Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1873-01-17

in their minds and now in painful strait be
tvixt two and wot not which To choose whether 10
pull up stakes and depart to the land Of their
dreams or to build better and stav where Nature
rich in man-producing soil, grand in mountains,
peerless in green hills and vallies. beautiful in
lakes and streams and woods.
Great is Diana of the printers-great Is |
the power OF types The witchery of adroit |
publication who can tell who can resist?
am tenderly touched with feeling of |
your disquiet, for know the.unhappy rest
lessness engendered by reading those fire.
| quently recurring diplomatic descriptions,
with Kaleidoscope variations, Of s. The |
Great Mississippi Valley - Our Immense
| Western Domain The Natural Parks and
the Royal Gardens Of the Gods in Golden
| Colorado - The ever increasing wonders
| and wealth Of Montana and Idaho The
| splendid scenery and climate, the semi
/ tropical fruits and more than Egyptian pro-
ductiveness of California and Oregon"
/ grew dreadfully nervous and wild over the
| glowing accounts Of earthly elysium far
away in those sunset lands. They made me
as fdgety and sleepless as girl who feeds |
her love-sickness with the Nec York !
Ledger
The glorious landscapes Of dear old New
| England, her Heliconian mounts-her Tenn
/ pean vales,-her Pierian springs and groves,
began to lose their romantic spell Ny i'm
agination was set On fire of perdiuon, put
ting me at the mercy of every artful de-
signing rover, who like his great prototype,
| related his adventures and told Of his going
to and fro, and of his walking upand down
the earth in - The Great West seeking
whom he might deyour by his stories, fixed
up and garnished to subserye the interests of
land shark moLOpolies and other divers
spectators.
What palpitations Of the heart, what
mental yertigos and Saint Vitus's dances
they occasioned me What wild chase
those Bohemian nomads led my distracted
fancy through that terra Heeggita of the
American eagle. full Of Utopias, Ell Dorados
and fountains of youth
and dizziness now My serenity is no more
disturbed, day or night, awake or dreaming.
bv those reliable letters from our own cor
respondent BY illustrated articles in Hqr-
per'S and ScribEer'S by " the returned Cali
fornian. " nor yet by = the gentleman who
has lived out west for twenty years and
knows all about it." My mind Is settled,
fully settled, completely settled on that
subject 1t Is not any more in the power Of
mortal man, though he may have the gift
of an angel, to destroy my calm settled
peace Of mind by writing up, or painting
ap ANYTHING that exists on the other side Of
the Buffalo boundary, the the Gramma
Grass" line Of vegetation and the Rocky
Mountains TO the Balboa Sea.
Let me tell You how | got my balance
my head level and myself square and solid
on my feet again. Not by reading the as
piring G's. the smiling C's, the Journal
istic Bsand the feted rs Arabian Nights
tales Of rambles among stage drivers, min
ers and MormOns. not by perusing the plous
pamphlets of the Iranscontinental Rail
ways" and the missionary tracts of the
'' Emigration Aid Society," | had strong
suspicion Of gross suppression and conceal
ment in these tantalizing reports, but did
not know how to crOss-questiOn and sift out
the truth from the glamour of their figures
and wordy fixtures, and the gushing, gay
and festive diaries in the library of modern
travel puzzled me as much. 1t was Arnold
of Rugby who s0id that it required an Inti-
mate acquaintance with every other branch
of knowledge in the world to understand
history. You will find it does, unless You
make the history yourself.
I / came to the conclusion, after long and
/ perplexing study, that DR.. ArnOld's sage
/ apothegm would apply to the subject of
modern travel a. well as history, and that
my own supplementary maxim in regard to
making the history yourself would also ap-
| ply to doing the travel yourself. 30 | got
up and travelled | went over the ground
saw and measured things with my own
ewes and felt them out in my own personal
experience. That settled my mind etfectu-
ally and forever The unending repetitions
of new discoveries Of new Edens and terres
trial heavens in this distant locality and in
that by the northern, middle OF southern
routes from the Red River to the Rio Cirande,
are all idle gable and babble in my ear,
now. They should have been before. My
physical geography reproached and stamed
me time and again for lack of consideration
and stupidity
just one glimpse out Of the car window
at the real facts and one thought Of the ir-
reversible laws of nature and the whole
plain truth flashed upon me at once-all the
meagre possibilities, and all the abounding
lmpOssibllltieS.
censured myself severely for ever hay
ing given credence to the tenth part that
was told | ought to have known better
with Prof. GuyOt in hand | blamed my
self for stupidity and | charge you with
the same for believing that where science
finds only the elements and conditions OF
bowling waste and sage brush desert, you
can find a first class Eden.
Nv restless Yankee. have you considered
the iacts-the omnipotent facts that fix and
determine results? Haven't You gumptiOn
enough to see that certain large regions of
country on this globe and on this continent
and within the territorial limits of these
United States are hardly ready for settle
ment yet. spite of all that is written and
printed? We have enough to shrek about
and to make ourselves ridiculous over in the
eyes Of the world without any self-glorying
in Apache and Esquimaux soil and cline.
Are YOU blinded by the noise and ado
concerning our mighty railroads? Are
railroads almighty? Will railroads make
grass grow in desert Will they make
rain fall in Sahara? Pray tell me will rail-
roads make clouds, moisture and dew, lakes
rivers, springs and forests where there is no
! water ABOVE BTUunu OI uuutE SIouiu, dt Il
less cost than ten thousand dollars a buck
} ct? Be not deceived nature is not mocked.
:" Irrigation =" Irrigation, you fool. in a
land when the water stocks remore valua-
bic than gold stocks or the best |. ).
/ stocks? where the sky is as brassy and
dry as a contribution box for nine months
sure, and twelve months often enough to
keep all the inhabitants ehattering in ter
ror Irrigation in a country where the
rivers are only spring thaw of snow that
NAV not last a week-that may come with 4
flood and dwindle to puddle-where every
drop of fresh water clear to the highest
SUBMITS Of all the mountains is owned by
companies and doled ont at so much gill
or inch?
When irrigation is mentioned perhaps
YOU think of the Nile.
You had better think of sprinkling pots
and squirt guns if you are meditating some
colonization scheme which puts Irrigation
in capitals and in the capital stocks. My
deluded friend, you had better think of
costly engineering, expensive acqueduets
and reservoirs and Tammany management,
and a drop of water to cool your parch'd
tongue in hot day.
FELT Ir Our.
A Portsmouth young man thought he
could make his fire burn better, the other
dav, by the application of kerosene. He
knew how to do the thing safely, for he had
| Iuc.. ba 1ourQ1 n ouapfIry InfD