Placid South is going to be the great monument for yur life work and we shall all rely on yu to giv time and thot to steering every important measure in the right way.  We ar several months behind so it is Urjently necessary to get several things going at once.

    Golf.    Every hour we lose wil compel us to pay extra for irrigation, for town and club ar both plejing golf for next fall and we simply cannot fail.  I am sending plans of golf house and boat house to MacAuley so he can get estimates from Wright and others.  We made numerus sketches.  The right 1 wil cost more than we hoped myt answer, but it wil be an economic mistake to reduce size on either golf or boat house.  Construction need not be expensiv but anything smaller wil very soon be inadequate and we shal fail of the great advertizing value of bildings that wil impres people that Placid is going soon to offer the best facilities.  Much larjer bildings wil be needed some years later, but yu know, I am Scotch and watch costs very closely and hav got to pay a good slice of the taxes.  In my jujment, it is much wiser to invest more even if we cud get on for 1 year or 2 with something costing half as much.  I believ yu wil agree with me that we ar in so deep, we must not save a few thousand dollars and crippl our initial impression on the public.  We ar spending $75,000 on Placid Lodge when we cud hav patched it up for $25,000,  but the result wud be no credit to us or town, and everyone wil be proud of what we ar doing.  Don't let our people get scared and cheapen any of this work.  I shal also oppose any display of extravagance for Fla has had too much of that, but our 33 years' experience has, over and over again,  showed us that, having curaj to spend enuf to get a Club right and adequate for at least a few years, has repaid us more than doubl for the extra cost.

    Water.    We want accurate tests so to be sure we hav the purest supply.  Then locate pumping station and tanks right.  Our jujment is that the tank tower wil be best in back of the busines blocks and Orange Tavern.  It wil cost a little more to bild it as much hyer as that is lower than the present site, but it wil disfigure the whole town to put a tall tower on the hil by Placid Lodge. 

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    It won't pay to save a few feet more and hav the water supply so low that it wil giv no hed what-ever for fire protection and giv poor service in the top stories of the bildings on hyer ground.  If we had to put a privat service tank and special pump, it wud again disfigure the town and discuraj those inclind to bild good bildings.  Even with the tall tower I fear we must stand the cost of a motor truck that can pump from our hydrants 2 good fire streams.  Safety demands not only water, but the blow of a strong steam which beats the fire out.  I am getting facts and costs for this great essential.  With this, I mail yu our fire code and signal book.  Experts hav often told us we had workt this out better than any-where else in the country.  Our record for 30 years enables us to write a million and 1/2 at 1/4 what they charj Adirondak hotels.  It will be a strong factor in inducing the best people to bild at Placid that, if they get a fire, we hav facilities for putting it out.  We had 77 fires here in the 30 years,  We hav 400 wood bildings, and our total los was under $1200.  It wil cost some money but it wil be the cheapest possibl investment for the future.  Prospects coming here must feel  that lives and property wil never be lost for lack of unusually good fire protection.

    Paving.    Contracts shud be let soon for prices wil be hyer as busines picks up in the fall and we want our work  done before the early prospects come down to look over the field.  O't we not to widen the whyt way street that wil run from our new R R Station up to Placid Lodge?  That wil be far the most important street in town.  Every newcomer , stepping from the train wil look straight up 1/3 mile, wit broad walks on each syd and fine planting and lyting, that is bound to be our sho place; luckily it is short.  It wil ad so much to the value of lots on each syd that they o't to giv a 10 foot strip willingly.

    R R Station.    Several wires and letters from Delano plej a fine station if we carry out our plans which ar now sure.  Je 23 he writes: " We wil co-operate with you to the extent of erecting a suitable depot at Lake Placid, Florida.  We ar not making any capital expenditures at this time on account of the serious depression in busines in our territory but I was so much imprest with your plans, we ar making an exception in your case.  I note that yu wish the new passenger station located to the east of our main line.

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Our Chief Engineers advises us that we only have a right of way of 65 feet on each side of the track and that it will be necessary to secure a strip of land not less than 50 feet wide and 400 feet long adjacent to our right of way at the point selected for the station.  I presume that you will arrange to furnish this property."

Maybe the best way is to condem that small piece beyond R R and main street as a park.  This wud giv a handsum station on 1 edge, main street on the other. In place of it, we cud sel the park reserved east of arcade for this wud be vastly more valuable because so much more prominent both from R R and main street.  In our jujment, this new station covered in vines, opening on a litl park beautifully planted, wil be the biggest singl thing Placid can do to impres visitors and prospects with its advantajes.  Yu know Delano best.  He is coming here Jl 6 and if I cud assure him that town will meet him half way, I am sure he wil bild us a station to be proud of and better than anything else on that branch.  Much as I dred increast taxes, I know that we will all get back more than bubl what it costs us, if we do this R R station and park ryt.

    Winter Park has gained much of its reputation from people who looking out of car windows passing thru, find instead of the usual shabby surroundings of a station that they were in a pretty park. Thousands of people say Winter Park is the most attractiv town in Fla.  We simply cannot afford now that Delano is in the mood, not to put this thru ryt.  Can't yu get part of this back by exchanjing land on the east side for what they own on the west side?  It never wil work to hav new station o west side.  We ar in on the back side of the town, hav to wait til the trains pull out to get round on the street, we get bad initial impression.  But, even if we can't get their land on the west side, we better condem enuf land in a littl park and let them bild the station on the edge of it.  He may insist that they need the west side for their freight station and siding where thru sleepers, that now stop at Sebring, wil lie during the nyt on our own siding.

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    Nursery.    This vute shud be carried thru promptly, and get that difficulty out of the way.  I wrote Col Lee and Gaines urjing this.  If it drags on, speculators may buy up those gifts lot for $10 or $20 each and cause annoyance.  Lets condem it quickly and hav it over, and then start a smal nursery which wil involv trifling cost on part of the land.

  I am greatly gratified to find so many people enthusiastic over Placid South.  It will start quite a det but golf, water works, street and R R station, and little park wil giv us a wonderful start forward.

       Officers.    Above all, lets be sure that the commission has an efficient clerk who wil recordthose present and every vote or ordinance as past.  Things wer in such confusion that they let things slyd waiting til they cud get fairly started. But let us hav our records and busines in such shape that a man, thinking of investing hevily in Placid wudn't be scared at the slip/shod methods, but wil find that everything is done in a legal, busines like way that wed satisfy any reasonabl man.

    Manajer.    This is vital but with all these other expenses, I feer we can't afford any salary acequate to as good a man as was needed, and that we must hav somebody do this essential work on part time for a salary that we can afford.  I had hoped that Land Co. wud employ a hy grade man for its busines and that he cud, with 1 hour or 2 a day given purely to town busines, keep up the manajer's work til we cud afford to pay for more time, but I'd rather hav part time of a hy grade man than ful time of a cheap inexperienced man.

    We certainly hav enuf to keep yu and me jumping for the first year ir 2, til things ar organized.

                                                                                          Melvil Dewey