild natures and unsettled habits well adapt them. They excel in the piscatorial profession, studying the habits of the finny tribe during their various stages, together with their times of ascending and descending the streams. Sometimes the city folks come out to spend a few days with tent and reels, which movement these self-constituted sovereigns of the soil regard as a direct innovation of their rights; and if the supposed intruders escape without their tent being burned, or their clothes stolen, during the day when they are absent, it ma

ection on delivery. Their clothes are made mostly of wool, it being a home product, and the winters so severe they are obliged to be protected. The "wimmen folks" weave the cloth, then color it blue or red, and when the garments are made they are worn through all seasons-in winter to keep out the cold, and in summer the heat. There is no changing of raiment, nor any record kept of the time each garment is worn, it being only removed when patching becomes necessary, and a Joseph's coat among them is not an uncommon sight. They are not remarkable for their powers of a

n their unfeeling efforts to abuse the South, and impress the world with the idea that crackers and poor whites

are called "Poor Buckra," and in Florida "Sand Lappers," or "Crackers." The Florida crackers are supposed to be named from the facility with w

d for Quaker, which in Spanish is cuacero, first changed into cuaker by the English, and again into cracker. From

ually country-made cotton home-spun. The genuine cracker wears a broad-brimmed hat, braided from palmetto, a brown-jean coat and breeches, a deer-skin vest with the fur left on, and a pair of stout, useful cow-skin boots, or shoes. He supports a very unkempt mustache and whiskers, before which a Broadway dandy would shrink with the most intense disgust. This natural growth obscures a mouth well filled with teeth, which were nature's gift, and the handiwork of no dentist-from whence is kept a constant ejecting of tobacco juice. He always has a body-guard of dogs whenever and wherever you find him, the number varying according to his condition in life-the poorer the man, the larger the number of canines. These animals are very thin, whether from a deficiency in their mast

. They are out taking a view of the company. Watch, and you will soon see curious little eyes looking through the cracks, or slipping around the corners. These crackers are a very communicative class of persons, always full of information pertaining to Florida, and as ready to talk as a freshly-wound, well-regulated Yankee clock to keep time. The father of the family is called "dad," the mother "mam." The husband speaks of his wife as "the old woman," the wife says "old man," while the children are always called girls and boys. Women among no class of people in the South, however poor, are ever called "heifers," as one Northern writer has represented, unless by their conduct they are lost both to vir

on of so many people who know nothing about them, and would, no doubt, be greatly benefited by

landing, the bow of the craft is run against the shore, when the command is given by the Captain, with as much authority as though a ship from England had arrived on foreign shores, "Make fast!" This order is executed by putting a hawser an inch in circumference around a stake driven in the ground. Here

le the hands on board are working. A countryman is trying to sell a bear-skin to some of th

ail, and the foot of the civilized hunter has never trod. A bright blaze, made from light-wood knots, is placed in a frame on the bow of our craft, and, like the "pillar of fire" which preceded the Israelites through the wilderness, is our guide. Here, encircled by trees whose long limbs overlap each other so thickly that only a glimmer

H

ian regions. As we glide along, our pathway is marked by volumes of pyrotechnic showers more numerous and brilliant than can be conceived, which burst from the smoke-stacks, and fall on the water before they are extinguished. Phan

s a mark of distinction by the boatme