OF MIAMI AND OF TROPICAL GROWTH--OF THE GROWING OF A SHINGLE INTO A
BUNGALOW--OF THE POPULATION OF MIAMI IN 1980--AND OF THE PRONUNCIATION
OF MIAMI
Take Miami, for example. In 1896 Miami consisted of two small dwellings
and a storehouse. Sometimes as many as ten Seminole Indians would be
seen in the vicinity of these buildings at one time, and the occupants
of the dwellings would scarcely be able to sleep that night because of
their excitement at seeing such a throng of people.
In 1910, Miami had a population of 5,471. In 1920 there were about
30,000 people living there. In 1922 there were 40,000. That’s the way
things go in Florida. Once let a thing get a foothold, and it grows so
rapidly that the general effect is more that of an explosion than a
growth.
Grass grows with such enthusiasm in Miami that one can’t merely plant
seed and let it grow. If one did that the grass would come in so thick
that it would choke itself. What one does is to plant the seed and then,
when the seed has sprouted, transplant the spears of grass so that
they’re six inches apart.
Tree culture is very simple. A small piece of wood the size of a
toothpick is stuck in moist sand. At the end of four years the toothpick
has grown into a hibiscus bush twenty feet high and twenty feet across.
The publisher of the leading Miami paper declares that in some sections
of the city the soil is so fertile that if a shingle is planted in it
before sun-up, it will grow into a fully equipped bungalow by nightfall.
Other fish stories will be taken up in another place.
Miami surges ahead so rapidly that none of its citizens dares to stand
still for a moment in order to watch it grow for fear that
[Illustration:
_Photograph by F. A. Robinson_
Scientists skilled in the use of the slide rule have estimated that up
to and including April 1, 1922, 1,672,889 kisses have been exchanged
beneath this tree.]
[Illustration:
_Photograph by W. A. Fishbaugh_
One of Miami’s many beautiful public schools.]
[Illustration:
_Photograph by W. A. Fishbaugh_
Private yachts and house-boats tied up at the foot of Miami’s principal
shopping street.]
he’ll be left so far behind that he’ll never catch up. If he makes a
prediction, he makes a running prediction; never a standing prediction.
If he sells a piece of land--and it’s as natural for a Miami citizen to
sell a piece of land as it is for him to have coffee for breakfast--he
is very likely to name a price that the land will reach to-morrow
instead of the price that it has reached to-day. He is always moving
ahead of the city.
The population of Miami has increased four hundred and forty per cent.
in the last ten years. Therefore the Miami people figure that it will
easily increase another four hundred and forty per cent. in the next ten
years. They claim that the city’s population in 1925 will be one hundred
thousand, and that in 1930 it will be two hundred thousand. Proceeding
at that rate, its population in 1950 will be five million; and by 1980
practically every one in North America will be pushing and crowding in
his effort to squeeze into the city.
It is, of course, quite obvious to the effete and blasé northerner that
the claims made by the Miami folk show that there are some screws loose
on their claimers. The Miami people, however, say that the northern
people don’t know how to adjust their views to a rapidly growing
city--that they stand still to look at it; and that while they are
looking, the city grows out of focus. They prove their theory by the
following anecdote:
A short time ago the telephone company sent down estimators to look at
Miami and estimate its population in another ten years, in order that
the company might be able to install the proper-sized telephone
switchboard. The estimators looked, made careful estimates, and reported
that the population would be one hundred thousand in ten years’ time.
The telephone company burst into loud howls of derision. “You’re crazy!”
it cried to the estimators. “Who ever told you that you could estimate?
Somebody must be paying you to boost the place! Get out of the way and
let us send down some regular estimators!” So the company sent down some
new estimators; and these estimators in turn looked over the ground and
did some careful estimating. They then returned and reported that the
population in ten years’ time would be one hundred and twenty thousand.
The telephone company, without more ado, installed a switchboard based
on that estimate. But the Miami people claim that the estimators were
making stationary estimates, and that the difference between the
estimates of the first and the second estimators was merely due to the
fact that the city had moved forward between their visits. If they had
known how to place themselves _en rapport_, so to speak, with the city
and move forward with it, both of them would have estimated that the
population would be two hundred thousand in ten years’ time.
At any rate, the real-estate operations in Miami--and the word Miami,
by the way, is pronounced My-amma by every one except the uncultured
folk who insist on pronouncing it as spelled--the real-estate operations
in Miami are on a scale that will provide building lots for twenty
million people by 1930.