New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1868-01-25
VES7ERN EMIGRATION

tiOu from the East TO the Western States
Local and temporary causes swell or decrease
the number of emigrants. Thus, hard times in
the older fills tho newer States. A year OF
panic is in greater degree, year Of emgra-
ton. The great business and social earth
ouakcs shake up society, and 1t moves west
ward.
The truth is, there are numberless persons
in the older communities who are constantly
mcdtating emigration. The idea is q sort OF
vent or scapegoat for the feelings. When the
ills and cares of lfo press, men look to the
West, to its broad mOccuped lands, its future
towns and cities, its independence, and the
chance to grow up with its new civilization
The hardships of the first few years and the
expense of moving are the obstacles. For
these reasons, the contemplated emigrant merely
dreams about it, At length, some crash III bust
ness comes. Workshops and factories are closed.
He is as it were, rooted out of the place where
he grew, and, if he has means enough, cmg1ates.
There is another class-young men IN search
of an opening. They have been educated Tor
any-Or, rather, for no particular business.
They must shift for themselves, and have been
elbowcd down in the great crowd Of cities or
to emgrate themselves, or some relative, solicit
tous about their welfare, sends them adrift
West, with the vague general idea that there
are plenty of openings there. The misfortune
with this class is that they want to be sales
men in stores, clerks at hotels, school teachers,
lawyers clerks, or may run about with
patent right for a washing machine, or the sub
sclption list of a new book. The curse of the
rising generation is q thirst for It's ideal of
gentcel occupations.
From the Middle States comes another class
men who have been reared OH farms. Ohio,
PENNSYLVANIA, New York, Indiana, Kentucky,
Tennessee, and Illinois. not long since the
fields for emigration now furnish annually
their hundreds and thousands of seekers for
new homes. These States, it is true, have not
by any means reached their maximum of ex-
pansion. Populations tcn-fold greater than
those of to-day will doubtless live in them, but
the first stages of uncomfortablcncSs for elbow
room is being felt. Lands there are higi-in
many places, fifty and one hundred dollars per
acre sometimes more. Thousands of families
grow up and east half dozen or dozen OF
young families into society, with limited means,
cxacting tastes, and a thousand difficulties IN
the way of moving forward. They may be-
come renters on the fields of another, or
purchase and struggle with a load OF debt and
interest. One other altcrnativc-they may
cmig1ate and compound the hardships Of
few years for future home and stake IN
growing community.
We must confess that there are mcagenessand
barrenness in the statistics Of emigration. The
Ia d.. #
disappointed or unsuccessful cmigrants; the
average length Of time it takes to transplant
the human tree the amount of watering it takes
to keep up its first siclIy life, and send out its
desponding suckers into the new soIl-these
are subject-mattors for philanthropc inquiry
and common sense investigation. Is there
science in cmigrationl or does it consist III
buying railway ticket, kissing Julia, and turn
ing ones face toward the setting SUM- How few
branches of industry but have been made the
subjects of scientific inquiry! Even when we
make soap, we study the alinitics of alkas
and the different notifications of the grease
family but when a man cngrateS, he shuts
his eyes and consigns himself to the tender mer-
cies Of luck or Providence.
IL would be difficult 90 estimate the impor-
tance of emigration to this Republic. II is lit
tie more than n colony Of new emigrants shot
up into nation. a glance at Illinois, for
instance, which in q few years has grown from
a prairie TO a great commonwealth, Is a start
ling lesson. The rapid development and in
crease in the value of property have made
thousands rich. A emile in Middlesex" may
be worth more than "a principally in Africa"
but our wild municipalities" shoot into States
l.. No. Iou GRAFT N
reached its highest tide. The success of our
Republic in maintaining its integrity Will draw
TO it fresh crowds of home-seekers. Foreign
immigration will increase, while States that
lately offered fields to il will annually pour
their thousands into the West. In one or two
years more, another wave from the West will
meet it. Asiatcs via California, Will come III
10y the carload, TO look at the terra incognita
east of the mOuntains-the land where pork
and corn bread have been the constituents of
dubious civilization. A half million or MIL
lion of Indians, too, remain to be absorbed In
some shape Such are the elements designed
i'll few years TO send the hum of industry
into every nook and Granny of the West.
Twenty years ago, the movers wagon was the
type of migration. jaded yoke OF oxen,
battered wagon, few hickory bottomed chairs,
all old plow, and a spinning wheel dangling out
behind, were the symbols. A little girl, prob
ably, rode straddlcback on an old gray mare
and drove along the old COW, and in camp at
night the squatter looked up his rifle, or solaced
himself with shabby fiddle, while his better
half brandished fne-tooth comb.
These types are not altogether abolished. but
have become more rare. They are crowded out
of sight by new class that travels by rail-
If you meet one of them, and could get at his