Lake Highlands club House
CLERMONT. FLORIDA
Feb.22,1922.
Mr.H.B,Ayres,Director,
Old Spanish Trail,
Hotel Battle,
Mobile,Ala.
Dear Mr.Ayres;—
Your pencilled note on the copy of Warren H.Manning'a letter, asking for a copy of the OST booklet,recalled that I am greatly in your debt in the matter of letters. The truth is that I have been under the weather for several weeks past-not siok enough to be in bed but so lacking in "pep" that I have not felt tho urge to put the jitney typewriter in commission when I should do so. I have been traveling around the state,in the interests of this resort,for the purpose of learning what other resorts,particularly those in the interior,are doing in the way of attracting and holding tourists, ^t has given me an opportunity to see much more of the state than I might see under other circumstances and had I been up to oy usual standard of energy I might have, written much which would have had a tendency to attract attention to those sections visited as well as to Clermont. No use,however,in crying over spilt milk.
When your interviews appeared in the Times Union of Jacksonville and the Tribune of Tampa,I had in mind writing you complimenting you on the presentation of the case of the OST to the people of Florida, but,as I was suffering from "crackeritisn,I kept putting it off till I was ashamed to mention it. I
I have been trying ever since I came to Florida to finance a trip of Warren H,Manning,who is one of the most eminent landscape artists in the United States. He lands in St,Andrew,Fla,,this morning and as that place is close to the original line of the OST he may,in the last analysis be a vital factor in the matter of arousing interest in the western portion of the state in the development a spirit of cooperation which wlllc do you sane good. There are no two ways about it; if you pound at a thing long enough and hard enough you will win,if,in the meantime you have not starved to death and when I use the word"you" in this sense I use it generically rather than personally.I am trying this morning,to raise the money with which to finance Manning from