Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1871-02-22
For the Freeman.
The East vs.. the West.

Dle me 70 WTlLC itdEutuly upon every lAdst
Of the western quest ion, | should like tC
write a series of articles upon this subject
in which | should be inclin ed to take mod
erately eastern view Of things, as a sort Of
offset to the extravagant statements with
which many " Letter from Out West " is
filed to overh9wing. As it is, however,
will content myself with mentioning a few OF
what seem to me, fr om a residence Of two
years in Wisconsin when a boy. and three or
four visits to that and 9th er Western States
since, to be tn objections TO the West-Ob-
Jections not sufficient to deter everybody from
emigrating init her, by which many people
have been largely ben Gifted, but which should
be taken into the acco unit whenever emigra-
ton IS to be serious discussed.
The face Of the country is too level to suit
me. not only as a matter Of taste, but it has
iHcJnveniences from which hill countries are
generally free. There is moth ing to break off
the fierce prairie winds, viii ch are always un-
pleasant, and sometimes dangerous and de-
structive The streams are all sluggish and
dirty, and the scenery so monotonous that
when you have travelled fifty miles almost
anywhere in the West, you have quite an in
teIlgent idea Of the appearance Of the whole
country, from the Allegheny mountains to
the Rocky mountains There i a scarcity
Of timber Almost everyw here. though there
may be enough t. supply the immediate,
pressing wants Of the people by good deal
Of transportation rom one section 70 an other
and VIXEN the presen supply is exhausted.
they viii have learn ID to produce more hy
cultivation, I'd 60, perhaps, get along for
building and fencing material quite com
fo-tablv
The water, b esidos not being over-abundant
in many sections, Is almost universally bad
Not villain1u-lv bad III all cases but hard
and unpleasant to the taste, and Judge not
as waoie=5mc-in fact, not deemed a much
Sd by western people themselves as the noun
tlin springs and streams Of New England.
An I1yamln, at whose table l was eating.
on recent visit, said to me. q If you stay
here three mon th and drink neither tea nor
coffee nor whisky, you VIII % home sick. +
And this. I clncInIe, WAS the general opin-
i'm. as most western people drink at least
one Of these beverages. l wish the same as
serti1u could not in truth be made with ref
ercnce to eastern people, OF if it could, that
their induI Eeuaes were more strictly confined
to the two first named of the above mentioned
drinks. TIE city Of Chicago, since the com
pleti0n Of the famous lake tunnel, has an
abundant supply Of good water. St. Louis,
also, has good tasting water, which comes
from the Mississippi river, but it is terribly
dirty. II holds so much earth in solution,
and holds it SO tenaciously, that the people
drink it BY the acre. / drank water there 50 +
turbid that I couldn't see through tumbIer- +
fuI Of it. and doubt whether | could have /.
seen dime on tie bottom Of the tumbler, I
with an inch of water over it; but for want
Of the dime, I didn try that experiment. It /
can be !" settled, or the sand precipitated. I
by putting ice into it, and then It is az good T
as the best. But the only good water I have .
ever seen in the West came either from one
Of the great rivers or from one OF the lakes
I have heard, however, Of springs Of pure,
soft water, but Judge that they must occur
only at long intervals
Then there is another objection, and to me
it is quite serious one I; and that is the
character Of western fuel We read a great
deal about the inexhaustble coal fields Of Il
Iinois and other Western States, and the dis
covcry Of these coal beds has been regarded .
as the extreme Of good fortune for the West
and so, l suppose, it IS, for it furnishes an
abundance Of moderately cheap fuel. But
these beds yield only bituminous coal, which,
like the Southern Contcderacy, begins and
ends mainly in smoke. 4 least, while its
hcat-Siying properties are not inconsiderable
perhaps half equal To anthracite-a given
amount Of this coal will throw off a larger
volume of smoke than VIII the same amount
Of any other fuel which | have ever seen.
And given amount Of this smoke contains
more SCOT and oil, aud dirt and filth, Of va
rious kinds than any other smoke that ever
curled from a chimney's top. And the smell
of it is exceeding disagreeable, though they
say it Is not unwholesome which Is proab-
bly, true, for If It were, it would have killed
everybody, being everywhere present. The
streets are full Of it, the cars are full of it.
the traveller clothes and hair and lungs are
full of it, until he gets away from the rail
roads and the towns, when Of course it dis
appears. They say they get used to it, 50
that they don't mind it, but there are some
things, the getting used to which is a little
unpleasant to contemplate. Ths objection
Is oi course much less formidable to those
who contemplate living on farms
And for farming purposes the West is
generally held to present striking advantages
over the East. Yet even in this respect
believe it has been largely ovcr-estimatcd
Save IN the rise Of real estate, which Las
been one OF the most fruitful sources Of
wealth, question whether agriculture in the
West pays a much more liberal percentage
for the capital and labor bestowed upon it,
than in the East. The rise in real estate
should, however, be taken into the account,
and there are chances to make moderate for
tunes IN that alone but to set the benefit Of
the rise Of farm lands, it is necessary to 60 .
where land is cheap, and wait for settlement
and improvement 70 make it valuable. Ii
will do for young men, because they can af-
ford to wait. But it takes time, even in the
West. In central Illinois I rode out on the .
prairie and called upon man who had been
there fourteen years, and thought he had
made quite q fortune. He had farm of
about two hundred acres, which he callc d +
worth $I0, 900. But be was living in
small leg house, had a cob-housc barn, i. G.
some poles laid up c5b-h0use fashion aud .
thatched with straw, mad no woodshed nor
she'd Of auv kind had ncthin., Ia ride in ex-