Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1875-01-11
EROX TIE WEST.
ST. JOSEPH, Mich,

ST. JOSEPH, Mich, Jan. oh, 1879.
To tie Editor Of the Journal.
Your correspondent used to attend the country ly-
ccum not long ago. and he notices that his old com
panions not thousand miles from Augusta, arehay
ny one this winter They have debated this ques-
ton, the substance Of w hch we believe is correct
though the words may diifer-"Resolved: That
a Young man can do better in New England than
he can out West" 1t was decided in the affirma-
tive as might have been expected. Outside Of
New England it would have baen ne.atiycd as
matter of course.
However, it reminded of a story which
wealthy old farmer West of Chicago told US year
or two ago. 1t was scrap of autobiography. He
was factory hand at Watham, Mass. Getting
little ahead, he medtated "gong West which
was big thing in those days. OF course it was a
common topic with his friends, and an old man, a
de aeon in the church to which he belonged, tried
hard to dissuade him. This was his argument.
"Now Stephen" said he, "you know am an old
man, / have lived here nearly ninety years, and
have never been hundred miles from where
was born and l am free to sey Stephen, that in
nv opinion, this is about the best pace in the
world"
Stephen, however, was not satisfied with that
kind of experience AID came West. To-day ne
has as fine q farm as can be found in northern
Illinois The country around him is beautiful
and every foot productive. The markets are good
His neighbors are as intelligent and law abiding,
and fully as prosperous as can be found In the
Kennebec valley. He thinks with reason that
coming West is good thing. The other side OF
the picture we will look at by and by.
We think that que ,tion was properly decided,
though we are an exception to the general rule
New England does not suffer by comparison with
ANYTHING we have yet seen "out West" unless it
is that Nature failed to top-dress that region as
freely as she might, and has tried to make up the
deficiency in snow. Then the longer one stays
away, the more he breads the long winters and
extreme cold. Here in southern Michigan but a
few degrees south Of yoG, VIC gain month or
more at each end of the winter. You will hear
old eastern born men declare in good faith 1t Is
so cold in Maine that the people never live to
good old age when the fact is that 1t is here they
die comparatively young.
The way an eastern boy generally goes to work
when he has put thousand miles between him
self and his paternal pocket book would win him
| success clown East" well as "out West 1t
is easy 10 turn your hand to anything where You
are not known. We have in mind, graduate OF
Williams, who Immediately struck out into north
ern Iowa. He had no friends before him and no
help behind lie reached the last station on one
of those new railroads, and applied to one of the
contractors for something to do They set him to
tcamiug at SIG per month. 1t reminded him of
L. . Var
mont farm. Before the month was out he was
getting $50. In less than two, he had demonstra-
ted to the firm his ability to handle men as well as
horses, and was working On a salary of $1,000.
He was smart there is no deny NJ that and there
arc good many smart men who would do won
ders il they only "ptched in" SO MANY are do
ing rough work here in the west who were proud
at home and doing it so gracefully because they
have to- that it never seems at all out of the way
1t is fact that "all over as they say here, re
men working by the day, shoveling, plowins,
teaming, clerking and Iailroading, whose parents
are rich, and who are as well educated as New
England colleges can make them. They don't ex-
pect this sort of thing forever. BY and by, they
will be farmers, stock raisers, merchants and pro-
fessional men. 1t is but a temporary necessity,
but is one that man from the East may as well
make up his mind to, or not leave home at all.
The man who leaves the East ought to be either
unmarried or else well off to begin with. If un-
married ne drifts about till he finds place that
suits him; il married, he ought to be able to
travel about some and stay long enough in place
to learn something of its people, products and
markets and not too suddenly make up his mind.
| L ~ 49,. ,noI,,
| dead towns in the West, and that when one as
dead it is worse than "Sleepy Hollow" Land
agents talk won't do; see the place and the people
before you buy. 1t is about sensible to take
wife as land, on other peoples representation. If
too poor to do this you had better stay at home,
under the impression that providence never in
tended you should emigrate.
| Suppose a man accustomed to good society
moves West and plants himself on a section in the
| prairie. His nearest ncighbors may be two miles
away; they may speak foreign language; they
may be low and mean, mentally, morally and
physically. They may be satisfied with sod shan
ties and seek no company but their own hogs
WE'LL you may raise large crops oil wheat and
corn and may in the course of twenty years anlass
fortune and raise a dozen children; such cases
are by no means uncommon. But You have be-
come semi-barbarian and your children savages.
You might as well be seated on top of a telegraph
pole, with a bunch Of greenbacks in your hand,
as where you ara. y on have LOST the best part of
life and have perhaps fortune. You are wei
come. There are just such cases in New Eng land
| We only say this in recognition of the fact that
the West is not Heaven, though there are good
| ulx,r la
7. s. GAME.
POLI7ICIL.