Page 41 - Industries_of_San_Antonio

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COMMERCE AND MANUFACTURES.

than our pages allow, and we trust the facts and figures given will be suf-
ficient to render a correct idea of the amount of trade enjoyed yearly,
and to show the enormous supplies which will be necessary with the pros-
ecution of our manufacturing advantages.. All the branches of trade not
here innumerated are on a lucrative basis, and yield profits in proportion
to their importance. Last but not least will come :

SAN ANTONIO AS A PLACE OF RESIDENCE,
which, after the innumeration of its many attractions, will be a motor of
as much force with the business man of family, as anything in the line of
monied inducement ; indeed, more so, for where is he who does not hold
his family's welfare first in his heart ? As a

HEALTH RESORT,
San Antonio is the possessor of those attributes which the Supreme Cre-
ator has bestowed upon but few places on the earth ; and when we enter
into a description or analysis of these blessings, we must practically repeat
what many others have spoken in words of authority and truth. But too
much cannot be said in this respect, for of all places in America our peer
is not known. We shall endeavor to display the benefits to be derived
from a residence in our delightful climate as they actually exist, avoiding
all gloss and embellishment, which, when treating a subject of the kind,
seems to impress the reader with an idea of exageration, and the words
destroy the effect they are intended to produce. The special features of
this section of country which give such a benefit to all sufferers from con-
sumptive, asthmatic, catarrhal and bronchitic disease 3, are, at once the high
and hilly country at an altitude of 1500 to 1800 feet above sea level, where
malaria of any kind cannot exist ; a pure and dry mountainous atmos-
phere which almost immediately imparts its invigorating qualities ; a lati-
tude where the thermometer has never been known to descend to zero ;
an entire absence of frosts and fogs, and when the latter exist at all it is
along the streams, but are immediately dissipated by the sun, with its
earliest morning rays. These conditions alone, are not known to entirely
exist in any part of America. They stamp our locality as the most salu-
brious and healthful in climate. By comparison we find that other sec-
tions noted for climatic curative properties, are one and all subject to some
disadvantages. Colorado, for instance, has, through the winter a severe
climate, often reaching a degree much below zero. The altitude is much
greater, and the atmosphere extremely rani fled. Frosts and heavy snows
are of almost daily occurrence through the winter months. California
has half a year that the atmosphere is humid. Sections of Florida which
have been highly commended by physicians, are from the low and wet
lands, subject to winds that carry the malaria of the swamps, inducing
many a patient to exclaim, 'the remedy is worse than the disease'. The
state of Minnesota, except in respect to altitude, greatly resembles Colo-
rado, in its climate. It is not our purpose to disparage the benefits to be