The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-10-13
FIorida'a Future.

AS the epidemic in the afflicted Florida
towns begins to abate, and the time when
frost may be reasonably expected draws
near. the question whether the epidemic
will have a permanently damaging effect
upon Florida is being quite generally asked.
There are excellent reasons for saying that
it will not, and those who feel at all alarmed
about the states future prosperity need only
to look at other states in which epldemlcs
have prevailed to satisfy themselves that
their fears are groundless. This is not the
first time that yellow fever has appeared in
Jacksonville, and other parts Of Florida,
in an epidemic form, and previous
epidemics have not proved a great draw
back to the states prosperity. New Orleans
has had great many epidemics, and after
each one she has enjoyed just as much pros
perity as she did Immediately preceding
them. Memphis is now Il city double the
size it was in 1873 and 1879, the years in
which she suffered two of as severe cpl
denies as ever afflicted any city in modern
times. Indeed, within the last nine years
she has grown more in wealth and popula-
ton than in the same number of years in
any pfbNlOuS p0IlOu VI noi nlSbOl
The fact must not be overlooked that
Florida covers an immense territory and
that those of her towns which have been
visited by the fever this year are not a
hundredth part of her settled area. Indeed,
the fever is confined to a comparatively
few places, and there is no more danger in
visiting those parts of the state in which
there has been no fever than there is in
visiting state that has not had case of
infectious or contagious disease within its
borders during the present season. After
the announcement of the disappearance of
the epidemic, which will quickly follow a
good frost, there will be no danger in visit
ing the localities in which the fever has
prevailed.
A day or two ago there was terrible
railroad accident in Pennsylvania in which
Every few days there is a railroad accident
in some part of the country, and people are
killed and injured, but travel on railroads
does not cease on that account. 1t is not
even perceptibly checked. Why then should
it be supposed that immigrants and tourists
will cease to go to Florida because there has
been an epidemic of yellow fever in a few
of her towns!
1t is not improbable that there may be
another epidemic in parts of the state at
some future time, but no one can say with
any degree of certainty that there will be
another in ten or twenty years. In future
extra efforts will be made to keep out the
yellow fever, and if the right kind of pre-
cautions are adopted, there are reasons for
thinking that it can be kept out altogether.
The Florida people have no occasion to be
alarmed about the future of their state. Its
prosperity is assured. 1t produces what the
world wants, and it has a climate that is so
attractive that the number of those who
seek to enjoy it during the winter months
will steadily increase each year.
Typhoid and other fevers prevailed at a
number of the summer resorts along the
Atlantic coast last summer. Even at Long
Branch there was a great deal of sickness,
but these summer resorts will not be
deserted next summer. Neither viii there
be a very noticeable falling Off in the usual
travel to Florida during the approaching
winter. When the physicians say that it is
absolutely safe to go there people will go,
aud the sickness now prevailing will hardly
be given a second thought, except by those
who suffered from it.