The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1872-08-08
An Unfortunate Removal.

An Unfortunate Removal.
There is at least one American citizen
who can give very good reasons for
doubling that nearer approximation
to the setting sun is Synonymous with
wholly successful pursuit of happiness
Bearing the name of Floyd, and owning
originally. an ordinary farm in the
southern part of Illinois, this predes-
tined victim of occidental theorizing
was strongly affected of late by speciods
conceptions of the agricultural wealth
to be reaped I" further west" and finally
informed his family and neighbors that
he should never be satisfied until he had
sold his home-estate and purchased
new one in the cereal ell dorado of Min
nesota. The latter was the State of
speedy fortunes for energetic yoemen,
and thither he would go at once to buy
farm and prepare for the removal of
his homestead. Friends to counsel him
against any such experimental change
at his time of life were numerous enough,
but it was his wife who particularly
protested against it. She offered no
other argument than that she did not
wish to leave her old home and this
Mr.. Floyd did not deem worthy of much
consideration, though she maintained it
with pertinaeity from which he might
have taken useful warning had his
mind been less excited with visions of
future mammoth grain crops. 20 .r.
To Minnesota, then, fastened the
farmer of Illinois, with money borrowed
upon his native acres to invest in the
promised land, and after some weeks of
prospecting in the former State he
bought at last house and fields where
the soil seemed auspicious of rich har-
vests. So far so well ; but now, when
he wrote sanguinely to his wife to come
| and join him, the response by mail was
not from her but from an old neighbor,
and it merely said that Mr.. Floyd would
come after his wife himself, if he knew
what was best for both of them Puz-
zled and alarmed by this odd portent,
the travelled farmer lost no time in
needing its suggestion, and hastened
back to Illinois. There he found Mrs.
Floyd no more resigned to the idea OF
the removal than she had been before,
and, indeed, in such sullen and sem
tentious mood about it that he half re-
pented his own committal to the new
venture. Committed he was, however,
and could but turn over the old farm to
the persons who had advanced the
money upon it, and bid the unwilling
lady accompany him to the "golden
grain" State. On their way he was
destined to learn what he had not YET
found time to inquire about-why his
old neighbor had written him in such
ominous terms. Mrs. Floyd had de.
termined that she would not ego west,
no matter what desperate device should
be requisite for final defiant evasion Of
the authority constraining her against
her wishes; and accordingly when the
boat for st. Paul on which they were
passengers, reached the vicinity O.
McGregor, she availed herself of the
darkness of night and the confusion of {
landing to abstract from her husband
trunk all the money remaining from the
full sale OF the homestead, and to es
cape ashore under escort of person
who had agreed to conduct her to the
home of her parents in Wisconsin. Mr.
Floyd was sleeping at the time of thi
desertion, and upon missing his partnel
in the morning feared at first that sht
had accidentally fallen overheard
Presently, however the discovery of hi
pecuniary depletion and of a hasty fare
well note from the missing one taugh
him the bitter truth Never had h,
suspected the possibility of such a thing
1t broke his heart at once; left him NJ
energy to essay any pursuit of the per
verse fugitive; and he proceeded me
chanically onward to his journeys end
an object of deep commiseration to hi
sympathizing fellow-passengers.
Arrived at his new property, says tn
st. Paul Press, another pitiless disaste
stared him in the face. During his alb
sence his house had taken fire by light
ming and burned to the ground. Black
ened ruins were all that remained G
what he had exchanged his comfortabl
Illinois home for, and he was without
dollar to rebuild the house. Then b
gave up, sobbed like child, and wishe
that he had never been born. Kin
hearts lent him what help they cbul
when the first agony of his despair wa
over, and he is now en- his desolate wa
back to Illinois, as pitiable wreck {
g high hopes and great expectations 6
! ever returned from withered harve:
. in the West. ...... .