First National Bank (Gainesville, FL)

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FLORIDA. A. S. Mann is stumping Pasco county for state senator. Plant City expects to ship this season 60,000 boxes of oranges. Immense patches of strawberries are being planted out in Pasco county. The late rains have caused the oranges in the northern counties to badly split. The different cigar factories in and about Key West are working on full time. The opening of the East Florida seminary at Gainesville has been postponed until Dec. 1. Palatka will vote on Dec. 17 on the question of issuing bonds to raise money to pay off the city's indebtedness. Depositors having a balance in the First National bank of Gainesville can get their drafts cashed by H. F. Dutton & Co. for the present. Owing to the sickness of both Mr. Graham and Mr. Voyle, the business at the First National bank at Gainesville is entirely suspended. The mayor of Gainesville received a telegram Wednesday from the Louisville Courier-Journal, saying that $500 was on the way to that city. S. C. Chandler of Palatka, who has been in Europe the past three months, has returned to American soil, and will soon resume his legal practice in Palatka. The Merchants' national bank building at Ocala will soon be completed, and will be one of the most substantial and best adapted for its purposes in the state. The orange crop around Clear Water Harbor is more advanced than usual. It is a matter of some surprise that a great proportion of the fruit is already well colored. The postponement of the Santa Fe River Baptist Association from Oct. 24 until Dec. 12 meets with the approval of all concerned. It will meet at LaCrosse on that date. The Southern Express Company has stopped the messenger from going further than Newnansville, and F. D. Warner is now running from that place to Gainesville. A few days since Rev. P. H. Dieffenwierth of Clear Water Harbor stuck an orange thorn in his knee and has been seriously threatened with locked jaw. Dr. Fay was called in and the old gentleman was soon relieved. Rev. C. C. McLean, well known in St. Augustine, is traveling in the eastern states soliciting funds for the Methodist college at Orange City. His family is in Philadelphia, but expect to return to St. Augustine by Christmas. An Episcopal clergyman from Madison arrived in Gainesville Wednesday, but was notified by Mayor Brown that he must leave the city, as it is in direct violation of the resolutions adopted by the city council for him to remain. The fine weather brings cotton in very freely to Ocala. The receipts, though not so great as last year at this time, are increasing. The quality of the cotton is excellent. Nearly all the planters are of the opinion that the crop will be short. Senator Call, Mr. Davidson and a few other gentlemen took passage on the steamer Simpson from Pensacola Wednesday night for Apalachicola, via St. Andrew's and Carrabelle, the two mentioned intending to speak at that place and the intermediate points. The building on the west side of the track at the Jacksonville, Tampa and Key West depot is being fitted up for a hotel and bar to be known as the Cannon Ball hotel. Bettelini, the restaurant man of Jacksonville, is to run the establishment. A dining room will be run in connection to serve passengers on trains. At Orlando, Tuesday, while four men were on a hanging scaffold putting the priming coat on the rear end of the new Presbyterian church building at the corner of Main and Church streets, the iron hooks sustaining the ladder which formed the scaffold gave way, precipitating it to the ground and carrying with it George Schofield, O. S. Maltby, George Sewell and Will Blanchard. None of the men sustained serious injuries except George Schofield, who was thrown a distance of five or six feet away from where the scaffold landed, falling flat on his back and rendered insensible by the shock. B. C. Lanning, deputy sheriff of Putnam county, with a requisition in his pocket from the governor of South Carolina, arrested H. R. Squires, a car repairer at the Florida Southern shops, at Palatka, Wednesday. Squires is wanted for arson. He asked the deputy to allow him to go home to make a change in his clothing, as he was dirty and greasy. His request was granted. His wife was seated on the back piazza. The prisoner went in the house, changed his clothes, and while he was stooping over to kiss his wife, the deputy, who is a very modest man, conveniently turned his head in another direction. Taking advantage of the situation, Squires made a break for liberty, with the deputy close behind. Seeing that he could not overtake the prisoner Mr. Lanning fired at him five times, and is sure that two shots took effect. The fleeing man returned the fire without effect, and succeeded in getting into the swamp, as he lived quite near to it. The report of the land commissioner states that the trespassing in Florida on the public lands has consisted in cutting and boxing pine trees for the gum thereof, to be distilled into spirits of turpentine. The trees are often killed by the boxing, and if not they are rendered worthless for lumber. Reports have been received from Western Florida indicating that timber unlawfully procured from the public land in that state is probably being shipped in large quantities to foreign ports. The Italian firm of E. Campo Donico & Co. is charged with having received 4,512,000 feet of public timber, and probably exported a portion of the same. This firm is composed entirely of aliens, the majority of whom reside in Genoa, Italy, and are successors to the Italian firm of Piaggio Bros., reported to have despoiled the public lands of millions of feet of timber in years past. The report also shows that Florida has received over 16,000,000 acres under the swamp land grant. Foster S. Chapman, mayor of Orlando, has issued the following proclamation: "Acknowledging the mercy of God in giving us plentiful crops and prosperity all over this county, and particularly in keeping the scourge of yellow fever from our county and city, I therefore, as mayor of the city of Orlando, issue this, my proclamation, calling upon all the citizens of Orlando and Orange county, both white and colored, and ask the co-operation of all the ministers and members of the different churches and civic organizations of our city to unite in rendering to Almighty God the praises and thanks-