Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1873-06-11


IL be correct, then tho Mistress oi
Tariffs, Negroism, Paper Money, Shod-
dy and lmposture is on her death bed,
and the rest Of the country may hope
for relief:
THE DECAY OF DOWN EAST.
| New England continues TO decline
and fall off, The chief city Is no
longer metropolis, but provincial
town. With disease and decay at her
very vitals, who can expect to find
health in her members? Her rcmotor
communities are weakened in all their
industries, her ship building, as re-
Gently shown by ono Of hcr own jour
mails, is an occupation Of tho past her
commerce is almost a myth, and in
agriculture, ".he first of arts" she
grows feebler day by day. From this
point of view, a correspondent of tho
Ne,c England Fdrner-by her own
mouth is her decadence declared
paints sorrowful picture. "Many of
our Oldest and once best FARMS" be
says, "are now used solely for pas.
turagc, while the old homestead is
tenanted by owls and bats, or it has
been removed, leaving only the old
stone chimney or half filled cellar to
mark the spot" These places, where,
"All times and tides seem lost in ono long term
| or stagnawt desolation"
are not found exclusively in Middle
Massachusetts,, from whence, we be-
lieve, he writes but his observations
hold true OF rural New England, from
ono end to tho other, no matter wbere
VIC go. Riding even almost within
view of the rich valley Of the Connect
icut one comes not infrequently upon
q dwelling from which
"Life and thought have gOneuw
| Side by side,
Leaving doors aud windows wide"
No less an authority than the Mas.
sachusetts Bureau Of Statistics, in its
report for the year ending March LIST,
1871, shows that the native farmers
are rapidly disappearing; that the
few who remain arc generally ignor-
ant and poor.
The report-which, we are told, is
culled from the evidence of forty.six
resident witnesses, farmers, ,clergymen,
merchants, physicians and others
further shows that the general educa-
tion system of the farm labor is very
low, even lower than that of the av-
erage factory operative; that children
under l3 years of age are, because of
the poverty of their parents, kept in
the field instead Of at school, and that,
rs a consequence, a large per centago
of tho rising generation can neither
read nor write. 1t is easy to perceive
how these influences must effect unfa-
vorably the tone and character of 90
cial interoourse how life on tho farm,
must be rendered more than ever dis
tasteful to the few native farmers who
remain, and how their sons and daugh.
ters are more surely than ever driven
to city life, or to emigration elsewhere,
until in some counties, as affirmed by
one witness, "only men of second or
third class ability, physically or men
tally, are left to work on FARMS" or,
rs another testified, "the farms are
left to tho old mon and women, and
country populations are decreasing at
fearful rate" Still another speaks
OF the destruction OF call self-rcliance
and self-respect."
From other sources, equally relia-
BILE, we have further convincing proof
that this strange picture is not over
drawn. General Butler mentions that
farmers are selling the old homesleads,
and with the little money thus Sc
cured moving with their families TO
the city to become factory operatives.
A gentleman who has had large expe.
rieDce in rural real estate affairs OF
Massachusetts says he can find one
hundred and eighty farms in the State
on the line of the Boston and Albany
Railroad any one Of which can be
bought for less than the cost Of the
buildings. Some Of these farms are
sixty acres in extent, while others are
one hundred and sixty. Gen. Butler
says the whole of Massachusetts, would
not sell for enough to rebui the stone
walls which now exist in the State
Another authority aflirms that CON-
Portable dwelling houses can be bought
cheap enough to make it profitable to
take them down, remove them TO
New York, and rebuild them here
A correspondent writing from Port
land to Moore'S Rural speaks of that
city as being dull as u country village.
There is little manufacturing, no ship
building. The trade with tho West
Indies, which once lined its docks, is
now small, and the place has that sort
Of retrogradc appearance, that dead
and-alive business atmosphere, which
saddons and snbdnes rather than vi
talzes and exhilaatcs people.
Tho samo thing is true to u greater
or less degree throughout the entire
State of Maine, as the census shows.
And yet Maine is not barren wilder.
ness. She is graciously endowed by
nature, and fitted TO be the seat OF q
busy and prosperous population and
OF varied and successful industries =
A great abundance of arabic land in
yites cultivation streams traverse
tho State in every direction; forests
of splendid timber still supply distant
markets, will for years, at rate de-
flying competition some of the finest
harbors lie close to tho track of the
western bound vessels from Europe,
and q sea coast which is but q contin-
uons line Of beautiful bays and ports
affords tho finest opportunity in The
world for ship building, And yet the
{ ship yards of Maine arc silent; the
magnificent forest sends timber to dis
tant markets; the farmers find no sale
! for their products the manufacturers
are shut out from tho cheap supply o.
| fuel from Nova Scotia, and forced tC
suspend operations If they cannot
. bring their coal from Pennsylvania
aud efill comnofo NTH npnrer rivals