WHO MAY EXPECT BENEFIT. 205 
As Nassau’s position is isolated, and so far removed from the 
cities of the north, with only one weekly line of steamers, and 
no telegraph, as yet, to connect it with the States, it is not the 
piace one would ordinarily select in which to be very sick, and 
many better places nearer home can be found ia which to die. 
A physician whom we met in Nassau, in 1879, said to us: ‘It 
costs a thousand dollars to die here. In one instance, last year, 
(1878,) $300 dollars was paid for the use of a small building as 
a dead house, and other charges were in proportion.” If one is 
dangerously sick, there is no place for him like home, with its 
comforts and unbought sympathies. 
To those who are weak, debilitated, over-worked and run down, 
whose feeble hold on life is constantly endangered by sudden 
fluctuations of temperature, and the severe storms and cold winds 
of the north, the warm and beautiful Islands of Indolence and 
Sensuous Repose, attract with flattering promises of permanent 
benefit. New leases of life are doubtless accessible to many 
such in Nassau. But we do not believe that either shore of the 
Mediterranean Sea, the banks of the Nile, Madeira, Florida, or 
any Isle of Unending Summer, can furnish desirable homes for 
white people in health. We have only to compare the natives 
of the States north of the old Mason’s and Dixon’s line (includ- 
ing cold and bleak New England), and their works, with ‘the 
children of the sun” and their neglected opportunities, to be sat- 
isfied on this point. The cold north wind stimulates, braces 
and builds up. Every blast, fearlessly and boldly breasted, in- 
vigorates the healthy body, enriches the blood, and gives vitali- 
zing and enduring strength and power to the mental and moral 
forces. In the temperate zone the mental, moral and physical 
powers of man reach their highest development. Frost is an 
essential factor in the problem of civilization. All human pro- 
gress is bottomed upon ice. The great and profound truths, the 
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