Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 28.djvu/199

Rh high temperature? a damp ami relaxing, or a dry and bracing air? an inland location, or the sea-side? a valley or a mountain? Should he try Bermuda, or Aiken, or Nassau, or St. Augustine, or Asheville, or any of the score of resorts recommended for pulmonary invalids V If the doctor settles the point, it is well; if not, the patient must take his chances and do the best he can to settle it for himself.

I found myself last year among those who are embarrassed by this question. With lungs badly out of order, everybody said I must escape the severities of a New York winter by going somewhere. I advised with several eminent pulmonary experts, who agreed that it might be a good thing to get away, but did not seem to think it made much difference where 1 went. I therefore consulted the books on American winter sanitary resorts, in order, in connection with what I had heard, to decide what course to take. The climate of Southern California has its undoubted claims which are well appreciated, but it is far away. Colorado has its advantages, but is liable to sudden and extreme changes, San Antonio, in Southwestern Texas, is unquestionably an excellent place, with its pure, invigorating air, its mild temperature, and absence of extreme cold, although fierce and frigid "northers" are liable to swoop down upon it with but little warning, and it is also a long way off—two thousand miles by rail. Florida is popular and has many attractions, but it is chiefly low, and is generally damp and malarial. No place is without its drawbacks; but, in looking over their various claims with reference to my own condition, I concluded at last that Thomasville, Georgia, promised to be as eligible as any, and thither I went.

I found the place eminently satisfactory, and, although without experience of other and rival localities, I am sure that Thomasville has advantages as a Southern residence in winter and spring which must give it increasing and decided prominence as it becomes better known. Of course, the transition from "North" to "South" in February—from bleak, stormy, ice-bound winter to the soft and sunny atmosphere and vernal aspects of flowery spring—is full of delightful sensation wherever experienced; while the change of environment in passing from a Northern to a Southern community for the first time, intensifies the pleasurable effect. But, besides this, I was much gratified by the special attractiveness of the place, and the promise it offered as a healthy residence.

Thomasville, the capital of Thomas County, Georgia, is located two hundred miles from the Atlantic coast, fifty-five miles from the Gulf, within twelve miles of the Florida border, and on the Savannah, Florida, and Western Railroad. It stands upon a ridge or plateau covered by extensive pine forests, and at a height of about three hundred and fifty feet above tide-water. It is an old town, with upward of four thousand inhabitants, pleasantly laid out with wide streets, and containing many noble and stately trees—one superb oak