The Portland daily press., 1869-06-01
An Antidotc for ,he we.,ern Fever.

The letter from our Western correspondent,
published elsewhere, presents once more in a
striking manner, the advantages of staying at
home instead of flying to evils that we know
not Of in the Western country. The series of
letters, of which the one printed this morning
is the second, is from an entirely reliable source,
the gentleman who writes the communications
having made the experiment of change for
himself, and having gone West with far more
facilities for taking advantage of whatever op-
portunities the county may offer for improv-
ing ones condition than the majority of those
who have adopted like course of conduct
possess. Besides, he has no conceivable inter-
est in painting the dark side of Western life
in gloomier colors than the facts justify.
The most Of our young men who of late years
have left Maine to push their fortunes in the
far West have left an important consideration
out OF the account. Maine, so far as its unde-
veloped capabilities for progress in both the ag-
ricuitural and manufacturing industries are
concerned, isa Western State. 1t has not, like
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and
some Of the other Eastern States, approximate
ed to the highest point of development to which
in the nature of things it can attain. The
foundations of its railroad system have just
been laid. Liberal concessions to manufac-
turers have just begun TO have their effect in
stimulating that branch of industry and in
fastening that good time when the improve
ment of our absolutely unrivaled WATERPROOF
er will furnish employment for all the strong
hands and busy brains that are to be found
within our borders. To such as dream of sud-
den wealth from fortunate purchases of land
in the West, better opportunities are offered
here. The appreciation in the value of real
estate, following the opening of new lines of
communication and the building up of large
manufacturing cities and villages, must keep
almost even pace with the sudden rises in
value that have made the West SO attractive to
the ambitious and the discontented. Moreoy-
er, while waiting for the better day that is to
give Maine the position for which nature as
signed her, we have not to endure through all
our probationary period the mseres and hard
ships Of the semi-savage frontier life. What
tue discomforts Of Western life are, our cor
respondent has wildly depicted To many
people who read these lines the story he tells
will be an old one, for they themselves have
neighbors who have emigrated to the West
and written back to their friends at the old
New England home letters full of desponden-
cy, regret, and almost despair. There are ex-
ceptions to this, as to all general rules The
man Is living who will dig up a thousand dol
lar nugget in Australia or on the Pacific slope,
but there are millions who will gain only the
average recompense of daily toll. So there is
one man in hundred who goes West who
writes back glowing accounts of the Eldorado
he has chanced to find there. But for the most
Of us it is the safer and the wiser to stay at
home and avail ourselves Of such advantages
as are afforded us here