Suwannee Democrat. (Live Oak, Fla.) 1897-current, 1909-09-03
LIFE FLORIDA.

themselves and families. But the real
point in this matter of supporting a
family is not 50 much the income as the
OutgO, the expenses. If you can live
here cheaper by doing away with a con-
siderable part Of the expenses you must
bear In the north, then one does not
need to earn as much as he requires
there; and il he does earn as much or
even more, as there is no reason why
one cannot do 50 here, then he can save
more or have more of life's comforts
or even Of its Injuries.
There are hundreds, yes thousands,
Of families in the northwest and west
whose breadwinners, the husband and
father, just barely earns a support from
year to year. The family is compelled
to live in erylimited manner because
Of very limited income. The house is
small, its location not the best, the food
is scanty or nearly 50, the clothing
barely sufficient, the winter clothing
4 -
hardly that, and the fuel bill seems to
be always growing more and more al
though every effort is made to get along
with the least possible until in the long
and cold winter months it is an almost
constant shiver. To this may be added
the doctors bill.
For such family, and there are hun
dreds Of them, to come to Florida.
would almost be like escaping from a
sort Of prison life to freedom; from al
most penury to a reasonable degree of
comfort. What such a family could
save in fuel, clothing and doctors bills
would pay the food bill.
But think Of the contrast in the two
lives! There more than half the year
spent in four or five close rooms, either
too hot or too cold; the sunshine a
rarity, one hour out doors for five or
ten in the house; dull, gray, gloomy
skies, mud, slush, icy walks, nature
covered with the pail of death, trees
like skeletons, and oh, well the winter
need not draw out the picture more
fully.
Here plenty of sunshine, clouds and
gloom rarity, sunshine natures great
remedy for bodily and mental ills, the
great cure and the great preventative
OF disease. 1t cheers, it stimulates, it
inspires. Compare the statistics of the
two sections, say here and in New Eng
land, and see how many suicides there
and how few here.
All know that there is nothing 50
helpful to health of body and mind as
an outdoor life and plenty of sunshine.
Here little fuel is needed; here but lit
tie clothing and that the lghtest kind,
is required; and it lasts longer.
Here, with patch of sweet potatoes,
and the little garden twenty or thirty
feet square, a large part of the family
living can be had, raised in the off hours
OF the husband, perhaps helped by wife
or child, and this garden is not for one
or two months, but for twelve months
in the year, for something useful can
be growing at all times. But what can
man do to earn something? An able
bodied man, willing to work, can have
no real difficulty in earning a living
anywhere here almost. If he should
not get the work he prefers at first he
will later on. An effeminate sort of
person might have some trouble to get
along, but a man would not.
And think of getting away from the
almost continued clouds and gray.
gloomy skies, from the chill and disas-
trOus east winds, from being cOOped up
half the year or more in a few small
rooms, from the slush, sleet and ice;
from big bills for wood and coal, for
clothing, for medicine and doctors, from
the "egrims" and that long list of evils
which man in the north is heir.
And think of the delicious climate and
living out of doors in it, the sweetest,
healthiest climate ever breathed by
man; Of the. beautiful orange groves
and the fragrant orange blossoms, of
the hooking bird, of the stimulating
ozone borne on the perpetual breezes
that continually sweep over this PENN
sula from the Atlantic ocean on the one
side and from the GulfOf Mexico on the
other. Think of our splendid pine for
ests with their health-glving balmy