Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1871-03-09
sFrem the Newport Express. ]
The Great West.
SHALL WE GO OR STAY ?

SHALL WE GO OR sTAYl
+ There is great hue and cry in this
good State about going out West. In the
!. eyes of many the West seems to be an ex.
tensive garden of Eden, and they only
r tarry in New England until they gel
Q money enough to carry them West. Pro.
0 Iessional men visit the West they go to
I chicago, and other huge cities, but seldom
get even taste of life, as farmers find il.
6 far away from any large town or oitv. A
! person can live in Chicago and not he
: home-sick, can have all the comforts Of
life, capitalists can let money to the
farmer at two per cent. month, and pro-
fessional men might get rich and enjoy
themselves. But let them 90 out into
{ the woods, miles away from store and
Post Office, and perhaps, even from neigh.
bors. and chop trees, roll up little log
house, and settle down with home-sick
wife and discontented children, and then
see how long they will chant the glorie
of western life. 1t is fact that Yer
monter, receiving letters from brother
in the West telling of the abundant crops
he was harvesting, and urging him to
move there-gathered all together, and
took his journey into that far country.
Arrived there, he found his brother spat-
ting around barefooted he also ascer.
tanned the fact that though said brother
had plenty of corn on his hands, it was
on hls hands with vengeance, for he
could find no market for it, therefore he
was obliged to get along without boots
and other such trifes. The Vermonter,
like sensible man, did not remain to be
sent into the fields to feed swine, or even
TO unpack his goods, but said, II will re-
turn to Vermont, where there is bread
enough and to spare, boots enough, too"
SO back he came, like another prodigal
son. Similar instances might be men.
toned. Those who have seen families
here, living in nice comfortable houses.
with plenty to eat, drink and wear, have
found them out West, in wee bits oil
houses, eating off rough boards, going up
stairs on ladder, sitting on pieces of logs
instead of chairs, and sleeping on rough
poles instead of bedsteads And what is |
worse, they loose all ambition in few
years, and though they may be gaining
riches they procure no more comforts in |
the house, but live on year after year Just |
as they commenced; the husbands and
fathers laying up stock in bank and lands, |
but forgetting the infinitely more pre-
cious 'home bank stock"-the love
and happiness of wives and children.
We frequently hear it said that it breaks
down woman's spirit to live out West,
so that they give up trying to have COM
portable homes. One man, while visiting
Vermont, after residing some years in the
West, was expatiating on the beauties of
life in that delightful region, when some
one asked if he lived in good house and
had it furnished conveniently within.
"Oh, no." said he, f'the women get their
pride all broken down after living there a
few years, so they don't care to have any
thing new in the house, and we get rid of
all that expense"
just here let me say, that if good man
has an extremely cross wife, and has done
all in his power to make her real nice and
respectable like, without success, it might
be good plan to take her out West, put
her into house, that respectable New
England pig would be ashamed to inhabit,
let her sit on stumps, eat off rough boards,
sleep on rough pole bedstesd, go up {
stairs on ladder, and when the children
are sick, let her sit up nights and view
the frost pictures on the walls, which
gather there in spite of red-hot stove,
and let her shiver in spite of two or three
quilts and comfortables around her shout
ders, while the wind comes whistling
through the logs almost enough to take
her breath away; and then if she does ,
not subside, we think he would be iusti-
fed In getting a divorce.
A letter from former resident of Yer '
mont, now in Wisconsin, dated Jan. 18th,
1871, says: "Fhe four past years have
been very hard for the people here. The
year before we settled here wheat was :
S2.5O Per bushel. The farmers, instead :
OF paying their debts, bought more land
and sowed more wheat; the next year I
wheat came down to 81, but still thew II
thought they could live. SO they broke mn q
more land and sowed more wheat. but the
terrible storm in harvest time and the low '.
prices of wheat have made it hard for ,
hem during the last two years. Wheat
las brought but so cts. a bushel, and n
thousands of bushels have been entirely q
poiled by the rains. Many a farmer has I,
,een obliged TO sell his wheat as soon as
hreshed at 90 cts. per bushel to pay his
lired help, and then come out S25 to $50
debt and once in debt, in this poor
country, man has a hard time getting
rec again.
ng the four years that we have lived here.
The West is full of cut-throats. There is ,,
be most swindlipg carried on here that I ey
yer heard of. The fact is, the scape C
oats from all countries come West, and Ia
hey! calculate to get their living ont of E,
ne industrious ones"
A friend in Iowa is to move, this month,
w miles by team, into log house 9x12 -
70 haf II
lrn around in such house in Vermont 4
specially if there was much furniture in Ii
J One Vermonter, while living in Iowa,
efore building house dug cellar; the
eople of the region around about stood .
azing at him with open-mouthed aston b
hment, wondering what under the sun
> was diggin' that ar great hole for. One
ould naturally suppose that they would n m'
eed cellars in that place as in that place to
In that very house (which was better be
ian others in its vicinity the frost actu-
ly covered the walls, while the stove
as kept red hot. A gentleman while ,
ding along a Western road came across An
man who was taking bis daily journey ne
ter water; he was obliged to 20 two and -
le-half miles and fill barrels from
ream the size of pipe-stem, which, af-
an, was uut tne trainings oi the pTal- Il
Dc. IL
A person ought to take all these things
to consideration before deciding to move
est. If people would live and dress in
ew England as they do in many parts of IL
e West, they would in all probability -,
t rich as fast, and if they had not just pr Dr.
o same number OF dollars and cents they dis
Md take moro comfort and aniov moro hid
ivileges here than there. IT,
They tell us of Western cline, ter
They say It's passing fair, Ne
That sunny are its laughing skies
And soft its balmy air; -
Well linger round our childhoods home
Till death cur quick blood chills, I'D
Then Well die in old New England, ID
And sleep beneath her hills. (y.E.J.
iRAED BALL.-At L. A. Ives Hall, Mount
lily, took place last evening, as early as six -.