The New York herald., 1870-05-22
Westward Hoy

from all quarters, and Of comparatively su-
perior class. The vast majority Of them are
sturdy, ruddy, bright-eyed customers, "with
money in their breeches," not much OF that.
indeed, but more than their brethren Of former
years who preceded them possessed, and
enough to pay their expenses here for while.
If they can but keep out of the jaws of the
land sharks. They are full of health, strength
and hope when they first land among US, and
we pity the narrowness of soul that feels no
pleasure at the sight. From time to time there
is boiling over of bilious journalism, the
emanation, probably, of diseased livers and
jaundiced blood, which bespatters with slang
epithets the poor foreigner who turns so trust
fully to the broad lands Of America for q new
home; but the overwhelming majority Of a free
and generous people receive these exiles with
hearty, open-handed welcome And wise are
they to do so; for no man who has the pros
perity and greatness of his country at heart
can cast single glance at the map, not of
the Western States alone, but even of the al
most vacant regions of the old Atlantic Com
monwealths, without feeling the earnest need
for populating and developing them that the
burdens now pressing upon us as nation and
our position before the world impose.
Therefore we are glad when we hear that
steamers from the Baltic, the Belt and the
German Ocean on the north, and from the
Mediterranean and Adriatic on the south,
are convergng necessarily upon the
French and British ports to turn in
their living contribution to the tide
of human life that now bears from Ire
land, England and France with the regularity
of the Gulf Stream itself toward our shores.
The great mouth of New York admits this
swarming current and the green fields of the
traveller passes in another year or two, and
brighter spaces in the wild woods, broader
reaches of waving grain and more frequent
village spires announce the first result. A few
years more and the clangor Of populous cities,
line after line of crowded highways and
Gathering railroads, majestic steamers on river
and lake, and elegant homes, surrounded by
rich gardens show the completer work. Such
has been the process that, year after year, in
the lifetime of the existing generation, has
pushed the margin of settlement from the bor-
ders Of the Ohio westward, wave by wave,
across the vast domains now forming the Or
ganized States of Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin.
Iowa, Missouri, and is now urging its great
tidal billow away beyond Minnesota, Dacotah,
Nebraska and Kansas to the foot of the Rocky
Mountains. Among these new Common
wealths the immensity and varied capacity Of
Nebraska are this year attracting very par
ticular attention. A State two hundred miles
in length and four hundred in breadth, COM
prising superfces of about eighty thousand
square miles, or fifty million acres, of which
forty millions belong to the United States gov
ernment, it offers a diversity Of soil, resources
for mining, manufactures, grain growing, fruit
raising and cattle grazing truly remarkable.
Its central position on the great line of travel
by rail and highway from the Missouri river to
the farthest West, fed by the Chicago, Logans-
port and North Missouri branches, favors it in
a peculiar manner. No less than six hundred
and fifty miles of iron track were laid in the
State within two years, and three times
as many are now in progress. Its
climate greatly resembles that of Cen
trail and Southern Germany; the winter is
but four months in duration and quite mild,
snow remaining only few days on the ground,
and the exuberance of meadow growth being
such that, from April to October, cattle Craze
free, with scarcely any care. The air is pure
and dry, and virulent disease is almost
unknown. No swamps, no vast reaches of
underbrush, no stagnant waters to mar the
beauty of the rich valleys that stretch along the
Platte and the Missouri, which are environed
by verdant hills, covered in spring with
wealth of wild bloom in remarkable variety.
Salt and excellent bituminous coal are among
the minerals, and homesteads can be pur-
chased, in the best region, on the easy terms
of the original law.
We mention Nebraska particularly because
SO large ratio Of this years immigration
seems to be directed thither; but, with modi-
fications Of site and latitude, the same general
remarks will apply to the lovely lake regions
of Minnesota and the grain lands of Iowa.
Taking our Western domain as an entirety it
offers unrivalled homes for perhaps hundred
millions of human beings, with focks and herds
more numerous than those of the patriarchs.
In fact, the grand cycle Of our continental
wealth and power is but just beginning. This
great land, ''shadowing with WINGS" is but
just commencing to receive within it's embrace
the disfranchised millions of the older systems
escaping thence to us, on the East and on the
West. Commingled tongues and many creeds
are flsing amicably together in this great inte-
rior receptacle of America, and the boy Of
to-day may live to see an empire arise from it
strong enough to dictate the law of humanity
to the world, and enlightened and noble
enough in its policy to win the willing homage
of all nations.