Let each one raise and preserve his own meat, or have a neighbor who has been successful, put it up for him until he learns how for himself. This point was particularly made, because the general custom of the country is to sell hogs for three or four cents a pound and pay twelve to sixteen cents a pound for pork.
Homes:--Make them neat, light, attractive; have trees, flowers and the simple conveniences, any and all of which can be had by a little thought, labor and interest.
In the line of health, use less pork, more vegetables, fruit, milk, eggs, and pure water. Good wells are necessary, ditches are necessary for health as well as for agricultural development. If all the plantations are well drained, it will in large measure banish fevers from the islands.
Observe among your people which one succeeds best in any undertaking, whether it is in the raising of a particular kind of crop, or the saving of it, the successful curing of his meat, the raising of fruit, the breeding of good stock, or having attractive home--go to _that one_ for that particular kind of information or instruction that you want. Strive to improve the moral standing, which is necessary for physical as well as social advancement.
No one who has been with these people, worked with them as we have, but must be pleased to observe their gratitude, their gentle manner of expressing it, their desire to improve and their attention to instruction or suggestion, their cheerful disposition and their faith in God and the Red Cross.
Among those who lived the storm and later brought their experience and quickened sympathy to us for such help as they could give to their still suffering companions in danger and woe, was our tireless and faithful assistant, Mr. H.L. Bailey, of Charleston.
It has never been my good fortune to find one who--entirely new to the work and to its conception--has grasped more readily the field of labor presented to him. The success attending his work and the satisfaction attested by his beneficiaries are rich stores of memory for a lifetime. The Red Cross could not have asked for better service.
In order to make the following narrative more complete I deem it not amiss to preface it with a short account of my own experience in the great Cyclone of 1893, and a few incidents relating thereto.