New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-06-17
SETTLING IN THE SOUTH.

When the BOYS in Blue were carrying Jne
flag over every crOss-rOad and bridle-path OF
the seeding States it was a common remark
at camp-fires: al have come here to stay" 1t
was supposed that after the close of the war
society at the South would be greatly changed
and old usages quite upset by large influx
of Yankees. Five years have passed away
since the Grand Army dsbanded. The climate
and soil of the South are advertised as they
never were before; tens of thousands who would
never have crossed the Potomac have camped
by every intercourse and tOied across every
rocky ridge from Harper'S Ferry to Alexandria
in Louisiana yet the influx of settlers is slug
gish. On a million of acres, cleared by camp
fires the little oaks and pines or hickory sprouts
stand thick blackberry briers are growing on
thousand miles of old earthworks; foxes and
rabbits multiply; the woods are full of SPUR
rels, and quail-shooting in the old fields IL
better sport than ever. Why is thisi Why
has not the blowing of an improved and pro-
gressiye agriculture followed up the blowing
of artillery wheels
There have been on the part of all patriotic
men in the South a generosity and warmth of
invitation that have surprised us. The men
who most love the South have been the first
longest as soldiers. Lands are offered at figures
surprisingly low. Many have engaged to furnish
car fare to industrious settlers, and the Direct
OTIS of the Southern roads issue half-fare tick
cts to all who come to buy land. Several Of
the Southern States have organized immigra-
ton con! nanes, and sent agents to this city
and to Europe, carrying maps dotted from
Underwater to the peaks of the Alleghanies
with lands in market, fine farms, valuable
plantations, noble estates. Meantime the food
of settlers, deaf to all these allurements, rolls
in fast-follOwing waves westward, creeping up
the remotest valleys, spreading over the widest
prairies, laying railroads in bison paths, and
answering the yell of the COmanche with
the whistle of the engine. Some of the rea-
sons why this tide has not been diverted
southwark are fundamental, and nothing that
man can do will change them. For instance,
there are thousands who would rather work
hard all July cutting grass, and all December
cutting fre-wood, than live where there is
no seighing in Winter. The charm of climate
is to them no charm. They would rather live
in Norway than in Italy. Migration westward
will pour along the great parallels, and of ten
men starting out of Cincinnati for homes,
seven will 20 west into Illinois and Missouri,
while three turn southwark into the Valley of
the Kentucky and the Cumberland, region
unsurpassed on the continent for climate, rich
ness, and beauty. Land a German in Wash
ington, and you can sell him quarter section
on the Platte with less trouble than you could
induce him to take a slice off the Mount Yer
non estate.
One great advantage which the West enjoys in
q competition for settlers is that her lands are
in unbroken areas. If a group of families
wishes to build their homes in Western Iowa
they can send on an agent who is able to buy
enter thirty-six square miles. This cannot
be done south of the Potomac in lands that
are fertile. But, after all, the grand objection
to the South is one that the men of the South
can remove. The potent charm of the West
is that everybody believes that anything can
be done. All futures are possible to Young
Samson. The lion in his path he throttles,
turning its carcass into beehive. Half the
time and force of the South oozes away in
visions of the bygone, in day-dreams of what
might have been. While the cicada sings in
the tall weeds, bronzed campaigners speculate
on what would have been if Jackson had not
fallen, if Lee had had a fresh $4,000 at Gettys-
burg, if Joe Johnson had been reinforced at
jackson, if Beauregard had pushed Grant to
the bitter end on that fierce Sunday afternoon
at Pittsburg Landing.
Thus the dying embers are famed and the
old scar is chafed. Planters are content with
8 or per cent interest at bank of
deposit, or cheer themselves with the thought
of 200 bales in Liverpool, and are shy Of Eve
twenties and six -thirties They sit ON galleries
in the long noontido, with money in their