The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1886-04-10
Bill Arms Opinion of Florida.

Dill arp OplDlOu Vi + lurluds
believe that would Ike Florida
pretty well if could get away from
1t. But to he here prisoner throws
q cloud over its attractions and makes
one restless and sad. don't believe
that paradise would he welcome If
there WAS high wall round it. Like
the sick boy who lies near me, want
10 go home, and so does his mother.
IF we had the lamp of Aladdin and
could use it for only single wish, we
would all say "Now take us home"
For sixty five days this hoy has been
lying here lingering and languishing
with Florida fever--a fever that has
no other name-a fever that has no
remission, no crisis of fourteen days
nor twenty-one, but is fever by the
year, and runs it's course from sixty
TO ninety days, with privilege of ex-
tension, and is only aggravated by
quinine and defies aconite and arsenic
and eucalyptus and all the known
remedies, and the poor victim has to
lie still and burn and see his flesh con-
sumed and his bones work through.
His mind becomes deranged and his
speech affected and his limbs drawn
up like grasshopper legs. We hear
of many such cases and we know of
one, and the doctors confess their
helplessness. Now here is field for
science.
People get restless and want to
move somewhere and try new coun-
try, but if any of your folks have got
the Florida fever at home they had
better stay at home until they get
well of it, or they had better wait
until Doctor Pasteur or some other
doctor discovers what kind of poison
to vaccinate with so as to keep the
fever of or shorten the time. But
still like Florida. and would not be
afraid to spend my winters here, but
l wouldn't come down here in the
summer to work on a railroad until
had been acclimated. | reckon the
people here are as generally healthy
as they are anywhere. They look like
a healthy people. but it is very GER
tain they have got bad climate for
fever. 1t is rarely fatal, hut it cuts a
good big notch in a mans time and
fidttens out his pocketbook in various
ways.
We think now that our boy will
get well with careful nursing, and the
doctors say we may take him home
about next June. and so we are com
forted. But if another one gets down
with Florida fever l shall move him
home at all hazards. or else rent a
house and move the family down, A
visitor that is so affectiOnate and stays
80 long when it comes must be enter
tanned. zee a Rome boy here who
recently arrived from Texas and he
h pale and sallow and looks like he
had been living on gully dirt. and
comes from the Brazos bottoms to get
well in Florida. He took the Texas
fever in Rome and went to Texas and
took it again when he got there and
was down for six months, and now
he says he can't be worsted and is
ready for anything.
But after all it is generally impru-
dence and exposure that precipitates
the fever here or anywhere. 1t breeds
in the malarial swamps of any state
and hence has good chance at the
boys who are surveying these rail-
roads and the laborers who work on
them and have to wade through them
. and drive piles and build trestle
work. The highland country is not
subject to it. The negro laborers are
more subject to it than the whites and
the railroad hospital here is literally
patronized with them. saw some
of them who were convalescing and
their skin was as rough and scaly as
an alligator's and all their joints were
stiff. "They will get WE'LL" said
the doctor. "Ah, yes, they all get
well. We have had 800 patients, and
never lost but one." "What cures
them ?" said !. "Anno Domini, )"
said he. ut is just like the fellow
who had a sick mule, and he gave
him castor oil and whisky and I've
soap and turpentine and everything
else that the neighbors told him and
then rubbed him with rail and went
off and left him for dead. But after
awhile the mule kicked around few
times and got up and shook himself
and went to eating shucks. but no.
body knows to this day what cured
him."