The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1869-12-28
ga Bright Home i'm fhe Setting Sun. -


In the letter from Western correspond
ent published in our columns yesterday morn
ing gloomier picture of the condition of af-
fairs in the West is given than is often paint
ed by an American. 1t takes an irate or dis
gusted Englishman, as Charles Dickens was
when he made his first visit, to paint the
"Edens" Of the West. No doubt our cores.
pondent's picture is somewhat shaded by the
existence Of depression that is local rather
than general in its character and by causes of
encouragement that are merely temporary
The low price of so important crop to Min
nesota as wheat is of itself sufficient to occa-
sion panic and much real suffering. This,
ofcourse, will disappear when the price of
the great staple is once more such as to COM
pensate its producers. But after making due
allowance for accidental and temporary causes
of uneasiness, it would be hard to impair the
force of our correspondents description of the
hardships that attend the emigrant who goes
West with small means, or without means, to
better his condition. The experiences of
Martin Chnzzlewit have been many thousand
times repeated by persons who have been en-
trapped into leaving New England homes by
the seductive advertising of shrewd land spec
ulators. W E
all but a very small part of them, it is poor
policy to leave the certainties of their present
condition for the uncertainties of Western
life. To such as are distinguished from their
fellows by unmistakable indications of genius
to such as can preach better, make better le-
gal arguments, teach with more skill, heal the
SICK with more success, write with more in
splration than anyone else, a METROPOLITAN
sphere Of labor may be more desirable than
this narrower one of Maine, and even for
them the West is no better than the East.
But for us, the commonalty, who earn our
bread as men and women with average
means and average intelligence must, there is
no reason for running away from our own
State just as it is on the point of becoming
worthier than ever of our attachment and re- |
spect. Maine, distinguished in this respect
from all other Eastern States, presents nearly
all the conditions that render the West so at
tractiye to persons of restless temperament
Its in these respects more Western than an |
Eastern State. 1t has virgin lands and for
ests that are yet to be utilized by the actual |
settler. Its system of highways and railways
is yet incomplete, but is being rapidly extend
ed in all directions, opening new and unde-
veloped regions to the manufacturer or tbe
agriculturalist. Its manufactures are in
their infancy, but are being developed on al,
hands, it having, apparently, just been dscov.
cred that an empire of wealth and general ma.
terial prosperity exists potentially in the I'M
used water power of the State. Many of our
resources are yet untouched, and, unlike our |
sister States, we have not yet Appropriated |
to an exhaustion of our means of growth and |
progress. Maine is State with great flu
ture before it, but it needs the help of the
strong hands and energetic minds that desert
it for the West. Every spring the tide of en-
igration sets in TO our infinite disadvantage
Let us hope that the next spring may prove
In some respects an exception. Let our young
men and young women have faith in the fu-
ture OF the State that has already furnished
the Drains for so many fourlshing common
weAitns In the West and now, though not i'm
pover1sneo, has need of them at home.