The weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1852-1858, 1857-06-13
The West and western Men.

boyhood's Eastern home when he treads the
horizon-bound prairies, or roams along the
shore of the Father Of Waters" or some
of its swift rolling tributaries, but 1t dies
away unuttered as he mngles in our society,
or compares our works of improvement with
the time in which they have been accom-
plished. Tor then his soul is filled with emo
lions of wonder and surprise to find that
the West is so unlike his day-dream fancies
had painted it. The prairie with its rich
soil and profuse vegetation-a wide expanse
of Natures garden plot''-is like what he
had conceived. The forests, the rivers, the
lakes, the mounds-these are somewhat like
his fanciful ideas. But the characteristics of
the people of the West, and the works they
have performed, are totally unlike all that
the Eastern people have imagined.
In immigrating to the West, men have
come here not to be conquered by nature,
but to make her lavish beauty subservant to
their wants and aspirations.
Therefore. in our Western homes, rude
ness, and vulsarity, or ignorance. are rarely
met. The father remembers the gentle cour-
tesy that gave such charm to the social in
tercourse which made his earlier years
long season of almost undisturbed happiness;
he remembers how, in his former home, the
princeless boon Of education raised men far
above the common level he looks forward
to the coming time when his children will
jostle through 4 crowded city, or dwell in
country whose every acre OF rich soil shall
yield to industry its meet reward-and he
builds school houses, patronizes boOkselleS.
and introduces into his family all the re-
filming influences that endear to his memory
his old home. The mother has like hopes
in the future of the West, and shares her
husbands wishes, and encourages and aids
him. Thus it is that pleasure, comfort, and
intelligence-free, perhaps, from many Of the
restraints Of Eastern life-are almost inva
riably to be found in Western homes.
In western life the trials and obstacles be
fore the early settler arouse his dormant EN-
ergies, and he becomes active and persever-
ing. Nature repays his toll with abundant
harvests, and his heart warns with gratitude,
and CLOVIS with generous impulses. Around
him are Cities villages, and farm houses, built
with rapidity rivaling the fabulous wonders
large draughts Of the spirit of enterprise who
does all this. He sees men whom he knew
in the East as only nobodies," aspiring TO
be somebodies " in the West-heading the
van of political parties, boldly debating in
the councils of the people, or vigorously Ia
boring to advance new and gigantic enter
prises-and he forms more exalted and
correct estimate of mankind; perhaps he
grows ambitious too, and endeavors himself
10 become leader instead of follower. He
tills with his own hand more acres than his
father owned; he gathers larger crops than
they did he has brighter anticipations of
the future and all his ideas, impulses and
sentiments, are in proportion enlarged and
vivified. And thus it is that Western peo
pie become in the extreme, energetic, perse-
vering, ambitious and generous.
In the union Of these characteristics in our
people lies the true secret Of the rapid prog
ress of the West, which is greater and more
widely extended than Eastern people gener-
ally believe.
The sun goes down at night casting his
last rays upon the lingering form Of the In
dian journeying to the far West. AS it rises
in the morning, its beams flash back from
the axe of the white man, as lie cuts the rude
logs that are to form his habitation. A few
days pass on, and then the curling smoke
rolls up from the fire in the new home of the
tirst settler. Through the long dreary win
ter - rles his axe, and when the spring
5.r,.- eyin to carol, their music Is drowned
- CuZZ Vi Tue SlW -IllIll Oufiiilct pas
sc5. II when the winter comes again new
-sriilGgs surround the humble home of the
Int ;,oueer. and more axe strokes are heard.
~ IT, spUug returns, and with it comes
I.rr --r,,,~ - live with the pioneer. The
..i' a..I maker, the milliner and dress
lL.aac 40 c'otho them; the grocery keeper
and mtrl 7,; ,o supply their wants. the
x....e. - Ease ti.elr grain; the schOolmaster
~ tbo,r ,b,llro,, no nicf. IN,
preach to. and counsel to advise with them;
the doctor TO cure them when sick the law
yer to settle or to make their difficulties :;
and the specializing capitalist TO make money
cut Of them. Then the settlement has be-
come 4 village-not an Eastern cne, but 9
wde-a- wake, go ahead Western village.
The newspaper soon makes its appear
ance; the eiitor talks largely on the pros
poets of the village, and Of the agricultural
and numbering country around it, apd pro-
poses more improvements to the village in
any one number of his paper than would be
sufficient to paralyze 'dozen east' cominu-
nifty. Adventures push out into the coun-
try, pick out new locations and build up
more villages. More farmers, mechanics,
and lumbermen come into the country their
products are more than sufficient to supply
the home demand, and a railroad is proposed
to carry off the surplus. In half the time it
would take an Eastern company to organize,
company is chartered, the route is survey
ed, and the stock subscribed, and the roid
built.
Perhaps at the time when the first piO-
neer is erecting his log-cabin, in some farm-
house, or up in tie attic Of some city board
ing-house ''away down East" sits one who
has map before him. He sticks pin in
some particular point, and tries to Judge
whether it would be good place for him to
select for his Western home.
He inquiries of travellers, and reads news
papers to learn what he can of the country.
Two or three year pass before he fairly
makes mp his mind, and then he starts for
The West. When he reaches the spot he
had selected. great is his surprise to find
villages and cultivated fields all around him.
and that the West of which he had dreamed
and the hardships Of VIII ch he had come
prepared to meet. was still III far-off uto-
plan land. He finds that his new home is to
bc where he can enjoy all the comforts. and
meetw all the rcfinements of the East
among people whom he can not but admire,
snd whose peculiarities will soon be his own.
He gains freedom that he could not
have experienced in the East. His labor is
repaid better here than it was there His
mind every day coming in contact with the
quick and strong intellect which character
ICES Western people, RECEIVERS its natural
polish and elasticity. In health he gains,
because both mind and body are properly
exercised-because he lives well, laughs oc-
casionally. and is always lighthearted. Then
the man is man indeed-intellectually and
physically invisorated by Western life, he
becomes one Of the most useful men of the
age-a IFcst7n man.
Our Eastern friends who read Western
newspapers, undoubtedly think Western
people extravagant in praising up the many
attractions of their country, and in Boosting
of their own works. And vet all of us were
Eastern people but few years since. and
thought OF the west asour Eastern friends now
think of it-that it was the place to make
money, but not the place to live. And what
Eastern man can you remember of. in your
list OF acquaintances who have come to the
West, who did not write back to his friends
as if life had new charms for him-and that
the West appeared as though the most ex
travagant description fell far short of the re-
atty.
If we boast of our own works of Improve
ment in the West, have we not, on every
q