Mexico weekly ledger. (Mexico, Mo.) 1855-1956, 1891-10-22
FROM FAR.OFF FLORIDA.
A Paradise For Inyalids, But Other.
wise Not Desirable State to
Live In-Ancient Customs
Of the Country.

To My Dear Home Friends:
ST. NICHOLAS, FLA, Oct. TO-
Since coming down here to this
land of oranges and alligators, l
have received a perfect deluge of
letters asking all sorts of questions
about this sunny land, all of which
l have answered the best I could.
Yes, I like Florida very much, but
it is not land of milk and honey,
as some of you fondly imagine, but
it has its bad features quite as we'll
as good ones. I like the climate
very much. tits grand ; not as op-
pressively warm as many think
here during the summer. The
thermometer runs up to So and SO
degrees and stays there. While it
is sickisbly warm in the sun, it is
always cool in the shade and never
a hot night. Yes, this is good
place for those to come who have
any throat or lung trouble, that is,
if they do not wait too long before
coming, until the disease has too
firm a hold On them-when the
decided climatic change would be
as apt to hurt as do any good.
Rents and real estate are high,
especially the latter. When high
wind lifts the white sand heaven
ward the soil is poor, white and
yellow land-no subsoil-conse.
quently it is no place for farmers.
1t must be fertilized every year to
insure any sort of returns. This
climate is moist. The water here
is fairly good. We do not have
typhoid and other levers here in
such malignant forms as they do
in the North. I do not think there
is any danger Of the yellow fever
here again for years to come. 1t
would not have come as it did if
the authorities had possessed lit
tie energy and observed sanitary
rules. Southerners, as a rule, are
delightfully."- lazy. Orange blossoms
are out of season, but in the last of
February the groves will be in
bloom. I have a basket Of fine
cream colored coral-more than l
want-that was brought me from
the East Indies. The pieces are
small, but nice. st. Augustine,
Fla, was built of coquina, the
houses, walls and fort being of this
coquina rock, and many of them
stand there to this day, grim wealth
er. beaten reminders of the hardy
Spaniards who erected them. But
the strangest Of all Is their bury
ing ground, or rather the place
where they deposited their dead,
for they did not bury them as we
do, but laid them in massive
coquina coffins and left them cit
ting around on the top of the
ground like so many dishes on a
table. There for centuries they
have defed alike the sun and rain
and the ravages of time. How
many more centuries they will re-
main there we will never know.
Coquina is quite pretty formation
of small bits of sea shells firmly
cemented together by the action OF
the sea and time. I see rare pieces
/ of shells, Indian money, or wamp.
UNI, as the red man calls it. II
was used long time ago among
the Indians as money, the value Of
each piece to them being about 4
cents. This state is dotted owe,
with Indian mounds, and some
queer relics are unearthed from
them. The magnolia is called the
queen tree of the South. During
the month of May it is covered
with great. double, white flowers
the size of a saucer. The foliage
is an evergreen and equally a:
pretty and much resembles the
rubber tree.
Mrs, A, +. WARNER.
Usela Crosse Lumber Cos. read,
mixed paints. Guaranteed stricti!
pure,