288 SOUTH-WEST FLOKIDA. 



To tnose contemplating a charge of location, more 

 especially if they intend engaging in the cultivation of 

 the soil, we would urge the advisability of considering cli 

 matic conditions, as tending to health, longevity, bodily 

 comforts, and pecuniary results. We often hear the 

 objection urged that the climate of Florida is enervating 

 and debilitating, and that people settling there become 

 lazy as a sequence of climatic conditions. We admit 

 that an excessively high thermometric range associated 

 with a close moist atmosphere, will relax and debilitate 

 the human system, but these conditions do not exist in 

 south-west Florida ; and the emigrant will not become 

 indolent unless he is constitutionally lazy. The resi 

 dents of the South are often referred to as wanting 

 energy and perseverance ; but when such references are 

 made we must remember that, during the reign of King 

 Cotton, to labor was unfashionable, and that slaves were 

 plenty and ever ready to minister to the wants of the 

 white, cither adult or child. Cynics, who are ever ready 

 to assail the South and Southerners, must remember 

 that the male portion of our Northern population have 

 been educated to some calling in early life that labor 

 and activity have become a second nature with them. 

 Education has more to do with active habits than climate. 

 We often hear ungenerous and censorious people refer to 

 the &quot;indolent nature of the Southern people,&quot; but if 

 they bring into review the numbers engaged on the Con 

 federate side during the late unpleasantness, and the 

 results attained by a comparatively small number of half- 

 starved and half-armed men, they will be forced to con 

 fess that laziness and indolence did not characterize the 

 Confederate armies from 01 to G5. In the South to-day 

 the female portion of the population have accepted the 



