HOME LIFE IN FLORIDA 



CHAPTER I. 



WHAT FLORIDA OFFERS. 



A little bird has come tapping at our study door, bear- 

 ing in its beak a message from the North, East, West, and 

 Southwest, and from "beyond the seas," which reads thus : 



"We have read of Florida's fruits, of her cotton, her 

 cane, her climate ; we have heard glowing accounts of 

 what has been and can be done through all the length and 

 breadth of the noble 'Land of Flowers;' but nowhere 

 have we read or heard of the thousand and one details of 

 the every-day life that must be met and lived by the set- 

 tler before he attains the grand sum total of independence. 

 How- do he and his wife live and work and pass their 

 time ? What do they wear ? what do they eat ? what does 

 it cost ? what can they raise ? Tell us of these things, so 

 that all the thousands of us who are coming to Florida 

 seeking homes may know to what we are coming, and see 

 some clear rays of light shining through the obscurity of 

 vague generalities. Things known to you old settlers are 

 unknown to us ; things familiar to you are enigmas to us. 

 We know that your ways are not as our ways, but we do 

 not know the details of the difference, nor how to prepare 

 to meet them. We are thirsty for information of the little 

 things that go to make up the daily life of the settler. 

 Give us to drink of the fountain of knowledge, that we 



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