Research Catalog
Frolicking bears, wet vultures, and other oddities : a New York City journalist in nineteenth-century Florida
- Title
- Frolicking bears, wet vultures, and other oddities : a New York City journalist in nineteenth-century Florida / edited by Jerald T. Milanich ; foreword by Gary R. Mormino and Raymond Arsenault.
- Author
- Cummings, Amos J. (Amos Jay), 1841-1902.
- Publication
- Gainesville : University Press of Florida, [2005], ©2005.
Items in the Library & Off-site
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| Status | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Text | Request in advance | F316 .C95 2005 | Off-site |
Details
- Additional Authors
- Milanich, Jerald T.
- Description
- xii, 285 pages : illustrations, maps; 25 cm.
- Summary
- "In 1873, an adventurous New York City newspaper correspondent came to Florida and revealed the beautiful, the odd, and the dangerous to his cosmopolitan readership. "Ziska," a pioneer in human-interest reporting, stripped away the veneer of paradise for the droves of northerners being drawn to this southern wonderland and contrasted the Big Apple with the "land of flowers." No topic was too far removed or unimportant for his readers. Ziska covered rednecks and racists, murderers and mosquitoes, rich soils and poor souls. But who was Ziska?" "In Frolicking Bears, Wet Vultures, and Other Oddities, archaeologist-turned-detective Jerald T. Milanich uncovers the mystery of Ziska, who turns out to be Civil War hero, journalist, Tammany boss, and U.S. congressman Amos Jay Cummings. For over a century Cummings and his Florida dispatches lay undiscovered in the New York Public Library. Now Milanich has unearthed these twenty stories, providing introductions and annotations but otherwise allowing Cummings to emerge in his own words."--BOOK JACKET.
- Series Statement
- The Florida history and culture series
- Uniform Title
- Florida history and culture series.
- Subjects
- Note
- A collection of twenty articles written by Amos Jay Cummings.
- Bibliography (note)
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Contents
- Introduction : Amos Jay Cummings and his Florida adventures -- Oranges and dummitts -- 1. Florida's orange groves : a man who raises 1,500,000 oranges in one year -- Florida wrecks and wreckers -- 2. The Florida wreckers : the winged wagons of the Indian River and the Gulf Stream -- Alligators and steamboats -- 3. The Florida alligators : an interview with an old alligator hunter -- Reconstruction politics Florida style -- 4. The trouble in Florida : republican Ku-Klux in Columbia County -- 5. The trouble in Florida : a talk with ex-Gov. Day and Senator Johnson -- 6. The trouble in Florida : the refugees returning to Lake City well armed -- An unsettling epilogue to "the trouble in Florida" articles -- Wilderness no more -- 7. A tropical wilderness : a winter's sport on the eastern coast of Florida -- Monuments of the first Floridians -- 8. Florida's Indian mounds : the mysterious monuments of an extinct race -- "Hopelessly doomed" -- 9. The farming in Florida : the music-loving cows of the Indian River -- Vulcan's forge -- 10. A railroad in Florida : wooden rails and cooking stove locomotives -- The zen of fishing and the jaws phenomenon -- 11. The fishing in Florida : over 3,000,000,000 bushels of fish eaten in twelve months -- Giant spiders and lost civilizations - the other Lake Okeechobee -- 12. The shore of Okechobee : exploring the mysterious lake in the Everglades -- Mar-a-Lago - 1874 -- 13. Adventures in Florida : a sun correspondent wandering in the Everglades -- Murders and mayhem in the sticks -- 14. Life in the palmettoes : how the people on the Suwanee fill their graveyards -- Go 'Gators! -- 15. The terror of the pines : a singular murder near the shore of Ockechobee -- "Life 'twixt plated decks" -- 16. The home of the turtles : scenes on the ocean beach in eastern Florida -- Law and the natural order -- 17. The fate of a stranger : an excellent swimmer's last swim in Florida -- The not forever glades -- 18. The new sugar kingdom : reclaiming the famous cypress swamps of Florida -- More murder in paradise -- 19. Hunting with a botanist : a congressman's experience in the swamps of Florida -- Making history -- 20. Another botanical hunt : a congressman's adventures in the garden of Florida.
- ISBN
- 0813028485 (acid-free paper)
- LCCN
- 2005042290
- OCLC
- ocm58451939
- SCSB-5210558
- Owning Institutions
- Columbia University Libraries