Juniata sentinel. [volume] (Mifflintown, Pa.) 1846-1873, 1873-07-30
Nine Hundred Miles % Feet.
BY PROF. J. D. BUTLER.

Nils Nysten is Swede and was
born where his forefathers had been CON
tent with "only this and nothing more"
ITO draw nutrition, propagate and rot"
He aspired higher,-but SO low was
his birth. and SO strong the barriers
around him, that be was three score
wears old before be could work his pas
sage to America. Three years ago he
reached Iowa. with his wife. and pen.
niless. stopping first in Mount Pleasant
While working there at his trade Of
wagonmaking. he became convinced that
his best means of further advancement,
was TO secure Nebraska Homestead.
His mode of making this boon his own,
is worth telling to encourage others.
HOW HE DIDIT?
lie walked from his home tn Lincoln,
307 miles along the track of the Bur-
lington & Missouri River Railroad
This journey he accomplished in about
fifteen days. At Lincoln he found shell
ter in the Immigrants Rest. building
provided by the b. & NJ railroad where
land hunters may lodge and live without
charge while seeking farms.
Looking at the maps of public lands
in the United States Land Office there,
he judged York county to afford the
most desira ble homesteads. He there
fore walked on thither-seventy miles
further. Having picked out the farm
which suited him best of all those still
vacant he returned to the land Office and
fled his claim to it, September 2d, 1871,
paying Sl4 in fees. His homestead con-
sists of 80 acres, in the 34:h section of
the llth township in the Sd range west.
of the 9th principal meridian.
WHAT THgNl
Repairing again to the farm of his
choice he made eundry Improvements
for a month. He finished him dug g-out
and stacked twelve tons of wild hay.
His purse was now empty, save one
dollar and half, but he walked to Lin
coin. and thence home as he walked
hitber. daily laying behind him about
twenty miles.
Soon after reaching home. at the end
of q nine hundred mile walk. he learned
that his hay stacks had been burned by
a prairie fre-having no plow, he had
been unable to make a FIRE break around
them But throughout all. he seems to
have lost nothing of heart or hope. and
to have remained as jolly as Mark Tap
ley in Dhuzzlewit.
Through the winter he worked at his
trade sometimes beginning his tolls at
two o'clock in the morning. Thus he
finished three good wagons.
Two he traded off each for mule and
harness Then putting on board his
wife. barrel Of pork. harrow, all of
wood, made by himself, and some other
he drove westward, by the
same route which he had the last fall
travelled on foot.
He took with him three other Scan
ihavian Homestead hunters. each with
a wagon aud his family in it.
He arrived at Lincoln in duo time
rested little among the old familiar hos
pitalities for strangers. afforded gratuit-
oasly by the B. & NJ. railroad. through
the whole souled keeper John Frost. and
On the 2lst of March 1872, in spite of an
equinoctial wind, set his face towards his
homestead. His journey thither can
hardly require more than three days.-
but, as he must needs be there before the
first day of April, or be egregiously
by forfeiting his farm. he
resolved to make assurance doubly sure.
Hence he took time by the forelock.
Nils Nysteu is sixty two years old.
though be declares himself only forty
when just shaved. His example shows
what others can do 1t shames many
faint hearts that are weeping like women
for lack Of farm. which they have the
privilege of seizing. like men. had they
only manly pluck.
Nils Nysten's homestead was one of
IL 3O4 which had been entered in the
Lincoln United States Land Office, before
last New Years. Up to the same date
The Burlington and Missouri River rail-
road, along which Nysten walked. had
sold along their track AIS 9ss acres, to
4 4.525 purchasers. on ten years credit. six
per cent interest, and On sales made since
1872 nothing of the principal falls due
until the end Of the fourth year, with
twenty per cent. thrown off for prompt
He who cannot on these
terms make farm pay for itself, does
not deserve one.
An Act Of Cruelty.
Chapped hands and face are the most