LETTER: Over the years, The Era has been a conduit for Bradfordians who have moved away, or are working elsewhere, to stay in touch with folks back home.
While looking at microfilm, we discovered just such a letter, sent to The Era in December of 1923 by Petrolia Street resident Paul P. Lyon, who was working in the Dominican Republic. The letter is a wonderful look at another country in a time before television and computers.
“I commiserate with most of you that you are by now wearing buttoned-up overcoats and facing biting winds while I am enjoying mild breezes and, in the middle of the day, am hunting the shady side of the road. This country of Santo Domingo is blessed with many things, not the least of which is its climate.
“The island, between Cuba and Puerto Rico, is nearly as big as Pennsylvania and is built like a continent with the central range of mountains averaging for many miles a height of 7,000 feet and two peaks almost touching 10,000 feet. Incidentally, the deepest place in the Atlantic Ocean is said to be not far off the north coast, about 25,000 feet deep, presenting a situation similar to that in Japan that is said to have caused the terrible earthquake there.
“These big mountains are continually bathed in clouds that open their stopcocks every day and supply rivers with rainstorms that water the plains in every direction. The result is a rank tropical growth at the lower altitudes and a still more rank growth of everything under the sun at the higher altitudes. I verily believe no place in the western world is so well equipped to grow every tropical product and at the same time successfully grow the northern garden and farm stuff.”
More to come.
