, 1886-01-31
an ARp,g OPINION Or FLORIDA.


rhc Philosopher Of The Atlanta Constitu-
tion Relates some Of His Experience.
/ believe that i would like Florida
pretty well if ! could get away from it.
But TO be here a prisoner throws a cloud
over its attractions and makes one rest
less and sad. l don't believe that para
disc would be welcome II there was a high
wall round it. Like the sick boy who
lies neal me-, l want to go home, and 80
does his mother. II we had the lamp of
Aladdin and could use it for only a single
wish. we would all say: Nov take us
home" For sixty-five days this boy has
been lying here lingering and languish-
ing with Florida fever-a fever hat has
no other name-a fever hat has no re-
mission, no crisis of fourteen days nor
twcnty-one, but is a fever by the year,
and runs its course from sixty to ninety
days, with privilege of extension, and is
only aggravated by quinine and defies
aconite and arsenic and eucalyptus and
all the known remedies. and the poor vic
tim has to lie still and burn and see his
flesh consumed and his bones work
through. His mind becomes deranged
and his speech affected and his limbs
Drawn up like grasshopper legs. We
near of many such cases and we know
of one, and the doctors confess their
helplessness. Now here is a field for
science. The Florida fever.
People get restless and want to move
somewhere and try n new country, 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
tho fever off or shorten the time. But
still l like Florida, and would not be
afraid to spend my winters here, but /
wouldn't come down here in the summer
to work ON a railroad until ! had been
acclimated. l reckon the people here are
as generally healthy as they are anywhere.
They look like a healthy people, but it is
very certain they have got a bad climate
for fever. 1t is rarely fatal, but it cuts a
good big notch in a mans time and fat
tens out his pocketbook in various ways.
We think now hat our boy will get
well with careful nursing, and the doctors
say we may take him home about next
June, and so we are comforted. But II
another one gets down with Florida fever
/ 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 so long when it comes must be
entertained. l see a Rome boy here who
recently arrived from Texas and he is
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 imprudence
and exposure that p~recipitates the fever
here or anywhere. 1t breeds in the
malarial swamps of any state and hence
has a good chance at the boys who are
surveying these railroads 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 10 it than the whites and
the faiIodu HosplIai mere ls HDeraly
~patronized with them. l saw some of
them who were convalescing and their
skin wa as rough and scaly as an alliga-
tors and all their joints were stiff out
"They will get WELL" said the doctor.
-Ah, yes, they all get well. We nave had
800 patients, and never lost but one"
What cures them?" said l. "Anno
Domini," said he. 1T 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 a rail and went off and left him
for dead. But after awhile the mule
kicked around a few times and got up
and shook himself and went to eating
shucks, but nobody knows to this day
what cured him.