The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1871-08-12
western Emigration.


anxious thought on the part OF those
who love their fellow men, and many
have been the plans suggested to enable
all to live and prosper; yet we believe
none has had more advocates or more
real recommendations than Western emil
grafton. There, all the benefits OF free
dom and plenty beckon to the weary,
heart sick and starving denizen OF the
city's slums to enjoy them; natures
bounties are scattered with lavish hand
on every side and every side and every
earthly good is within the grasp OF all
who will but labor for them. The broad
prairies and boundless forests, teeming
with the untold riches of a virgin soil,
lie waiting to be improved by the hand
of the husbandman and the mechanic.
a thousand infant cities are to be built
upon this imperial domain; millions OF
acres are to be cultivated; all the prime
necessaries of life are to be had for the
production; health, competence, happl-
ness and long life stand ready to shower
their blessings upon them-and yet, with
the strange preversity of human nature,
hundreds of thousands of the poor and
oppressed who throng the highways and
byways of the cities persist in struggling
along, straining every nerve Tor
bare subsistence, living from hand to
mouth at best, often unemployed for
months, and not unfrequently the OBJ
jects of grudging charity, while their
children, for want of leisure or incllna-
ton to attend the schools, grow up IN
the most heathenish ignorance and vice.
Perhaps it may be said that the LIE
of the pioneer is a hard one, very fre-
quently rough one. We do not deny
this; but the finest specimen OF daring,
independent, self-reliant Americans we
have ever met we're born on the frontier
men who were ready at moments
notice to shoulder the rifle in defense OF
home and country, or take up the weap-
ons of reason to argue knotty point OF
law, religion or politics; nor were they
for that reason the less capable of doing
fair days work in the harvest-teid or
the work shop. But even supposlng
them generally rude and untaught, are
are they not immeasurably superior, with
their well developed bodies and healthy
minds, to the bulk of the city young men,
the children of the very poor, in whose
blood the germs of disease and death are
early seen. or in whose minds the seeds
of vice and disposition are scattered broad.
cast producing in after years the dread
harvest of mortality and SIM
The advantages offered By emigration
westward are manifold and great. In
growing up with a community, men and
women enjoy more opportunities for per,
sonal advancement and the acquisition OF
wealth than are possible to those who
settle in cities and the older and more
populous districts. There is, we might
say almost absolutely no chance for the
poor man with a family who seeks his
residence in city, having nothing but
the labor of his hands to depend upon.
This may not appear SO evident to those
who have not studied the subject, but all
experience proves the fact, and every
ohservant business man will verify the
assertion. Even with capital and credit
at his back, it is not an easy matter for
the newcomer to succeed in building up
large connection in a populous city, for
the reason, among others, that every
avenue of business enterprise is already
fully occupied, and it is only by the
exercise of the most sleep
less enterprise and brilliant talents that
he can hope to gain prominence among
his active and vigilant competitors. The
same principle holds good among me-
chanics.
Those who are well known and priced
for their skill and reliability are generally
fully employed at remunerative salaries,
but there is seldom vacancy for a stran-
ger. Among laboring men, however
those who have no trades, but must gain
livelihood as best they may by the per
formance of the most ordinary manual
labor-the case is still worse. There is
always some one ready to underbid them
and to take the bread out of their own
and their families mouths, and we
risk nothing in saying that thou
sands of this class rise every morning
in the year not knowing where or how
they are to obtain the means of keeping
the wolf from the door during the day.
To this class do we more particularly ad
dress our advice, which is: pack up your
families; get as many in like circum-
stances as you can to join you sell out,
if you must, your household goods to OBJ
tain the means, and go West-go West
go West