WHAT FLORIDA OFFERS. 23 



Not yet is she appreciated by the world at large as she 

 should be and will be in the near future ; but she is better 

 known now than she was two or three years ago, and is 

 to-day considered as one of the most valuable sections of 

 our great nation— the only part on the eastern side of our 

 country where snows never fall, and where, in literal 

 truth, ''perpetual spring abides and never-fading flowers." 

 False statements, deliberate, unblushing, malicious, have 

 been made time and again, with the one set purpose of 

 doing our beautiful State an injury, and other statements 

 have been made also with a very different intent, yet 

 scarcely less untrue because the picture they drew of ease, 

 comfort, and rapid wealth are penciled in colors too bright 

 to be realized in this world, inasmuch as they are promised 

 without the prelude of waiting or working. And yet, in 

 spite of the assaults of unscrupulous foes and injudicious 

 friends, Florida prospers with an exceeding prosperity, 

 because the truth is ever triumphant; and here are a few 

 figures that go to prove what she has done in the last few 

 years, which we clip from a current newspaper : 



"The census returns show that the people of Florida 

 are getting richer very rapidly. During the five years 

 since the census of 1880 the population increased at the 

 rate of about 13,000 yearly, or from 269,494 to 334,146, 

 while the value of property has increased from $30,000,000 

 to $60,000,000 in round numbers. Thus twice the values 

 represented by the population in 1880 are represented now 

 by a population increased less than one sixth, and, averag- 

 ing the property ^er capita, makes each individal of to-day 

 worth nearly twice as much as he was five years ago. These 

 figures are even more satisfactory than those showing the 

 increase of population. There are a good many more of 

 us, and we are much richer." 



