The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1859-07-21

to help him. But for the first four or FIVE
years, the poor pioneer should work eve
ry hour that he does not absolutely need
for rest. Every hours work then will
save him many hours in after life.
For the farmer who comes in with lib
eral means, the task is of course much
easier. Let US suppose one to be worth
$4,000 the day he lands on the Kansas
shore of the Missouri, aud see how quick
ly he can make farm and home. He
arrives, We will say, in August, when be
can see just what the country produces,
whether in state Of nature or under Gull
/ tivation. He buys a quarter section
(Which is land enough for any map) in a
choice locality, including thirty or forty
acres of tin bered river or creek bottom,
say for $40 per acre, charges $1,000 of
the 81 600 thus called for to the account
of the Pro Slavery Democracy for de-
feating the Free Land bill, and sets to
work, with two good hired men. He
buys FIVE yoke of oxen for breaking team,
span of good wagon horses, COW in
fresh milk, and three heifers which will
be cows next Spring, puts up cabin that
will just do. and is ready to commence
breaking by the lst of September. AS
bis men break, he follows with the horses
sowing and narrowing in wheat SO long
as that will answer, but does not stop
breaking till the ground ia frozen. Now
he begins to cut and draw timber for 6t-
ter habitation to which to welcome bis
family in the Spring. Having done this
be gets good mechanics to finish it, while
be and bis men 60 to work at fencing by
cutting sawlogs for light, narrow boards,
if there be sawmill convenient; if not
then by cutting for and splitting rails
So soon as the dryest land will answer
for it, be begins to put in Spring Wheat;
then Oats; then Corn; end putting up
fence whenever the soil is too wet for
blowing; let him not forget to have few
acres scasonably set in fruit trees, some
of them dwarfs, for early bearing. Thus
his money will not have been exhausted
by the ensuing Fall, when be will have
crops coming in and more than hun
dred acres of bis land troken and SUBJ
dued for future cultivation. | see no rea-
son, why resolute, good manager should
not be comfortable after his year or two,
and thenceforth take the world as easily
as need be. He who comes in with bu.
$4,000, $1,000, or $500 must of course
be much longer ia working his way to a
position of comfort and independence;
but if he will work right ahead, wasting
neither days nor dollars, and keeping
clear of speculation and office seeking, he
can hardly fail to succeed.
As to the Internal spirit of Land Spec
ulation and monopoly, think no State
ever suffered from it more severely than
this. The spectators in broadcloth are
not one whit more rapacious or pernicious
than the spectators in rags, while the
latter are forty times the more numerous
Land speculation here is about the only
business in which a man can embark with
no other capital than an easy conscience.
For example: rode up the bluffs back
of Atchinsop, and out three or four miles
on the high rolling prairie, SO as to have
some fifteen to twenty square miles In
siew at one glance. On all this inviting
area here were perhaps half dozen poor
or middling habitatoDs, while not one a.
ere in each one hundred was fenced or
broken My friend informed me that ev-
| cry rood saw was "pre-empted," aud
held at thirty up to hundred dollars or
more per acre. "Pre-empted !" | ex-
claimed; "bow pre-euFted BY living or
i lying ~ "Well,' he responded, "they
live little "and lie little" | could
see abundant evidence of the lying, none
at all of the living. To obtain pre-
emption, the squattcr must swear that be
actually resides on the quarter section he
applies for, has built habitation and made
other improvements there, and wants the
land for his own use and that of his fam
lily. The squatters who took possession
of these lands must every one have COM
United gross perjury in obtaining pre-
emption-and so it is all over the Terri
tory, wherever lot is supposed likely to
sell for more than the minimum price. i
heard Of one case 10 which squatter
carried martin box on to quarter Sec
tion, and, on the Strength of that martin
box, swore that be had house there
eighteen by twenty-five left the officer
to presume the feet. SO it was all over:
the wretched little slab shanty which has
sufficed to swear by on one "claim," is
now moved of and serves to swear by,
on another when the first swearing is done
| am confident there is not at this hour
any kind of a house or other sign of i'm
provement on one fourth of the quarter.
sections throughout Kansas which have
been secured by exemption. The squat
ter who thus establishes "claim" sells
it out so soon as practicable to some spec
ulator, who follows 10 his wake, getting
from $50 to $500 for that which the fu-
ture bona fide settlers will be required to
pay $3.50 to 81 500 for. Such, in prac.
teal operation, the system designed
and ostensibly calculated to shield the
poor and industrious settlers from rapa-
city and extortion, but which, in fact op-
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