Those who are exposed to these hardships but occasionally, when compelled by necessity, and who endeavor to protect themselves at all other times, usually suffer after such exposure.
I have observed that children, when left to run in the open air and weather, who go barefoot, and oftentimes with a single light garment around them, who sleep on the floor at night, are more healthy than those who are protected.
CHAPTER IV.
CHARACTER, MANNERS, AND PURSUITS OF THE PEOPLE.
Cotton and Sugar Planters;—Farmers;—Population of the large towns and cities;—Frontier
class;—Hunters and Trappers;—Boatmen.
There is great diversity in the character and habits of the population of the Valley of the Mississippi.
Those who have emigrated from the Atlantic states, as have a very large proportion of those persons who were not born in the Valley, of course do not differ essentially from the remaining population of those states. Some slight shades of difference are perceptible in such persons as have lived long enough in the country to become assimilated to the habits, and partake of the feelings, of western people.