The Massachusetts spy, and Worcester County advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1825-1831, 1828-09-03
THE EMIGRANTS.

THE EMIGRANTS.
The wealthy and quiet inhabitants of the
rich vale of the Connecticut can scarcely
cnnceive the ra,isorioe of emigration. espec-
tally when poverty accompanies the travel
lers. We do not now speak of the thousands
that are thrown from Europe upon our coast
nearly as destitute as Jonah when vomited
out on dry land. At the close of the late
war, hundreds of American families might
be seen crossing the range of the Green
! Mountains in Massachusetts or Vermont,
with their faces set towards the luxurient
bottoms and Towering forests of the west.
| Many of these families had struck their tents
! in the extreme territories of Maine: and
the covered sledge, or ark, inhabited by
mother and some twelve or fifteen children,
! together with the horses, or, as the Dutch
would say, horned horses, (oxen,) contained
all the earthly possessions of the firm form
and open countenance that held the helm of
I the expedition.
There is tract of country, lying imme-
diately west of the Green Mountains and
east of the Hudson, frequently destitute of
| snow, while the eastern country and the re-
mote western regions are deeply covered.
! The walls of the evergreen mountains in
J terpose an effectual barrier to those north
! east storms which commonly deposit the
most snow upon the earth. The cloud is
broken upon the eastern ridges: and pours
its merciless burdens on the crags and sum-
mits and into the glens of that wild, noun
tain scenery, leaving none for the level
| country beyond. 1t was piteous to see
those emigrants, who had not pecuniary
means to exchange sleds for wagons, grind
over the roads, destitute of snow; frozen in
to shapeless, rough undulations, or plunging
through the deep and unfrozen beds of
clay. This was misery. Here the mother
must walk or wade, the infants must be car
ried, and the children must wallow in their
sorrowful pilgrimage to the land of promise.
The economy with which some of these
families of necessity travelled, must excite
wonder Their provisions were prepared
previous to their iourney-their blankets
were with them, and floors were free. The
expenses of man of pleasure in his tour to
Niagara, would cover the bills of 500 emf
grants.
1t was in the tract of country so unpro-
pitious to sleighs, that, on cold winters
day, family miserably poor were slowly
plodding along. The moving tent was
drawn by horses, that might have been cor
rect representatives of famine, although, for
want of energy, they could not have blown
| blasting mildew from their shrivelled lips.
A burning fever was raging in the veins of
the mother who guided the steps of her
eleven children, and the severely bitter
north wind, before which her children shiv
cred, was grateful to her heated forehead
! but, as the pale, disconsolate sun sunk be-
hind the broken ridges of the Catskill noun
tains, she became wild and delrious her
strength failed-and she was no longer to
travel her earthly journey.
A tenement, long deserted, stood by the
way side, covered with rough boards clam
oring for inhabitants in every passing wind.
! Into this miserable shelter the husband car
ried his wife-and the father spread the
blankets for the children; night of cruel
suffering succeeded, although the hearth
was lighted with wood gathered from the
fields, and blankets broke the force of the
wind that moaned through the crevices.
The morning apprized the humane inhabit-
I ants of the situation of the wretched emf
grants but the strong hand of death was
upon the mother-her groans were inces-
sant-her feeble remains, of reason appear
ed to be engaged in exploring the untried
world before her-she uttered few words
of prayer-rose in her bed, and died in the
attitude of sitting up and gazing upon her
children.
The brief funeral succeeded, at which
not man of God could be found to breathe
a short prayer and the bereaved husband,
as he set his face again towards the west
would wildly turn back his eyes, to cold,
frozen hillock by the road side.
Is there not blessed hereafter, in which
such cases of extreme suffering shall be
recompensed by the enduring consultations
of sins forgiven, and Savior's love secur-
ed? Is there not day coming when many
of the rich shall be poor-and many of the
poor rich? The retrbutions of eternity
shall set all things right; and through all
the plains of paradise not zephyr shall be
burdened with the breathings of human suf-
fering.--Zion's Herald.
FRIcTIoN. The theory of friction not
being perfectly understood by many maChin-
lists, is one cause why they have not sue
: ceeded in some of their contrivances. The
Technical Repository is work which
T ought to be in the hands of every mechanic.
In this work are some excellent remarks
upon friction in machinery, aud the best
method of reducing it.
If an horizontal plane were perfectly
smooth, body might move upon it with the
J utmost ease in any direction by the least
J force applied to it. But however smooth
: and even bodies may appear to the eye, il
their surfaces be examined with magnify
} ing glass, inequalities win be discovered
, and the prominent parts of any one body
, when moving on another, will fall in the
: depressed parts of each other, SO that III,
) two bodies become in manner locked to