Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1870-09-23
Aiseellanu.
Kansas.

A shrewd New England woman sends
to the Springfield Republican, from
Kansas, an unfattering acco mt of that
State, from which we extract the follow
ing:
There never wasa country so lied about
as kansas-affirms one of the old set
tiers, an original Vermont Yankee, who
has worked hard here for many years,
through privations and discomforts, and
now enjoys as the fruit Of his labors a
comfortable home who still is not blind
ed by any glamour of pride in his adopt
ed land, but sees clearly the disadvanta-
ges as we'll as the advantages of life here.
A stay of three months here, continual
ly jaunting about and hearing the
pros and cons of the matter, shivering
in the north wind one day, and swelter-
ing in the 81 nth the next, seeing with my
own eyes the ominous dust cloud, hear
ing with my own ears the roaring winds,
and worse than all, tasting in my own
mouth the generous rich grit with which
every breeze comes laden, all, with 9TH
er things, incline me to think that he is
right in his statement as to the way in
waich Kansas is misrepresented by land
agents and other interested but unscru-
pulous parties.
HOW PEOPLE LIVE HERE.
If the whole aim and object of exist
ence is to make money, regardless of how
or where any one lives, then doubtless
man does far better to come here than
to remain in cold sterile New England.
True, it is not every one who makes
fortune here. "The poor We have al
ways with you,' is not less true here,
and than where and when it was spoken
as also, everybody knows, there is an ir-
repressible class of men who would make
money somehow, even if pent up in
rocky side hill sheep pasture in Vermont.
To speak in general terms poor man
with large family to support can do it
more easily here than there, because in
this comparative state of society, the
style of living is such that what are
deemed essential to comfort there, are
decided as luxuries here and not to be
thought Of The staples which go to
sustain life are usually raised here in
such profusion that bread is always plen-
ty to put in children's mouths, and though
it may often lack butter, sorghum is
cheap and eminently respectable. A
young man with small capital cannot
perhaps do better than to invest it here;
but let the middle aged man who has a
good home and surroundings in one of
our Eastern States, and can afford to
stay there, think twice before he throws
it aside for chance here. New Eng
land society, privileges and comforts are
yet long ways in the future here, and
many OF them, for iusuperable reasons,
good deal further off than the millen-
nium, so that the man who comes here
to live, need not fatter himself that it
will be like his old home He must re-
sign himself to things as they are, and
wait patiently the slow mending of mat
tiers. Many who come here have never
looked at the subject in that light, and
their disappointment and homesickness
are consequently great. About half of
the people one meets here have come for
the avowed purpose of making money
enough to enable them to live comfort
ably elsewhere, and are staying, not from
love of the country, but to accomplish
that end. Doubtless, however, the ma
jority of them will become accustomed
to things, and eventually remain a life
time, for the greatest Inconvenience be-
come endurable from sheer force of hab-
it.
To the Eastern family who come bere
from their spacious roomy house, suppli-
ed with every convenience, it looks at
first the height of barbarism for whole
family of may be dozen to live, move
and have their being, through summers
fiery heat and winters fierce winds, in
one-roomed cabin, as three-fourths of
the establishments in this section are
Yet, as time passes on. they become ac-
customed to it, and compelled at first to
live so far from the scarcity of means to
do with, and the high prices of both Ia
Dor and lumber, they come by degrees
to consider it all right, and men worth