The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1869-02-11
Secure a Home.

"A Home is moral necessity for every hui
man being. Atenant at will, or mere tenn
porary abiding place, is incongenal to the
higher Development of civilization. A home
of ones own, where he may be content to
live, and be resigned to die, conduces to the
sum of human happiness. The statistics OF
prisons, show a large proportion of crime
t1aceable to the homeless. If every family
in the whole country were the owner OF a
homestead, there would be a decided diminu-
ton of vice and immortality. A migratory
population is inconsistent with well-regulat-
ed society, and moral development. To be
the possessor of home, inspires self-respect
and self-reliance. It moreover conduces to
reedom of thought and action, and removes,
to good degree, the feeling Of dependency
and subserviency. It is true that poverty is
no crime, nor is it q necessary disgrace.
Thousands are not to blame for not having
homes Of their own, but a very large proper
ton of the homeless families, especially in
this country, have no good excuse for not:be-
ing the possessors of homes. Thousands of
homeless men, having wives and children,
spend enough every year for tobacco or in
toxicating drinks, to purchase q homestead
OF ten, twenty or more acres, on the fertile
prairies OF the unsettled west. Thousands of
able-bodied men drag out q precarious exist
cnce whole lifetime, by depending for en-
ployment as day-laborers. When lands can
be bought at ten shillings per acre, or may be
had for omparatively nothing, if entered un-
der the homestead law, there are but few
healthy laboring men who can bring good
excuse for not owning small farm which
they can call their own. Many q wealthy
| farmer can now be found in the west who was
once poor, and obliged to- occupy rough
shanty of logs Or boards, during the first yea1
or two of his western experience, The pur-
suit Of agriculture or horticulture involves nc
such hazardous experimenting, as trading
trafficking, or business dependency on the
will or caprice of others. No occupation ev
er devised by man is SO surely remunerativt
as agriculture. The products of the soil are
a never-lailing source of supply for man ant
beast; at least the exceptional cases, where
1.-the pursuit of farming does not pay, are fal
less than in other occupations.
There are unquestionably more than mil
ron of persons in our large and small cities
who could be spared to seek new homes OF
the uncultivated lands Of the west and south
without disadvantage to those who remain
behind. There would be people enough left
to do all the needed work. This country
would be vastly richer and more prosperous
if the surplus of our over peopled cities coulc
be gradually diffused over the regions O
country now lying waste. A vast new field
for industry and enterprise has recently beer
opened in the South Investment in lands
whether in small or large quantities, is safe
real estate will be sure to increase in value
Lands in the South, partially improved, which
can now be purchased at from three to fiv'
dollars per acre, will be almost certain to in
crease in value many hundred per cent. in
few years The homeless man has choic,
f over region of country of vast extent, of al
most any desired temperature of climate
and of every variety of production. We sa!
; then, to every man dependent on the labo
| of his hands for.the supporter a family choose
a future home at the earliest possible period
become the owner of piece of land in fee
simple, if it be but small and thus insure {
home for declining years.