Eaton weekly Democrat. [volume] (Eaton, Ohio) 1866-1875, 1870-02-17
rhe DECLINE Of Rural New england

The Decline of Rural New England.
The coming census will contain few
more interesting and suggestive reI
lationS than those touching the de-
cline of New England towns. The
concentration into cities, the ravagesI
of the late war, the revolutionary
work of railroads and factories, the
new impulse given to emigration in
to the South and West, all combin-
ed, have lately told upon the rural
population of New England. These
four outlets would be enough to de-
plete population accustomed to re-
pair its losses by a swelling tide of
land is not filed up with immigrants
like the West. It preserves more
than any other part of tie country
its ante-revolutionary type of citi-
zens. Its name was well applied,
for it is indeed "New" England-a
graft from the old stock, which has
Increased and multiplied, and has
retalend its distinctive characters
tics more than most parts of Ameri-
| ca.
But now the causes Just alluded to
have mole than balanced the scanty
replenishing received by the rural
districts. The Palmer Mass Jour-
nal declares that "the decrease in
of Connecticut, New Hampshire,
Vermont and Massachusetts is quite
startling" The Providence Press
says of Rhode Island that "there is
tendency here to that which is so
palpable In other parts of New Eng
Iand.n The Boston Courier says
"The war made q deadly breach in
the strength Of the rural popula-
tion," and that since its close, the
downfall of slavery, "multitudes of
New England men go to the cheap
lands and more genial regions Of the
lSouth.n AS a.Whole, of course, New
England still exhibits the strength
of the Anglo-Saxon stock from which
ts people sprung, and will show q
vast gain in population, wealth and
power in the statistics Of 1870 over
| those Of ten years ago. But the pop
ulation and wealth and power Will
have somewhat changed their form.
One paper declares that "railroads
and factories have changed the an
cient order of things. The popula-
ton of the hills has slid into the val
leys, and with it the wealth also.
Farms can now be bought for less
than the buildings are worth sew
| eral farms are often merged, and
briars and brambles spring where
once were the garden and the rose. -
| We have seen how Boston has laid
hands on the towns surrounding, and
has annexed them how Providence
i and Portland, Lowell and Worces-
ter, have grown. A Westfield paper
very amusingly accused the SPRING
field Republican, the other day, Of
measuring everything in the uni
verse by its distance from or connec-
ton with Springdeld,-as one uses
the meridian of Greenwich to deter
mine longitudes,-only that this lat
ter is done by common consent, and
not through the self-appreciation of
the people of Greenwich. And, in
fine, there are many illustrations
of how theycities, large and little, are
getting much the advantage of the
villages and towns.
Again, none of the loyal States,
save Kansas, the very child of New
England, "the Massachusetts of the
| West, }" suffered such loss as these
Eastern States. In the official list,
or troll of honor" issued from the
War Office, and setting forth the
percentage of deaths among the SOL
sas, then the New England States,
then the Northwestern States, and
so on. Now, New England could
least of all the States afford these
Idepletions of her rustic population.
Other States could, by their exhaust
less soil-rich in minerals or rich in
their fertility-soon attract settlers
enough from the Old World to repair
their waste places. But New Eng
land, unblessed by Nature, and, save
In a few favored spots, comparative
Il l. oh
| plenishing. The volunteering in
the early years of the war swept
away the workers from the plow and
the anvil and towards the end of the
i war such were the losses in battle
that New England was almost as
well drained of men as Louisiana or
| Georgia. "Oftentimes," remarks
the Palmer Journal, 1--WE have trav-
eled half a day in Western Massa-
chusetts without seeing human be-
ing, except as we entered a dwelling
| A thickly-tenanted, but sadly neg
lected burial place, here and there,
is evidence that there once dwelt
/ among the hills and mountains a
more numerous population"
New England, according to the old
jest, has always been ga fine place
| to come from :" and the traditional
tendency to migrate to new places,
| and the disposition, born with the
man and feverish In his blood, to
make his way in the world some
where else than at the birthplace,
and to rely on his own exertione, is
now more manifest than ever. Not
| only does New York sweep in, as
ever, the rustic youth OF Connecticut
and Massachusetts, by the great OPP
portunities it ofers,-not only does
| the West still furnish to the Doug
Iases of Vermont a larger scope,cbut
now the Southis draining the young
men ofMaine, New Hampshire, Rhode
Island, as never before. The region
for the ''carpet baggers''is no longer,
as it has been during the past forty
years, mainly the West and the Pa
cific, but the South as well, where
railroads, school houses, churches,
and similar institutions" are In
creasing marvelously. Besides, as
we have said, the New England cit
les, Boston, Providence, Springfield,
and the rest, are enlarglng them
selves at the expense of the rural
population by offering larger induce
ments. Cities and villages increase
in New England, but not villages
and farms. What, however, is loss
to the one may be q gain to the 9TH
er, and possibly to the country at
lQrge.-N. Y. Times.
Steam power in ehips, as was