| Title | : | Frolicking Bears, Wet Vultures, and Other Oddities: A New York City Journalist in Nineteenth-Century Florida (Florida History and Culture) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0813028485 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780813028484 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 304 |
| Publication | : | First published October 8, 2005 |
Before he was a New York congressman and winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor, Amos Jay Cummings covered bruins and buzzards, rednecks and racists, murderers and mosquitoes, rich soils and poor souls, for the New York Sun. In 1874, journalist Cummings was among only a handful of white people to make their way down through the Florida wilderness to stand on the sunset-drenched shores of Lake Worth, today among the most expensive properties in the state. The Sun--famous for its editorial titled “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus”--published a series of articles about his explorations.
As New Yorkers marveled at the contrast between the barely explored Florida frontier and their own city, Cummings stripped the veneer off the paradise touted in brochures to reveal an untamed wilderness. He wrote about “sportsmen” who traveled the St. Johns River on steamboats, shooting every animal that moved, and he pondered over graves dug in earth-floored hovels, only to learn they were flea traps! Cummings’s cast of characters, from Captain Dummitt, “a man who works for no man--not even himself,” to Cone, the alligator hunter who “done peeled the bark from a gator in twelve minits,” are riveting and engaging. Twenty years later, Cummings would return to witness the beginnings of efforts to drain south Florida.
For over a century Cummings and his Florida articles lay undiscovered in the New York Public Library archives. Now, archaeologist Jerald T. Milanich digs up these 20 amusing and remarkable stories in Frolicking Bears, Wet Vultures, and Other Oddities, providing introductions and annotations, but otherwise allowing Cummings to emerge in his own vivid words.
Frolicking Bears, Wet Vultures, and Other Oddities: A New York City Journalist in Nineteenth-Century Florida (Florida History and Culture) Reviews
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This colorfully-titled book is a collection of 20 newspaper articles written by Amos Jay Cummings for the New York Sun newspaper under the pen-name Ziska. All the articles pertain to Florida, all of them written in 1873, 1874, or 1893 as part of Cummings' visits to the state. Milanich added annotations, a general introduction about Cummings/Ziska, and a short introduction to each article.
Ziska recounts some colorful stories. Many of the articles recounting his personal experiences are important primary sources for pioneer and/or Reconstruction eras of Florida. One trilogy of related articles recounts a relatively little-known incidence of violence in Lake City. A particularly interesting story was his interview with an explorer just returned from Lake Okeechobee providing one of the first accurate descriptions of the lake. Another of note is the tale of his boat trip from the Fort Pierce area to Lake Worth which features almost certainly the earliest written description of the Lake Worth Creek route (which no longer exists due to construction of the Intracoastal Waterway).
While these articles are mostly historically valuable, some of the stories he recounts clearly repeated second or third-hand. Some claims are highly dubious or outright incorrect. I wouldn't go so far as to say he fabricated any of the events he describes, but he certainly wasn't always working with accurate information. Ziska is also clearly a biased observer: a devout Northern Democrat opposed to Republicans in a partisan manner typical of the Reconstruction Era, and a New Yorker scornful of Florida crackers. On the other hand, as Milanich notes in his introduction, Cummings is not trying to promote the state like many other 1870s publications about the state. Yet his 1893 article about agriculture in reclaimed Florida swampland does have an air of promotion about it, suggesting perhaps a changed view of the state two decades later.
Also a little troubling is the editor. Milanich is a good writer, but he is an archaeologist (specializing in Early Native Americans of Florida) not a historian. He explains he learned of Ziska because of one of the articles describes a significant archaeological site. Milanich is clearly fascinated with Cummings' writings since he tracked down these articles, had them published, and a few years later published a second compilation of Ziska articles (about the Transcontinental Railroad). Unfortunately, the annotations are a bit weak, especially compared to something like
The Winter Sailor: Francis R. Stebbins on Florida's Indian River, 1878-1888 (which I read recently). The editor would have been well-served to have partnered with an experienced Florida historian and/or consulted with some local historians who could provide better information. The best example is the article/chapter on the Lang murder which Milanich fails to identify as Augustus Oswald Lang, despite Lang's life and death being a relatively well-known part of Southeast Florida pioneer history.
I would consider this is a must-read for Florida history buffs and readers of Florida literature who enjoy the likes of Henshall and Stebbins. I suspect it will have limited appeal for more casual readers. -
A glimpse into a land of flowers that no longer exists, where fish and wildlife thrived and tourists would steam upriver on the St. Johns randomly killing alligators as they passed by. One could say it's the price of progress and development, but I enjoyed this look at where we came from.
One point in the book that's been made somewhat better by progress is mosquito control, and when we talk about the good old days in Florida it's also important to remember those were the days of Yellow Fever and malaria, so some things have improved and it's no wonder that the man credited with inventing air conditioning is honored with Florida's official statue in the nation's capitol.
I do recommend this collection to those who wish to know more about Florida's history in the Reconstruction era, and how the strides made by the federal occupation army and the free enslaved people were rolled back by corruption and racism. -
A must read for anyone who has ever lived along Florida's eastern shores. Describes the people and the country as they were in the later part of the 1800s. My how perspectives and the landscape have been changed and remain the same.
