Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1873-05-13
NUMBER 80.
Kansas and Virginia-stay at Home.

Kansas and Virginia-Stay at Home.
There has been, and there still is, says the
Fredericksburg Herald, great disposition on
the part of many of our young men to migrate
to the Far West in the hopes of bettering their
pecuniary condition, but We maintain today,
as We always have done, that for sober, steady,
economical, industrious man, there is no spot
on the broad earth that commends itself as
highly as the State of Virginia
1t is very true that much of our land has
been worn, like suit of clothes. threadbare,
but it is equally true that under provident
treatment and kind nursing, no land RECEIVERS
more rapidly and returns more largely for at
tention given it.
We have before US, and give extracts below,
OF a letter which we find in Paris, (Ky.,)
newspaper, the 'Kentuckian," which the edi-
tor says was written at one of the largest and
most active business towns in Kansas, by an
intelligent, observing business man. after an ex-
perience of year or more. This letter presents
view of cheap homes in the West, not seen
by the discontented fortune seekers at this dis
tance. 1t dispels the illusion that cheap lands
in the West are necessarily profitable because
they are productive. We hope our young farm
ers may be enabled to see the important fact
that investments in Virginia lands to-day, at
ruling prices, are really cheaper than the cheap
lands of Kansas and the Great West. Let US
use energy economy, and good management, and
1 fortr1po ct md mill CO..
| ed land.
We are told by the ''Kentuckian" that the
writer of this letter is not farming, C1t is in the
commission and produce business.
Let our young men read, mediate, and phil
osophize well before they turn their backs
on home, Its associations, its traditions; for
whilst a few may be profted by change, the
bulk will realize the hidden truth in the line
''Man never IS, but always TO BE blest."
KANSAS, April 5, 1873.
sOur corn is placed in crib near the shelter,
and is shelled and elevated so that we can load
| a car in ten minutes, and oats the same way
We get in from to cars of corn and oats per
day, pay 10 cents for oats, 16 for yellow and 18
for white corn 40 cents for the best kind of
potatoes, ST. for the finest quality of apples 90
| thing is very low.
| kansas has been one of the greatest delu-
Sions to Its settlers that is in the West. Settl-
ed during and shortly after the war, By large
immigration, when the price of everything was
very high, the farmers could sell every bushel
of their corn at 81, oats at ST. butter at so cents
per pound, aud everything else in proportion,
| to the new comers. Persuaded by land sharks
to buy land at big prices, By paying only part
| aaSh-bthnV Hind ~ his
prices to continue. But now they are selling
corn at Is cents and hauling 20 miles. Men
| come 10 our warehouses Is miles every day
with 20 to rs bushels of corn, and get from So
to 81. The farmers are pressed to DEATH
They have not money to clothe themselves COM
fortably, and the suffering among them has
been great this winter, and now there is sick
ness and dying with spotted fever IN every di-
| rectlon. A lady who spent week In the coun-
try lately says that she saw neither sugar, cof-
fee nor flour while she was gone. Farms with
| poor houses, no fencing, and no comfort, with
ell kinds Of produce at present prices-to say
| farming is hard life, don't half express it. Il
is starvation and slow death. So great has be-
come the oppression that farmers are forming
secret lodges all over the country opposing taxes,
railroads, &c. If we raise good crop this year,
aud prices remain as they now are, | believe
thres-fourths of the farmers will be sold out
1.-The farmer who has only small means, and
family to support, had better rent land in
| Kentucky, raise corn and sell il at two dollars
per barrel than to raise it here and sell the
same amount for IS cents.
ITO farmers in Kentucky, large or small, rich
or poor, l would say-ifyou become dissatisfied
with the business there | think you would be
| even more dissatiGed with farming in Kansas"
DEATH OF JOHN r. THOMPSON, ESQ. This
gentleman died in New York on Wednesday
afternooa last. He was formerly editor of the
Southern Literary Messenger, at Richmond,
Va, but for several years past connected with
the New Evening Post. Mr.. Thompson was a
native of Richmond, and after concluding his
studies at the University of Virginia, resided
there engaged in literary pursuits until shortly
after the close of the late war. He was an ac-
complished scholar and graceful and industri-
GUS writer. For many years he was employed
ms contributor to number Of magazines and
journals simultaneously. During the war he
held the position Of assistant State Librarian OF
Virginia. and at the same time was special cor
respondent Of several Southern and London
journals. Since the war he has been engaged
upon the Evening Post, in New York, in which
city he was married within the past year.
DEATH OF Hon. JAMES BRooKs.-The Hon.
James Brooks, of New York, founder of the
Evening Express, Of that city, and the repre-
sentative Of the eighth IN. w. district in Con-
gress. died in Washington last Wednesday
evening, after protracted illness. The nature
of the malady to which Mr.. Brooks fell victim
is not distinctly known it appears, though he
believed that it was fever contracted in Asia
during his late tour around the world. Mr.
Brooks was native of Maine, and sixty-three
years of age at the time of his death.
| --
Rev. Henry Ward Beecber says in the last
number of his paper, the Christian Union: A
colony of United Presbyterians, mostly from
Pennsylvania, is about to settle in Mecklenburg
county, Va, on Staunton river. 1t is pleasant
and encouraging to see that the colonists, in
stead of being regarded with jealous aversion,
are meeting warm welcome from the people
among whom they propose to settle. The
United Presbyterians are an honorable branch
of the great Presbyterian family, and the colony
will be a valuable accession to the population
Of the ''Old Dominion"
DEATH OF MAcREADY.-The death Of Chas.