The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1882-10-02
CORRESPONDENCE.
AcRoN, Fla, Sept.


EDITOR ARaUs:-The place from which
write is located just south of the goth
degree of latitude, in Orange county.
Here we have very mild degree of wealth
er, with a continual sea breeze that makes
| it seem even cooler than it really is. This
part of the state is rapidly settling up with
live, energetic people from all parts of the
country, from Maine to California, and
| from Canada to Georgia. Land is increas-
ing very rapidly in value, both wild and
improved Railroads are being built in
every direction, so that we have good
transportation from all parts to all the
Northern markets and places of note.
Buildings of all kinds are being erected as
fast as material and workmen can be pro-
cured, and here let me let me say to thous-
ands of laborers and mechanics in the
North that they can get all the work
they can do in this country the
year round at as good if not better wages
than they can get any place in the north.
and there is no day in the year that man
cannot work. Wages for house carpenters
are from 80 to So per day, and there is
employment for hundreds more in this
county alone. Labor at clearing land
ranges from 81 per day and board
to 81 so aud So without board, and many
make double that by taking contracts.
1t seems strange to me that so many men
who need and want employment should
remain where they can only work about
oae-half the time and are then shut up by
the cold weather and compelled to use up
their summers earnings in order to live,
when they can get round trip ticket at
any of the large railroad centres for from
$40 to $50, good for six months, and come
south and earn good wages and be com
Portable, see the country and in many
cases secure piece of land, plant an or
ange grove, and in q few years become in
dependent There are a few homesteads
yet to be found in this county, but the
greater portion of the lands suitable for
oranges have been entered, stlll there are
few newly settled places where land can
be bought at from SIS to SIS per acre in
small lots of from ten to twenty acres,
though at all the older settled places land
is selling at $50 to $3.50 per acre. |
write this as information to those
VINO contemplate coming south and
to those who see the necessity of making
a change but hesitate as to where to GO.
The idea that Florida is sickly has gotten
such firm hold on the average northern
mind that many shudder at the thought OF
moving their loved ones here. A greater
error never was conceived in the minds of
men than the above. have lived here in
one place with my family, consisting of six
persons for seven years, and have never
had physician to visit any of my family,
nor is our an isolated case. / have neigh
bors who have lived here and raised large
families of children and many of them
grown up, married and doing for themselves
that have never had occasion to call in the
assistance of a doctor. How many men in
Rock Island county can say as much or
even in the whole state of Illinois. Cost
of provisions are about the same here as
other places in the north and no expense
for fuel and not much for clothes, upon
the whole, one can live here for much less
than it costs to live in the north. Yours
etc. j. ii. CAMPBELL.